Re: Question for Java Gurus

From: Chris Uppal (chris.uppal_at_metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org)
Date: 05/19/04 

Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 10:54:11 +0100

Chris Smith wrote:

> And we're talking about an educational environment: which things should
> be taught. The motivations for teaching a concept are (a) how relevant
> it is to the teaching goal, and (b) how necessary it is for the student
> to make progress. Clearly, setting the CLASSPATH environment variable
> is neither the point of teaching programming, nor necessary to succeed
> in Java programming, assuming you have the right tools. The choice of
> setting PATH and CLASSPATH versus using an integrated environment is
> relevant to neither functionality nor any other characteristic of the
> result of programming.

I can see your logic, but I find it unconvincing.

The problem is that (in my experience with Java IDEs) getting the relevant
settings right is at least as difficult as it is in a command-line environment.
And that's a problem -- in a command line env, the beginning programmer is
seeing the issues clearly separated out from other issues. He or she can see
where the classfiles are being generated, can change directories and re-run the
java command, and so on. I.e. he or she is getting a chance to learn the
abstract concepts of "locating classfiles" in a way that doesn't mix in a load
of other issues.

In a typical IDE, in my experience, the same problems of locating stuff arise,
but the "solution" is buried in ISE settings, and arcane (unless you already
understand the concepts) library lists. All the would-be programmer is going
to learn is how to treat a /specific/ IDE as a black box and a magical recipe
to "make it work" -- not a valuable learning experience.

OK, that's exaggerating slightly, but not much, and only to make the point
clear.

    -- chris

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