What is unique about BlueJ that makes it an attractive learning tool for beginning developers?
[IU] For students, it’s the simplicity. “Professional” IDEs like NetBeans are real aids to developer productivity, but they are daunting to beginners who don’t initially understand which bits of the interface they can ignore, and which bits they have to deal with. Using NetBeans, for them, is like learning to fly starting in an A380. BlueJ’s more like a Cessna. For teachers, it’s a combination of the support and teaching materials available, and the way that BlueJ lets them focus on classes, objects, and method invocation really early, as Michael was saying. Q: How many Universities are currently using BlueJ? Have I ever heard of any of them? In what capacity are they using BlueJ? [IU] We know of about 850 universities worldwide that are using BlueJ, or that used to and haven’t told us they’ve stopped. It’s difficult to be precise, because BlueJ is freely redistributable, so there’s no requirement for them to tell us they’re using it. We know it’s used at Cambridge (U.K., not Massachus
