Blue programming language
Encyclopedia
Blue is a system for teaching object-oriented programming
, developed at the University of Sydney
, Australia. It is an integrated development environment
(IDE) and a programming language
. Blue has been used for teaching since 1997. The development was stopped in 1999 when one of its principals, Michael Kölling
, began applying the IDE design to the Java
programming language, resulting in BlueJ
.
The Blue language syntax is derived from the Eiffel programming language
and one of the most useful developments for instruction was the integrated development environment
which was designed with learning object-oriented programming
in mind. The Blue IDE visually shows the reference and inheritance relationships between classes. At run time it allows the developer to visually and interractively create instances of any class, inspect the instance, and invoke functions on those classes.
Many of the language features it has inherited from Eiffel make it suitable for teaching, such as design by contract (pre-conditions, post-conditions, class invariants) and automatic garbage collection.
The team that developed Blue has continued on with a very similar integrated development environment
called BlueJ
which uses the Java programming language
and has similar goals. The BlueJ
project is under active development.
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
, developed at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, Australia. It is an integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
(IDE) and a programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
. Blue has been used for teaching since 1997. The development was stopped in 1999 when one of its principals, Michael Kölling
Michael Kölling
Michael Kölling is a professor and software developer currently with the School of Computing at the University of Kent. Originally from Bremen, Germany, he is also a key member of the team that developed the BlueJ and Greenfoot Java learning environments. BlueJ is used in over 900 institutions...
, began applying the IDE design to the Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
programming language, resulting in BlueJ
BlueJ
BlueJ is an integrated development environment for the Java programming language, developed mainly for educational purposes, but also suitable for small-scale software development....
.
The Blue language syntax is derived from the Eiffel programming language
Eiffel (programming language)
Eiffel is an ISO-standardized, object-oriented programming language designed by Bertrand Meyer and Eiffel Software. The design of the language is closely connected with the Eiffel programming method...
and one of the most useful developments for instruction was the integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
which was designed with learning object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
in mind. The Blue IDE visually shows the reference and inheritance relationships between classes. At run time it allows the developer to visually and interractively create instances of any class, inspect the instance, and invoke functions on those classes.
Many of the language features it has inherited from Eiffel make it suitable for teaching, such as design by contract (pre-conditions, post-conditions, class invariants) and automatic garbage collection.
The team that developed Blue has continued on with a very similar integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
called BlueJ
BlueJ
BlueJ is an integrated development environment for the Java programming language, developed mainly for educational purposes, but also suitable for small-scale software development....
which uses the Java programming language
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
and has similar goals. The BlueJ
BlueJ
BlueJ is an integrated development environment for the Java programming language, developed mainly for educational purposes, but also suitable for small-scale software development....
project is under active development.