ProfessorJ Language Levels

ProfessorJ Language Levels	PLT \| DrScheme \| ProfessorJ \| HtDC

We believe that introductory students are not prepared for a full programming language with a professional compiler (and confusing error messages). Therefore ProfessorJ presents three language levels that are designed to gradually introduce students to a professional language. These language levels-- Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced -- prevent students from accidentally stumbling across features not yet seen in class.

The manuals linked to below are for DrScheme version 371, for other versions look at http://download.plt-scheme.org/doc/ All documentation

ProfessorJ Beginner

ProfessorJ Beginner Language Manual :: for version 371

ProfessorJ Beginner presents basic object-oriented programming, where students learn to organize their data within class structures.

A class must have a constructor, and may implement one interface.
Fields must be initialized, either in the constructor or at their declaration site.
Methods must return a value.
Fields and methods of the current class must be accessed using this.

ProfessorJ Intermediate

ProfessorJ Intermediate Language Manual :: for version 371

ProfessorJ Intermediate introduces abstraction, refinement inheritance, and mutable objects.

Classes may be abstract, may extend other classes, and may implement multiple interfaces.
Fields do not require initialization and may be mutated.
Methods may be used for effects.

ProfessorJ Intermediate + access

ProfessorJ Intermediate + access Language Manual :: for version 371

ProfessorJ Intermediate + access introduces visibility control and interface refinement.

Methods, fields, and constructors may be private, protected, or public
Constructors and methods may be overloaded

ProfessorJ Advanced

ProfessorJ Advanced Language Manual :: for version 371

ProfessorJ Advanced introduces library programming, static vs. instance members, and iterative programming.

Arrays and loops can be used.
Classes may be grouped into new library packages.

Screenshots

Typical Interactions in ProfessorJ with standard display of values
Display of an object in Beginner	Display of an array of objects in Advanced
Error messages, with corresponding source highlighting
Parse error caused by miss-capitalization	Failure to initialize field values, a requirement in Beginner	Incorrect access of a method in Advanced