Features
Overview
Jeroo is an educational tool that has been designed for novice programming students.
Written in Java, Jeroo runs on several platforms
- Windows (98 and later)
- Mac OS-X
- Linux
- Solaris
There are four major components of the Jeroo tool.
The Metaphor
Santong island is an uninhabited speck of land in the South Pacific Ocean. In the late 1980's, naturalist Jessica Tong discovered two previously unknown species that are unique to this island. One is the Jeroo, a rare mammal similar to the wallabies of Australia. The other is the large Winsum flower that serves as the Jeroo's primary food source. The Jeroos hop about the island picking and planting flowers. As they move, they must avoid the water, and evade or disable nets that have been set by a zoo's species collector.
Students configure the island and develop programs to control the actions of up to four Jeroos and their interactions with their immediate surroundings.
Back to top
The Programming Language
As of version 2.3, Jeroo supports three language styles:
- A Java/C++/C# style that is a subset of the common features of those languages
- A VB.NET style that is a true subset of VB.NET
- A Python style that is a true subset of Python
The following list summarizes key features of the Jeroo languages.
- Only one class, the Jeroo class
- Can instantiate up to four Jeroos
- Three attributes per Jeroo
- location
- direction
- number of flowers
- Six constructors to initialize the attributes
- Seven action methods
- Seven sensor methods to examine the immediate surroundings
- Four relative directions
- Four compass directions
- Selection and repetition control structures
- Boolean operators
- User-defined action methods extend the Jeroos' behavior
- User-defined methods can invoke one another
- Methods can be recursive
- Comments
Back to top
Features of the Integrated Development Environment
- Everything visible at all times in a single window
- Source code editor
- Unlimited undo/redo
- Autoindent (optional)
- Block comment/uncomment
- Block indent/unindent
- Font selection
- List of recently used files
- Island editor to place nets and flowers
- Message area
- Cursor location panel to monitor the location of the cursor on the island
- Jeroo status area to display attributes of each Jeroo during program execution
Back to top
Features of the Runtime Module
- Animation showing Jeroos moving around the island
- Source code highlighting synchronized with execution
- Stepwise or continuous execution mode
- Choice of execution speeds
- Ability to switch between execution modes and change speeds at will
- Useful error messages
Back to top
Last modified 8 April 2008 at 1:40 pm by dorn |
