JavaCHIME: Java class hierarchy inspector and method executer

ABSTRACT

Java has emerged as one of the most dynamic programming languages today. During the past eight years it has become a leading choice as the programming language for an introductory course in computer science. Object-oriented programming (OOP) is often considered to be complex and difficult to grasp by both beginners and experienced procedural language programmers. Using Java in an introductory programming language serves a dual purpose; it teaches the syntax and constructs of the Java language as well as general object-oriented programming concepts. This paper describes an instructional environment for Java applications called JavaCHIME. This graphical class browsing and execution environment allows users to examine classes and objects interactively and execute individual methods within them without actually creating a class containing a main method for testing purposes. JavaCHIME serves as a pedagogical tool where novice Java programmers can examine variables and methods, interactively alter the values of variables and test the methods.

REFERENCES

• 1: Eric Allen , Robert Cartwright , Brian Stoler, DrJava: a lightweight pedagogic environment for Java, Proceedings of the 33rd SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, February 27-March 03, 2002, Cincinnati, Kentucky
• 2: Boudreau, T., Glick, J., Greene, S., Spurlin, V., and Woehr, J., NetBeans#8482; The Definitive Guide, O'Reilly, October 2002.
• 3: Eiffel Software Inc., "EiffelBench: The Dream Object-Oriented Environment," <u>http://archive.eiffel.com/products/bench/page.html</u>, Accessed: September 12, 2003.
• 4: Kolling, M., "The Problem of Teaching Object-Oriented Programming, Part 2: Environments," Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, 11(9):6--12, 1999.
• 5: Kolling, M., "BlueJ--The Interactive Java Environment," <u>http://www.bluej.org/</u>, Accessed: April 03, 2003.
• 6: Kolling, M., Quig, B., Patterson, A., and Rosenberg, J., "The BlueJ System and its Pedagogy," Journal of Computer Science Education, Special Issue on Learning and Teaching Object Technology, Vol. 13, No 4, December 2003.
• 7: John Lewis, Myths about object-orientation and its pedagogy, Proceedings of the thirty-first SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.245-249, March 07-12, 2000, Austin, Texas, United States
• 8: Lount, P., "A Brief Introduction to Smalltalk." http://www.smalltalk.org/#ABriefIntroduction, Accessed: April 03, 2003.
• 9: Hamzeh Roumani, Design guidelines for the lab component of objects-first CS1, Proceedings of the 33rd SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, February 27-March 03, 2002, Cincinnati, Kentucky
• 10: Sherry Shavor , Jim D'Anjou , Pat McCarthy , John Kellerman , Scott Fairbrother, The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse, Pearson Education, 2003
• 11: Philip A. Smith , Geoffrey Boyd, Introducing OO concepts from a class user perspective, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, v.17 n.2, p.152-158, December 2001

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.6 Programming Environments

General Terms:
Languages

Keywords:
Java, class browser, object inspector, pedagogy