I really don't see much benefit for many of the OO features. Subsequent work was in Ada and C, with the last three years using C++.īut even with those three years of C++, I was struggling with the OO parts. The first decade of my software engineering jobs was using assembly language. Most students had never seen a computer before, and there it was in big cabinets behind some large glass windows. When I started college, the '101' course was FORTRAN and we used punch cards. What will this program do for me in this context?Ĭlick to expand.As some of you know, I've been a software engineer for almost four decades. But in the context of a classroom full of people who are a mix between programming beginners, Java newbies, and even seasoned developers, what is your opinion on BlueJ? Forget about 6 months from now. It's a fine line, because Bobs did ask for opinions. It can spark unhealthy discussion, and since an opinion cannot constitute a rule, you're always "in the wrong". Your first post is pretty much all elitist opinion camouflaged as fact. I definitely think that you should more strongly consider your wording and the message you're trying to communicate. Are they really? BlueJ isn't a set of training wheels you give to people who "just don't get it". A purpose that none of the mainstream IDEs can fulfill - yet you call these IDEs "more intuitive". And that is unfortunate, because it is a very, very serious tool with a very specific purpose. I think by now it's clear that you don't mean that BlueJ is "bat-shit insane" for high school or college, but you are still alluding to it being "not serious" or "only for noobs who just don't get it". Which is fine! It's not aimed at "today-you"Įdit: Here's the Dan North talk (6:18 to 11:29, but I highly recommend the whole talk, this guy is great!)Ĭlick to expand.Maybe you're the misunderstood. Overall I think people here who know about it know that it's good for learning, but they're very quick to write it off because they wouldn't use it today. It is certainly useful to understand its limitations and what it isn't good for (to avoid Maslow's Hammer), but just calling it shit says more about one's understanding of it than the thing itself (this isn't aimed at you specifically, just a stab at the unnecessary elitism stinking up this thread). The focus should be on explaining what makes BlueJ suitable for the given context. My point is that people's opinions on BlueJ outside the context it was designed for are irrelevant and unhelpful. If I am learning the guitar to play campfire singalongs with my family, don't ramble on about amps and pedals and recording equipment. Chances are they'll find out themselves later (or at least be in a frame of mind where they can absorb the advice), and who knows what the flavor of the month is when they get there. It's like telling someone who's starting out learning how to play the guitar what gear they should probably get down the road. when you were first starting out? It's irrelevant information overload (Dan North has a wonderful talk about the Dreyfus model on learning). But did you have people clamoring about IDEs, productivity enhancements, enterprise software development, etc. Guess which group struggles the most later down the roadĬlick to expand.Sure. The lack of productivity tools tend to either humble or annoy experienced programmers. The book you mention is indeed tied heavily to the program, and it is really good for teaching OOP to complete beginners. Now, this isn't your first foray into programming, so you might find BlueJ to be an unnecessary extra thing that you'll never need again. It has a purpose - stop comparing it outside of its context. BlueJ is so to-the-point that that won't happen with it. It wouldn't make any sense to use it in a 101 course, because you'd get distracted from the core concepts. IntelliJ and Eclipse are huge, bloated, confusing, intimidating tools that require weeks or months to get comfortable with. But it is used for educational purposes at all education levels because it excels as a learning tool. No, it doesn't have productivity features. No, BlueJ isn't a good environment for developing large-scale software. I also think they forget how the world looked during the early days of their journey, and how different it is now. I think people forget where they came from and how much they have learned. The elitism on these forums is honestly revolting. If the goal of the course is to teach the concepts of object-oriented programming with a hands-on approach, BlueJ blows any mainstream IDE out of the water. It's about as boiled down and to-the-point as you can get. Click to expand.BlueJ gives you an extremely simple environment to visualize your code at compile time and your objects at runtime.
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