BlueJ: The Java IDE Designed For Learning
What does an IDE that prioritizes learning over efficiency look like?
The thing about IDEs is that everyone uses the same few, and for good reason. All the most popular IDEs prioritize the same values: efficiency and performance.
In industry this makes sense; the time and effort taken to create a product can be the difference between a profit and a loss.
But what would an IDE that prioritizes other values look like?
BlueJ is an example of this: a Java IDE that shifts the focus from maximizing developer efficiency to educating the programmer.
What is BlueJ
Simply put, BlueJ is a Java IDE with focus on learning and teaching over efficiency and performance, though it doesn’t ignore these features either.
It supports a simple, stripped down interface leading to a look that doesn’t feel quite as slick as your Visual Studio or IntelliJ, and lacks some of the more advanced, yet helpful, features.
But what BlueJ does very well, and what I think we take for granted as seasoned programmers, is visualization.
BlueJ and the Power of Visualization
BlueJ’s main dashboard doesn’t show a list of class files in a directory, it shows an interactable class diagram where you can click on each class to look at it’s contents, move classes around and know the structure of your codebase at a glance.
While other IDEs support similar features, BlueJ’s up-front approach and level of interactivity with visualizing what your class structure looks like is unique and different from what you would expect from an IDE.
This is by far my favorite aspect of the IDE, and something that I wish other IDE’s put more emphasis on.
Visualization is an immensely powerful technique as it allows you to express your ideas to someone else quicker than explaining it, and is a friendly representation to someone who might not be as experienced with programming.
Which begs the question: why don’t more professional Java developers use BlueJ?
Why You Wouldn’t Use BlueJ
In short, it slows things down and its more cluttered.
A seasoned programmer will be able to visualize the program’s structure in their head without the need for any help from an external tool, like an IDE. This means that the more experienced you become in programming, the less you will need the visualization tools it provides.
Additionally, these tools are front and center in the IDE so you can’t avoid them, which ends up wasting space in the IDE to someone who doesn’t need to see them.
However, while a seasoned programmer may no longer rely on visualization tools, they are still helpful for explaining the code to others in a quick manner, and in a way where someone with little programming experience will understand.
I’ve bashed BlueJ a bit here, but still I believe it to still be a fantastic IDE, even though I would never recommend it to a seasoned developer. So who would I recommend BlueJ for?
Target Audience
BlueJ is built for programming beginners.
It might not be as elegant or concise as some of the IDEs more popular in industry, but it actively aids someone to learn how to program, which other IDEs don’t even consider.
Many universities, colleges and schools use BlueJ as a way to introduce Java to students. A first time programmer doesn’t care if the button layout isn’t optimal or the hotkeys aren’t convenient, they care about learning what the program is doing, what it’s internal structure looks like and the fundamentals of object oriented programming.
That’s what makes BlueJ great. It’s refreshing to have an IDE not built for the average industry programmer. It makes you wonder what other interesting concepts an IDE could embody other than going for what is the most efficient and optimized.
The Wrap Up
I wrote this article to highlight what an IDE looks like when it doesn’t have the seasoned programmer in mind.
Many developers become so accustomed to their IDE and workspace that we often forget that alternatives exist. So go ahead and try another IDE to see how it feels.
I probably won’t use BlueJ again in my life but the idea behind it and is great, and it’s an invaluable tool for it’s target audience.
Hope this article was insightful and have a good day!
Thanks for reading!
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