[Bluej-discuss] formatter extension?

[Aryeh M. Friedman]

Olan, Michael wrote:
> For awhile I was using DrJava. It has a few nice features that BlueJ
> doesn't have, one of which is a code formatter. Nothing fancy, just
> fixes indentation, which is generally good enough for beginners. But
> students have no excuse for badly formatted source code when it only
> takes a click to fix.
>
> --
> Michael Olan
> Richard Stockton College
>  
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:50:22 -0700
> From: John Dalbey <jdalbey at calpoly.edu>
> Subject: [Bluej-discuss] formatter extension?
> To: bluej-discuss at bluej.org
> Message-ID: <4710407E.2020901 at calpoly.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Hello BlueJ Fans,
>
> I love the fact that BlueJ now has a Checkstyle extension.
> But wouldn't it be great if BlueJ would automatically format your source
>
> code the way you like it?
>
> Do you think there would be any interest in a code formatter extension,
> something like can be found in Eclipse?  One specifies one's preferences
>
> for source code style, chooses the "format" option, and voila,
> the code is reformatted according to the style. 
>
> There are also several plug-ins for Eclipse that enhance upon
> the built in formatter.  I had a brainstorm of grabbing one of
> the open source plug-ins and converting it to a BlueJ extension.
>
>
> Sound useful?
>
> --john
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:51:43 +1000
> From: Hedley Finger <hfinger at handholding.com.au>
> Subject: Re: [Bluej-discuss] formatter extension?
> To: General discussion for users of BlueJ <bluej-discuss at bluej.org>
> Message-ID: <20071013050734.402EA7E949 at marvin.ipnetworks.net.au>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>
> John:
>
> At Saturday, 13/10/2007, 01:50 PM;, you wrote:
>   
>> One specifies one's preferences
>> for source code style, chooses the "format" option, and voila,
>> the code is reformatted according to the style.
>>
>> There are also several plug-ins for Eclipse that enhance upon
>> the built in formatter.  I had a brainstorm of grabbing one of
>> the open source plug-ins and converting it to a BlueJ extension.
>>     
>
> I am using Netbeans 5.5.1 BlueJ Edition and it has a similar nifty 
> function.  Hack away at your source code, stuff up the indenting, 
> mark previously unmarked blocks with {..} pairs, then press 
> Crtl-Shift-f and all is pretty again.  So you have my vote.
>
> Perhaps when I understand Java enough, I will build an extension that 
> creates a navigation window like Netbeans: a list of all variables 
> and methods in a pane; just click one to instantly jump to the spot 
> in the source code instead of endless scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
> ...
>   

Sorry to be a nay sayer but such an extension sounds like it would do
more harm then good to the student.  If they don't learn when to indent
and ***WHY*** they are missing a very important step in understanding
the logic of control flow.