The Problem of Teaching Object-Oriented Programming, Part 2: Environments

In last month’s edition of JOOP we started a series of columns discussing the problems with teaching object-oriented programming to first year students. We talked about requirements for an object-oriented teaching language and analysed how close different languages come to fulfil these requirements. We also mentioned one important aspect: the importance of the environment. In short: a suitable programming environment is crucial for the success of an introductory course. Of all the problems reported by educators connected to teaching object-orientation, problems with the environment used were the most frequent and the most severe. Because of this importance, we devote this month’s column to the discussion of environments. Again, the context we focus on is the suitability of environments for first-year teaching.