BlueJ is a free Java Development Environment designed for beginners, used by millions worldwide and it is created by KING'S College, London and is supported by Oracle.
James Gosling is a Canadian computer scientist, best known as the founder and lead designer behind the Java programming language also mentioned that "One of my favourite IDEs out there is BlueJ".
BlueJ Overview
BlueJ is a development environment that allows you to develop Java programs quickly and easily. Main features of BlueJ are listed below:
- Simple: BlueJ has a smaller and simpler interface than professional environments like NetBeans or Eclipse. This allows beginners to get started more quickly, and without being nervous.
- Designed for teaching/learning: BlueJ is designed with good pedagogy in mind.
- Interactive: BlueJ allows you to interact with objects. You can inspect their value, call methods on them, pass them as parameters and more. Thus BlueJ is a powerful graphical tool and user friendly for working with Java.
- Portable: BlueJ runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other platforms which run Java. It can also run without installation from a USB stick.
- Mature: BlueJ is over fifteen years old, but continues to be updated and supported by a full-time team.
- Innovative: BlueJ has several features not seen before in other IDEs. Its object bench, code pad, and scope colouring features are truly very impressive.
Conclusion:
Overall, BlueJ is a powerful and user-friendly IDE that is well-suited for teaching programming to beginners. Its visual interface, step-by-step approach, and other features make it easy to learn and understand the concepts of object-oriented programming. Whether you're a student, teacher, or self-learner, BlueJ can be a valuable tool in your programming journey.
