The NetBeans IDE BlueJ Plugin

Read in Chinese

Read in Japanese

Read in Brazilian Portuguese

The University of Kent and Sun Microsystems are collaborating to create a smooth migration path for students learning the Java Programming Language from beginners' stages through to the use of professional development tools.

Sun Microsystems has, for some time, also supported the development of BlueJ, a programming environment developed at the University of Kent, UK, and Deakin University, Australia. BlueJ is an environment specifically aimed at beginning programmers. It offers educational tools, such as visualisation and interaction facilities that greatly aid the learning of object-oriented concepts. First released in 1999, BlueJ has become one of the most popular environments for programming education in introductory programming courses at universities and colleges.

Screenshot on Mac OSX

While BlueJ covers the introductory phase of learning to program, and NetBeans offers powerful tools for professional developers, the inevitable step from one into the other has been a difficult barrier for students - until now. The collaboration of the NetBeans and BlueJ teams has resulted in the development of a new plugin for NetBeans: NetBeans IDE BlueJ Plugin. This tool offers a seamless migration path for students that supports the switch from educational tools into a full-featured, professional IDE.

Learn

Install

In NetBeans IDE 6.5, go to Tools | Plugins and install the BlueJ Project Support plugin:

Note: Legacy instructions for NetBeans IDE 5.5.1: NetBeans IDE 5.5.1 BlueJ Edition

Bugs, enhancements and features

Here you can find the list of issues which are currently tracked for this product.

Please file bugs and enhancement requests into the netbeans.org bug tracking system
(component ide, subcomponent bluej - or use this prepopulated template).