Java power tools: model software for teaching object-oriented design

ABSTRACT

The Java Power Tools or JPT is a Java toolkit designed to enable students to rapidly develop graphical user interfaces in freshman computer science programming projects. Because it is simple to create GUIs using JPT, students can focus on the more fundamental issues of computer science rather than on widget management. In a separate article[4], we will discuss with examples how the JPT can help freshman students to learn about the basics of algorithms, data structures, classes, and interface design. In this article, we will focus on how the JPT itself can be used as an extended case study of object-oriented design principles in a more advanced course.The fundamental design principles of the JPT are that the elements of a graphical user interface should be able to be combined recursively as nested views and that the communication between these views and the internal data models should be as automatic as possible. In particular, in JPT, the totality of user input from a complex view can be easily converted into a corresponding data model and any input errors will be detected and corrected along the way. This ease of communication is achieved by using string objects as a lingua franca for views and models and by using parsing when appropriate to automatically check for errors and trigger recovery. The JPT achieves its power by a combination of computer science and software design principles. Recursion, abstraction, and encapsulation are systematically used to create GUI tools of great flexibility. It should be noted that a much simpler pedagogical package for Java IO was recently presented in [9].

REFERENCES

• 1: Tim Berners-Lee , Mark Fischetti, Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, DIANE Publishing Company, 2001
• 2: Refactoring: improving the design of existing code, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1999
• 3: Erich Gamma , Richard Helm , Ralph Johnson , John Vlissides, Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1995
• 4: Proulx, Viera K., Raab, Jeff, and Rasala, Richard, Building Java Graphical User Interfaces in Introductory Programming Courses, in preparation.
• 5: Jeff Raab , Richard Rasala , Viera K. Proulx, Pedagogical power tools for teaching Java, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.32 n.3, p.156-159, Sept. 2000
• 6: Richard Rasala, Design issues in computer science education, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.29 n.4, p.4-7, Dec. 1997 [doi>10.1145/271125.271137]
• 7: Richard Rasala, Function objects, function templates, and passage by behavior in C++, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.29 n.1, p.35-38, March 1997
• 8: Richard Rasala, Toolkits in first year computer science: a pedagogical imperative, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.32 n.1, p.185-191, Mar. 2000
• 9: Ursula Wolz , Elliot Koffman, simpleIO: a Java package for novice interactive and graphics programming, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.31 n.3, p.139-142, Sept. 1999

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: Java

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages, Management, Measurement, Performance, Theory