ProfessorJ: a gradual introduction to Java through language levels

In the second-semester programming course at the University of Utah, we have observed that our students suffer unnecessarily from a mismatch between the course content and the programming environment. The course is typical, in that it exposes students to Java a little at a time. The programming environments are also typical, in that they report compilation and run-time errors in the jargon of professional programmers who use the full Java language. As a result, students rely heavily on teaching assistants to interpret error messages, and valuable classroom time is wasted on syntactic diversions.ProfessorJ is our new programming environment that remedies this problem. Like other pedagogical environments, such as BlueJ and DrJava, ProfessorJ presents the student with a simplified interface to the Java compiler and virtual machine. Unlike existing environments, ProfessorJ tailors the Java language and error messages to the students' needs. Since their needs evolve through the course, ProfessorJ offers several language levels, from Beginner Java to Full Java.