Andrew said:
Andrew said:
On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 22:07:23 +1000, Gary wrote:
Thanks to all for your advice... I did actually mean IDE, Eclipse appears to
be a good start...
Please ensure your students have enough documentation and
support for their Eclipse that they do not feel the need
to come here and ask 'why Eclipse will not [1]?' or
'how can I make Eclipse [1]?'.
I thought that Gary was the student, not the teacher. Hopefully he is
not teaching a course when he hasn't "touched Java for a couple of years".
Uggh. I read 'just about to start a course in' as meaning
the OP was teaching it.
I would recommend using BlueJ in this course, which he said was about
data structures and algorithms in Java. If the focus is on data
structures and algorithms you don't want to add the burden of using the
command line tools.
Uggh. Somehow I left off the part about "If he were teaching the
course...". I was saying that the best tool for a teacher in a course
focussed on data structures and algorithms would be BlueJ.
That is (endlessly) debatable(*).
It is certainly endlessly debated, but not in my mind debatable ;-)
The argument that always comes up in these debates is the notion that it
is important to learn how to invoke the command line tools. That is not
valid in a course that is about data structures not Java programming.
You don't care in that course if they learn how to invoke the command
line tools you care if they understand how a heap works and how
quicksort works.
Not what the OP wants, but that which works best.
Well Gary did eventually say he wanted an IDE. But we are talking
hypothetical here since I was referring to the teacher of a course.
So, Dale.. When the OP pops back in to descibe how 'their IDE'
will not compile a packaged class, are you going to jump in
to guide them as to which menu and option of their IDE to tweak?
* Because if you cannot provide that assurance, the approach of
using the tools that the audience are familiar with, will probably
best suit a person who comes to usenet for advice..
I assume your response is based on my not clearly saying that I was
referring to the teacher of the course and not the student. If the
teacher cannot handle such questions then they are not qualified to
teach the course.
And that is the reason why I would recommend BlueJ for this. There is
nothing to tweak for this. You simply hit the compile button.
If a student has the expertise to use a different tool then they can,
but then they are responsible for supporting it. I was addressing the
tool a teacher would use as the standard tool for a course.