Resource. BlueJ

BlueJ is an integrated Java environment specifically designed for introductory teaching. The BlueJ environment was developed as part of a university research project about teaching object-orientation to beginners. The system is being developed and maintained by a joint research group at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. The project is supported by Sun Microsystems.

The aim of BlueJ is to provide an easy-to-use teaching environment for the Java language that facilitates the teaching of Java to first year students. Special emphasis has been placed on visualisation and interaction techniques to create a highly interactive environment that encourages experimentation and exploration. BlueJ is based on the Blue system. Blue is an integrated teaching environment and language, developed at the University of Sydney and Monash University, Australia. BlueJ provides a Blue-like environment for the Java language.

The BlueJ solutions for providing a better student's IDE according to BlueJ's authors are the following:

  • BlueJ is object-oriented.
    In BlueJ students interact with classes and objects. They can manipulate class structure graphically and textually. Objects can be created and methods of any object can be called interactively.
  • BlueJ has been designed for teaching.
    BlueJ offers a unique mix of sophisticated support for visualisation and interaction and a simple and intuitive interface.
  • BlueJ visualises class structure and objects.
    In BlueJ, class structure can be seen and manipulated on screen, and objects can be interactively created and operations called.
  • BlueJ is free.
    The environment is available free of charge.

The BlueJ project started at Monash University in Melbourne, and later split and migrated to its current locations. BlueJ is implemented in Java, and regularly being tested on Solaris, Linux, Macintosh, and various Windows versions. It should run on all platforms supporting a recent Java virtual machine.

Features include: fully integrated environment; graphical class structure display; graphical and textual editing; built-in editor, compiler, virtual machine, debugger, etc.; easy-to-use interface, ideal for beginners; interactive object creation; interactive object calls; interactive testing; incremental application development.

Operating System(s)

bsd,linux,mac,solaris,win2000,winxp,winvista,win7

Download

http://www.bluej.org/download/download.html

License

Open Source,GPL


Updated on: 21 Nov 2024