[Bluej-discuss] How is BlueJ being used?

[H. Peter Gumm]

Hi Bruce,

I have been using BlueJ since 2002and I have produced lecture slides 
based on BlueJ for a 2-semester course.
    
http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~gumm/Lehre/WS07/PraktischeInformatikI/Folien/ 

   
http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~gumm/Lehre/SS07/PraktischeInformatikII/Folien/
The old versions of  my slides are featured in the  Resources/Other 
Resources link of the BlueJ homepage.

Several people have used my slides, most recently, Felix Freiling from 
the University of Mannheim in Germany.  See:
http://pi1.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/

I am very happy with BlueJ, and if you have a look at my slides, you 
will see, that many extensions and features are used. In particular:
- the submitter extension,
- the codepad
- the JUnit feature,
- the UML-extension

There are a few quirks that I would be very happy, if they could be 
fixed. Most have to do, somehow, with the editor.

1. I do not understand why the help-link to the Java API  is only 
accessible from the main BlueJ window rather than from the Editor 
window, from where I need it exclusively.

2. I wish that the color settings for the syntax coloring as well as the 
font size and weight was selectable from a GUI. Regarding the coloring, 
I have several times lost my carefully crafted coloring scheme when 
updating BlueJ.. .   A good compromise, perhaps, would be offering a 
small number of coloring schemes from a list-field.
Also "assertions" should just be activated by just setting a check mark, 
rather than editing the prefs file.

3. A folding editor would be REALLY nice. I have recently moved to 
Notepad++ as my default editor. I would love to replace the Bluej-editor 
with this or something alike -- or see this feature implemented..

Otherwise - thanks a lot for this great tool, Your

H. Peter Gumm

> The BlueJ user community provides invaluable feedback to the 
> development team through the bluej-discuss mail list. We also get 
> valuable information through our bluej-support mail list, the 
> objects-first book discussion list and face to face contact with 
> educators at various conferences, seminars and workshops throughout 
> the world. Often we come across someone who is doing something really 
> interesting or novel with BlueJ (or Greenfoot) that we were unaware of. 
>
> I'm sure there are many of these instances that we are still unaware of.
>
> I would like to get a more complete picture of who and how BlueJ is 
> being used by teachers and institutions. In particular I would like to 
> get more information on how specific BlueJ features are being used in 
> your teaching. My aim is to collate the information and use it to 
> create additional website content that demonstrates how BlueJ is being 
> used as an aid for other users. The secondary benefit is we learn a 
> lot more about how we can improve BlueJ in the future.
>
> I would be grateful for any information or feedback you can supply on 
> how you are using BlueJ. The information can be as brief as a couple 
> of lines (or more if you would like). Whilst we always like to hear 
> how good BlueJ is, we also want feedback on problems faced, solutions 
> and workarounds, and enhancements that would help. 
>
> Some of the topical areas that would be of particular interest include:
>
>   - BlueJ extensions
>   - the Submitter extension in particular
>   - unit testing features
>   - the codepad
>   - synergies with other tools
>   - teaching approaches
>   - use in courses other than CS1 (eg. software engineering, data 
> structures, non-cs majors, secondary school usage)
>   - use of the teamwork/version control features
>   - <insert your topical area here>
>
>
> I would like to use details of people, courses and institutions where 
> it is appropriate and helpful to others (with the consent of the 
> people involved). 
>
> Please send any info directly to my email address in the first 
> instance, rather than replying to the list.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Bruce
>
>
> Dr. Bruce Quig
>
> Research Programmer/Analyst
> BlueJ project
> School of Engineering and Information Technology
> Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125 Australia
> Phone: 03 9244 6239 International: +61 3 9244 6239
> Fax: 03 9251 7604 International: +61 3 9251 7604
> Email: bquig at deakin.edu.au <mailto:bquig at deakin.edu.au>
> Website: http://www.deakin.edu.au
> Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code 00113B (Vic)
>
>
>
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