The Blue Programming Environment
Contents
1. Lu rasi har 41 F 1 I Channel describes s general Facility for text Lapit ontu ramen gt 4 an abztract clers irmkancem f this class can bs endLine Inztzad it rarver ar zaparclasz for differant LO sevice SG Ere tarminalz printers Filer ste Bilis definan tan mr predaFinad idertifiere im s hae iegub and autput or th Tray initislly Infcerralion Sor sejected cies Fimis cy ex The browser can be used to view different libraries Initially it will show the Blue Standard Library but other libraries may be built and used by individual users or groups of users See BUILD My Own CLASS LIBRARY 7 6 for details about additional libraries Each library is divided into sections which are listed on the left of the main window Each section contains classes that are related either perform related functionality or are usually used together The Collections section in the standard library for instance contains different sorts of classes to manage collections of objects lists stacks sets etc To browse though the library first select one of the sections from the section list The classes in that section will be shown in the class area 25 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 7 2 7 3 7 4 7 9 Then a class may be selected to SEE THE DETAILS Or A LIBRARY CLASS 7 2 See The D2. OF THE EFFICIENCY OF MY ALGORITHM ccc ene 28 SHOW HIDE THE TERMINAL WINDOW nasser 29 CLEAR THE SCREEN OF THE TEXT TERMINAL 00ccccccccceecceceeseeeeuseeeceugeseeeseeeeeues 29 USE THE PILE SELECHON DIALOG sauna 29 START ANOTHER PROGRAM MAIL READER WEB BROWSER 30 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 How Do l Introduction About This Document This is the How Do reference manual for the Blue Application Development Environment This manual tries to answer questions about the Blue environment These questions are assumed to be of the form How do I do this or that You can replace the do this or that part with any of the section headings and hopefully construct a question that s both close to what you wanted to ask and answered in this manual Of course you can also just browse through this manual maybe after you have used the environment for a while and possibly find out one thing or another that you did not know about the Blue environment There are lots of tips and tricks that are not essential you get along without them but which are handy neat and can speed up your work with Blue Many of these are described in this document The sections in this manual contain many cross references Cross references are shown in a distinct type style as in the following example To edit the source of a class you must first OPEN A CLASS 2 6 Depending on w
3. Object That Was Returned By A Routine If a routine call returns an object that you want to examine or use further you can select that object in the function result dialog and then select the Get button 18 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 5 5 5 6 Function Result lookAt x Integer y Integer gt creature Creature zz Hefum whatever is af position may be earth lookAt 2 1 reature Creature lt oblect references Selecting Get will place that object onto the object bench where you can examine or call it like any of your existing objects Use An Object From The Object Bench As A Parameter You can use an object that lies on the object bench as a parameter to a routine call To do this is simple While you ENTER PARAMETERS 5 3 for the routine simply click on the object you want to pass in This will insert the object s name into the parameter list You could also manually type the object s name Stop The Execution Of A Blue Program To interrupt a running Blue program you can simply type escape a key often labelled ESC in the main window Alternatively you can OPEN THE MACHINE CONTROLS WINDOW 6 7 and click on the stop button 19 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 6 Debugging 6 1 Inspect An Object The most essential part of debugging is object inspection Object inspection allows you to look inside an object and see the current values
4. menu and then click into the subclass where the arrow originates This removes the arrow Alternatively you can remove the superclass from the class header in the source of the subclass The project overview will be updated as soon as the class is saved or closed 11 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 3 10 3 11 Write A Project Description The project description is entered in the project description note The project description note is shown on the main screen as an icon You can double click the note to open it and then write the description of the project into it It should at least contain a statement describing what the project does who wrote it what it is intended for and how a user starts it what classes routines to use to invoke certain functionality The project description note provides by default a structure to enter some of these details It is a good idea to use this structure since it makes it easier to find information Write A Project Comment A project comment is a short piece of text that appears directly in the main window together with the project overview the class icons and arrows Project comments are usually used to add brief notes to a class or group of classes to make the application structure more explicit To enter a project comment select the toolbar button labelled Abc or the menu item Add Comment from the Edit menu Abe comment button NOTE Not Yet Impleme
5. results for other algorithms or the same algorithm with different data sets Show Hide The Terminal Window menu View Text Terminal shortcut To show or hide the Text Terminal toggle the Show Text Terminal item in the View menu The text terminal 15 automatically popped up shown if it was hidden or de iconified if it was iconified if output is written to it or input is expected Clear The Screen Of The Text Terminal menu Testing Clear Terminal shortcut To clear the text terminal select Clear Terminal from the Testing menu The terminal can also be cleared by a Blue application See the interface of the TextTerminal class see VIEW INTERFACES OF STANDARD CLASSES 8 2 to get the details about the routine interface Use the File Selection Dialog This dialog looks and behaves slightly differently on different systems in Windows it looks different than on a Macintosh which is again different from Unix On Blue systems for Unix it looks like 29 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 8 7 Directory usr staffjohnr blue book Filter Projects bp demo bp examplel bp Directories demo bp examplel bp Open project OK Filter Cancel Help Use the directory list or the directory field to select a directory where you want to create the new Blue project Type a name for the project n the project name field For details about how to use the file selecti
6. REMOVE CLASSES sun n cA Ot E va LEA ABRE d PARE OE v EUER bn 10 3 2 PAY OUT A PROJECT c duse comi enu dnd Du M e e ELEM D E 10 3 3 MOVES CLASS CONG usce etel san ahnen 10 3 4 RESIZE A C LASS ICONS au essen Net 10 3 5 MOVE AN ARROW os nee essen 10 3 6 ADDA USES ARROW secius tales toV tim n 11 3 7 REMOVE 2 USES ARROW sa na t ut ea eed B Ene US bo e 11 3 8 ADD AN INHERITS ARROW ansehen 11 3 9 REMOVE AN INHERITS ARROW cccccccccccesececeeseeececeeeeeeseeeceseeeeeeseeeeeeeeeseseneess 11 3 10 WRITE Ac PROJECT DESCRIPTION e wo ta EDU RET ED RD m eoa au 12 3 11 WRITE A PROJECT COMMENT sta alas kabel ub bua da RU 12 Js EDITING SOURCE CODE eda epo aaa 13 4 1 VIEW THE SOURCE CODE OFA CLASS ksta 13 4 2 ENTER TEXT ee nen 13 4 3 ENTERA NEW ROUTINE 1 15 1 bita LU nitate bie Nenn 13 4 4 FIND EBRRORSIN THE SOURCE u Eve eM ern Beate eR b OE ve Me Ee Bb RN bias b RR 13 4 5 FIND OUT WHAT THE EDITOR CAN DO ccc ccc ccc cece cece ence III mee e ese ese ene enne 14 4 6 FIND OUT WHAT A FUNCTION KEY DOES cc ccc cccc cece III I Ie e hee een enne 15 4 7 CHANGE KEY BINDINGS a tate teas itat e pe Ut eltecal tb ka odds 15 4 8 FIND OUT vont eoe eher Bb eni tabe Ea d ree b uu doo v nti bo e e e 15 Ss EXECUTION ee DM MEL ot Pad ORDERED AUD VS 16 5 1 CREATE AN OBIECT OA 16 GATI ATROUTINE EA een es amen R
7. Simple in Proceedings of 28th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education ACM San Jose Calif 77 81 February 1997 Basics The Class Icons Classes are displayed in the main window in the form of icons These icons appear in a few variations Here s a list of possible appearance of those icons PPPS SSS SSS Blue A normal class compiled ready for object creation Striped A striped icon indicates that the class 1s uncompiled Light Blue The light colour marks abstract classes This class is compiled but no objects can be created because the class 1s abstract Green This colour indicates enumeration classes Striped green An uncompiled enumeration class Red This colour marks library classes This class was imported from a class library Light red An abstract library class The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 Orange A library enumeration class In addition to this classes can appear greyed and have an additional lock mark if the project 1s a group project Grey The class is not locked or taken by the current user It cannot be edited or executed Blue with edit mark This class has been taken by the current user It may be edited and executed Blue with lock mark This class has been locked by the current user It may be executed but not edited It may be locked by other users as well Grey with edit mark This class has been taken by another u
8. The Blue Programming Environment Reference Manual Version 1 0 Michael K lling Monash University 2 December 1998 HOW DO I 47 INTRODUCTION 5 a a E EM VENE 1 ABOUT LHIS DOCUMENT use esse res 1 RELATED DOCUMEN TS een sn caters cheese came ed 1 BASICS nA A E 2 TheClass IM ERROR T TU 2 Select RA C OS 9 Li PROIECISieiiLeRL eR ra os Gee a a Os Gee AES 4 1 1 CREATE Fe NEW PROIECT ti setantaus titans E race d EL E E D MEE E 4 1 2 OPEN A PROJECT sense ee 4 1 3 EINDOUT WHAT A PROJECT DOBS sense 4 1 4 COPY As PROJECT Mer nr EN ee 5 1 5 DELETE Ac PROIECT eier 5 1 6 COMPILE A PROJECT ae aa ted Mate b a ea bee b wd 3 1 7 DOCUMENT AY PEOIEGT ans ssigen 3 1 8 EXFCUTER PROJECT a ee scene pueda echec ee reet peu te Mna 5 1 9 PRINT THE PROJECT a nr Ri 6 Qe CLASSES Leslie 7 2 1 CREATE ANEW OL AS bene Denen 7 2 2 REMOVE A CCAS P es Bee 7 2 3 RENAME ACLASS os nassen aiden b otii vents 8 2 4 COMPIER ACTAS Ns 8 2 5 EDITA CLAS Serieen ee Seel es rich 3 2 6 OPEN ALTASS se a ee ent Leendert neues 8 2 7 VIEW THE INTERFACE OF A 55 cece eeeecceeceseeeeeuececeueeeeeeseseseueeeeseseneseues 9 2 8 VIEW THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CLASS II e He e esee e eese 9 Ss PROJECT BEDITING ehe 10 3 1 CREATE AND
9. akes 12 4 seconds to execute on my machine Absolute results are in general uninteresting anyway But you can obtain results such as this algorithm takes 4 times as long as this other algorithm for the same data set or this algorithm is exponential The way this is done in Blue is by counting the number of machine instructions executed This is only a very rough measure since not all machine instructions execute in the same time but in our count they appear as equal Nonetheless it is a good enough measure most of the time since algorithms that are typically compared often use similar instructions 28 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 8 4 8 5 8 6 To use the machine instruction counter select Preferences from the Options menu In the preferences dialog you will see an option labelled Show Machine Instruction Counter Switch this option on and close the preferences dialog After doing this you will see the counter near the bottom right corner of the main window Instruction count 441 66 Reset The counter is updated every time the machine stops after every interactive routine execution It continues to accumulate over several routine calls but can be reset at any tine with the Reset button By resetting the counter to zero before the start of an algorithm the number of machine instructions needed for the execution of the algorithm can be determined This can be repeated and compared to the
10. anted for the source of the class Search The Class Library browser menu Class Find shortcut Alt f If you have some sort of an idea what you are looking for but you do not know where to find it you can search the whole class library Choose Find from the Class menu 26 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 7 6 7 7 Class Finder found classes Search for search in Find class name author Help _ date Close description interface You can type in a search string and specify where the string should appear Options are e inthe class name in the author string e inthe class comment e inaroutine name e inaroutine comment You can choose more than one option After clicking OK all classes that contain the search string in one or more of the indicated areas are listed in the found classes list Selecting a class name from this list will display its group and select the class in the main window Build My Own Class Library NOTE Not Yet Implemented Insert Classes Into The Library NOTE Not Yet Implemented 27 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 8 1 8 2 8 3 Miscellaneous Use A Project That Is Locked After A Crash menu Project Recover After Crash shortcut When a user opens a project that project is automatically locked if it is not a group project In a group project classes are locked separately and explicitly Bo
11. available online at http www csse monash edu au mik red manual It can also be opened from within Red by selecting Manual from the Help menu 15 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 5 1 Execution Create An Object menu Tools Create Object shortcut Alt k toolbar button Create To create an object of a class select the class and then select Create from the Tools menu or the toolbar If your mouse has more than one button then clicking a class with the right mouse button is a shortcut for Create An object creation dialog will appear This dialog may look like this p creation Create a perser object Cancel Help In the name field you have to enter a name for the object to be created The name has to be a valid Blue identifier If the creation routine has parameters the dialog will also include fields to enter the parameters These fields are needed for the call of the creation routine and are identical to the fields in a normal routine call dialog See CALL A ROUTINE 5 2 for details Objects can only be created from compiled general classes Once the object is created it will appear on the object bench the area close to the bottom of the main window as a red ellipse The object icon shows its name and class For example room 16 The Blue Programming Environment Ve
12. eakpoint from the Debug menu This will set a breakpoint in the current line the line the cursor 15 in Or you can click in the tag bar the area left of the source lines where break points are displayed Clicking in that area will set a breakpoint at the selected position creatures ir loop creature exit on if not c Crez if c FIL else HL else A breakpoint can only be set if the class is compiled For a compiled class the tag bar appears white and accepts attempts to set break points For a 21 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 6 3 6 4 class that has not been compiled the tag bar s grey and does not allow breakpoints to be set Remove A Breakpoint menu Debug Clear Breakpoint shortcut Shift Ctrl b There are two ways to clear a breakpoint You can select Clear Breakpoint from the Debug menu This will clear the breakpoint in the current line the line the cursor is in If there 15 no breakpoint in the current line this function has no effect Or you can click directly onto the breakpoint displayed in the tag bar the area left of the source lines where break points are displayed This will remove the breakpoint Step Through My Code To single step through your code you must first SET BREAKPOINT 6 2 Once execution reaches the breakpoint the machine will be interrupted the source code currently executed will be shown and the execution controls window will be opened au
13. ee tetas 17 ENTER PARAMETERS ss ee ee are 18 EXECUTE AN OBJECT THAT WAS RETURNED BY A ROUTINE ccccceccceeeeseeeeeeeeues 18 USE AN OBJECT FROM THE OBJECT BENCH AS A 19 STOP THE EXECUTION OF A BLUE PROGRAM oranan a T 19 DEBUGGING eines 20 INSPECTAN OBJECT ee ae 20 SE TA BREAL POIN Een ee en 21 REMOVE A BREAK POIN Fs ass nee 22 STEP THROUGH MY CODE 22 INSPECT VARIABLE VALUES IN MY PROGRAM cc0ccceeeecceesececeeseeeeeseeeeeuseeeeeseeeees 23 FIND OUT ABOUT THE CALL SEQUENCE AT A BREAKPOINT ccccccsecceceesseeeeeeeuues 24 OPEN THE MACHINE CONTROLS WINDOW cccccccceecceeeeceeeceueeseeuseeecesseeeeeseeeeenes 24 LIBRARY CLASSES Cuv CO oet a eR 25 FIND OUT WHAT LIBRARY CLASSES EXIST a tesa e 25 SEE THE DETAILS OF A LIBRARY CLASS ccccccccscccecsececseccuseveuseveusevcatevcasevcaseueas 26 USBEA LIBRARY CLASS IN MY PROJECT see 26 TAKE A COPY FROM A LIBRARY 1 55 II I He eme esee hene hne 26 SEARCH THE CLASS LIBRARY d Nessie 26 BUILD MY OWN CLASS LIBRARY ice ee tette rte eie epe 27 INSERT CLASSES INTO THE LIBRARY 2238 ea erg 27 MISCELEANEOUS 0 28 USE A PROJECT THAT IS LOCKED AFTER A CRASH c ccccceccceceeseeeceseeseeseeeseseeeees 28 VIEW INTERFACES OF STANDARD CLASSES sn nk 28 GET AN ESTIMATE
14. etails Of A Library Class browser menu Class Show Class Interface shortcut Alt e Details of a class may be obtained in two levels selecting a class displays details in the class details and routine list areas see picture above Alternatively a double click on the class icon opens the class and displays the full class interface Users may or may not be permitted to view the implementation of a library class they are however never permitted to change the source of a library class Use A Library Class In My Project browser menu Class Use Class In Project shortcut Alt u To use a library class in a project select the class n the browser window Then choose Use Class In Project from the Class menu The class will be inserted into the current project Should the class depend on other classes a superclass or used classes those other classes do not have to be declared as used in the project unless they are explicitly called by user code Take A Copy From A Library Class browser menu Class Copy Class To Project shortcut Alt To copy a library class to a project select the class in the browser window Then choose Copy Class To Project from the Class menu A copy of the class will be inserted into the project The copy is from then on independent from the original and may be altered and recompiled Not all library classes permit read access for the source Classes can only be copied if read access 15 gr
15. g Ctrl Tab can be used to move the cursor to the next flag to fill in the gaps Find Errors In The Source To check the source of a class for error you just COMPILE A CLASS 2 4 Compilation will highlight the first error in the source and display the error message in the information area in the editor window Compilation only shows one error at a time To see other errors fix the first one and compile again 13 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 4 5 Find Out What The Editor Can Do editor menu Preferences Key Bindings menu Help Manual Getting to know your editor s a very valuable thing that can greatly increase your work efficiency and it s a lot more fun too Red the editor in the Blue system has two mechanisms to find out what functions are supported and what each function does The key bindings dialog select Key Bindings from the Preferences menu offers a full list of editor functions It also shows a brief explanation and the key combinations that call the function The following is an example of a key bindings dialog Current Group Categories Edit Functions new line Defaults open line delete char Hel backward delete char backward delete untab Key Bindings tab to tab stop Ctrl BackSpace Ctri Left indent new line and indent cut word cut to end of word Add Key Delete Key cut line Delete the character to the left of
16. hether the class was compiled or not you will see Here an action is mentioned open a class that is itself explained in another section 2 6 The type style indicates the cross reference which can be looked up in turn should you be uncertain about how to perform this task Related Documents This document describes only the Blue Programming Environment The Blue Language is described in Blue Language Specification M Kolling and J Rosenberg Blue Language Specification Version 1 0 School of Computer Science and Software Engineering Monash University Technical Report TR97 13 November 1997 Design decisions and related issues are discussed in various papers M Kolling B Koch and J Rosenberg Requirements for a First Year Object Oriented Teaching Language in ACM SIGCSE Bulletin ACM Nashville 173 177 March 1995 M K lling and J Rosenberg Blue A Language for Teaching Object Oriented Programming in Proceedings of 27th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education ACM Philadelphia Pennsylvania 190 194 March 1996 M Kolling and J Rosenberg An Object Oriented Program Development Environment for the First Programming Course in Proceedings of 27th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education ACM Philadelphia Pennsylvania 83 87 March 1996 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 J Rosenberg and M K lling Testing Object Oriented Programs Making it
17. isk command from the project menu USE THE FILE SELECTION DIALOG 8 6 to select a project and click Ok The project will be deleted Warning Once a project s removed from disk t cannot be recovered Compile A Project menu Tools Compile shortcut Alt c toolbar button Compile To compile a project select Compile from the menu or toolbar This function will make an analysis of the current project check which classes need recompilation check dependencies and then compile all classes that need compilation in the appropriate order This function will always try to compile all uncompiled classes It aborts as soon as in error is detected in one of them To compile one or more specific classes without compiling them all see COMPILE CLASS 2 4 Document A Project To document a project properly you should at least do the following WRITE A PROJECT DESCRIPTION 3 10 comment all classes and comment all routines Class comments and routine comments are both entered in the class s source code OPEN A CLASS 2 6 to enter these comments See 1 for a more detailed description of class comments In addition to this you can also WRITE A PROJECT COMMENT 3 11 Execute A Project To execute a project you first have to find out which routine you want to execute Some projects have a hierarchical structure with one top level class The top level class can have one or more start routines Some projects have a more open s
18. ithout chang ng its functionality You should attempt to create a layout that reflects as closely as possible the logical application structure To change the layout you can MOVE CLASS ICON 3 3 on the screen Move all the icons until the layout appears the way you want it You cannot move arrows yourself All arrows are computed and drawn automatically You can also RESIZE A CLASS ICON 3 4 Move A Class Icon To move an icon on the screen you drag it with the left mouse button Dragging means you click in the icon and keep holding the mouse button down while you move the mouse around Release the mouse button to drop the icon Resize A Class Icon To resize a class icon you click in the lower right corner of the icon and drag the corner This corner is separated from the rest of the icon to mark the area in the icon used for resizing resize handle Move An Arrow You cannot move an arrow explicitly If you do not like the layout of your arrows all you can do is to move your classes around All arrows will be redrawn automatically 10 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 3 6 3 7 3 8 3 9 Add A Uses Arrow menu Edit Add Uses Arrow shortcut Alt u toolbar button M To add a uses arrow select the Add Uses Arrow item from the menu or toolbar and then drag the arrow from the client class to the server class That 1s click and hold the mouse button in the client class move the mo
19. ne call sequence currently open routine calls It presents a kind of stack display Call sequence Mord time Tick World startlife God create Time The routine at the bottom of the list 1s the one that was interactively called with the call sequence progressing upwards in the list towards the current routine at the top Local and instance variables in intermediate routines can be inspected by selecting the routine in this call sequence list Open The Machine Controls Window menu View Show Machine Controls shortcut Alt x The machine controls window opens automatically when the machine hits a breakpoint or is interrupted by the user e g by pressing ESC If you want to open or close the machine controls window manually you can do this by selecting the Show Machine Controls toggle in the view menu 24 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 7 1 Library Classes Find Out What Library Classes Exist menu Tools Library Browser shortcut Alt b To find out about available library classes you can browse a library online from within the Blue environment To browse a library you open the library browser item Library Browser in the Tools menu The following picture shows the browser main window serion iii D asses in cumeni secten Library ET Class KJ Channel Huthors Michael Kealling Version 1 tm 1 1 Standard FO Channel dor the ike environment colin
20. nted 12 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 4 1 4 2 4 3 4 4 Editing Source Code View The Source Code Of A Class How to view the source of a class is described in OPEN A CLASS 2 6 and VIEW THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A CLASS 2 8 in the section about classes Enter Text Once you see the source of a class on the screen you can just type to enter text If this does not work have a look at the bottom right corner of your editor window If the class is marked as read only then you cannot enter any text or change any of the existing text The reason a class is read only could be you are looking at the interface instead of the implementation the class is a library class you do not have enough access rights in this project to change classes this class is locked by you or another user the class is in a group project and you have not taken the class for editing After entering text you can compile or close the class A Save function exists but rarely needs to be called explicitly Compiling or closing a class automatically saves the class Enter A New Routine To enter a new routine type the routine name in the editor at the location where the routine should appear and then type Control R Control R calls the Red function blue new routine This function will insert the rest of a routine skeleton and place flags into the skeleton at places where text has to be inserted The function next fla
21. of its instance variables You can inspect an object by selecting the Inspect item from the pop up object menu or by double clicking the object To see the pop up menu click the object icon on the object bench with the right mouse button A menu will pop up that looks similar to this change Names changeAge Collecting getNames gt 4 gel ge gt Under the routine calls there are two special items The second from the bottom is Inspect Select this to open the object A dialog will be displayed that shows all instance variables their types and values 20 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 6 2 Object State object of class Person instance variables first name String John last name String z Smith age Integer 74 fet address Address lt object reference gt employer Person undefined inspect If the value of a variable is itself a complex object it 1s only shown as object reference If you are interested in the details of such an object you can inspect that object in turn by selecting it and then clicking the inspect button In this way a whole data structure may be examined If your structure 1s for instance a linked list you can inspect the objects referred to by the next field until this field is nil Set A Breakpoint menu Debug Set Breakpoint shortcut Ctrl b There are two ways to set a breakpoint You can select Set Br
22. on dialog see the description of your operating system the Motif description for Unix systems Start Another Program Mail Reader Web Browser etc menu Programs lt gt shortcut The Programs menu contains entries of programs unrelated to Blue You can start those programs by selecting them from the menu The menu entries can be modified by the system administrator 30
23. pen already you need to close that project first A file selection dialog will open UsE THE FILE SELECTION DIALOG 8 6 to select a project to open Click Ok and the project is opened Find Out What A Project Does menu Tools Show shortcut Alt e toolbar button Show A project is described in the project description The project description 1s shown as a note icon close to the top left corner of the main screen To read the project description select the note by clicking on it and select the Show command from the menu or the toolbar A double click on the note 1con 1s a shortcut to the same function The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 Copy A Project To copy a project you first OPEN A PROJECT 1 2 This is the original you want to copy Then you select Save As from the project menu to save the project under a different name The Save As will open a file selection dialog USE THE FILE SELECTION DIALOG 8 6 to enter a new name and location for the project If the original project is read only for you all classes will appear greyed out This means that you cannot modify or execute the original project This is not a problem as soon as you save the project under a new name the classes will appear normal and you will have modify and execute rights Delete A Project menu Project Remove A Project On Disk To remove a project on disk choose the Remove A Project On D
24. ready If no error s found the class will be marked as compiled in both the editor and the main window It is not necessary to save classes before compilation They will be implicitly saved before compilation takes place if they were changed since the last save Edit A Class To edit the source of a class you first have to OPEN A CLASS 2 6 If the class 15 in interface view you have to switch to the implementation view see VIEW THE IMPLEMENTATION Or A CLASS 2 8 Then the class is ready to be edited If it still cannot be edited the editor shows a read only mark then you do not have enough access rights to edit the class It might be a library class or the project might belong to someone else who has not given you permission to change it Open A Class menu Tools Show shortcut Alt e toolbar button Show Open a class 1s the expression we commonly use to shorten the more precise Open an editor to show the source of a class You open a class if you The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 2 7 2 8 want to see the interface of the class want to see the implementation want to edit the class change the interface or implementation You can open a class by selecting it and then selecting Show Class from the Edit menu or toolbar A shortcut for opening a class is a double click on the class icon Depending on which view you used when you last looked at the class you might see it in implementa
25. rsion 1 0 5 2 Call A Routine To call any routine you must first CREATE AN OBJECT 5 1 Once you have the object on the object bench clicking it with the right mouse button will show a pop up menu which lists all interface routines of the object P sn room getDescription gt addThing remove Thing display Select the routine you wish to call If the routine has parameters you will have to ENTER PARAMETERS 5 3 After clicking OK the routine will execute and function results if any will be displayed in a separate function result dialog ei LLL LLL getlommand gt String get the next command from the terminal my parser getlommand gt String help 5 P iet inspect 17 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 5 3 5 4 Enter Parameters If you CALL A ROUTINE 5 2 including a creation routine which is implicitly called when you CREATE AN OBJECT 5 1 and that routine has parameters then a parameter dialog will appear to let you enter parameters LXI NEN IN NC Enter the parameters in the field between the parenthesis or click into the history list to re use a previously typed parameter list All parameters are written in exactly the same way they would be written as part of a routine call statement in the source code of a class Strings for example have to be written with quotes Execute An
26. ser It cannot be taken or locked by the current user Grey with lock mark This class has been locked by another user It may be locked by the current user as well and then used for execution Selecting A Class To select a class click on it If your mouse has more than one button use the left button to select a class A selected class 15 shown with a black border Selected class The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 1 T 1 1 Projects Create A New Project menu Project New shortcut To create a new project you first have to start Blue If Blue is started already and you already have a project open you must first close that project Blue can only have one project open at any one time Select New from the menu A file selection dialog will open USE THE FILE SELECTION DIALOG 8 6 to enter a name and location for the project A project name always ends in bp If you type a name that does not end with this suffix Blue will automatically append it to the name you type Click Ok and the new project 1s created and opened Open A Project menu Project Open shortcut Alt o There are two ways to open a project from the command line of a shell before Blue is started type blue lt project name gt to start Blue and automatically open the project lt project name gt If Blue s already running use the Open command from the menu If another project is o
27. th of these mechanisms are necessary to avoid data corruption When the system is terminated unexpectedly by an outside signal or a system crash it is possible that locks have not been removed This prevents further use of the project To deal with this situation OPEN THE PROJECT 1 2 and then select Recover After Crash from the Project menu This will remove all the locks that currently exist In a group project all classes will be free In a single user project you will have a lock on the project Be careful to use this function only if you are sure that you are the only user currently in the project If other users have the project open at the same time you will remove their locks and classes may become corrupted or changes may be lost View Interfaces Of Standard Classes menu Help Standard Class Interfaces shortcut The Standard Class Interfaces item in the Help menu is itself a menu that contains entries for all predefined classes Integer Boolean Real String Enumeration Array and TextTerminal By choosing one of these items you can open the interface of a standard class This can provide useful information about routines and their signatures Get An Estimate Of The Efficiency Of My Algorithm menu Options Preferences shortcut Blue offers a simple mechanism to estimate relative efficiency of algorithms Relative efficiency means that you cannot obtain absolute results such as this algorithms t
28. the cursor Information Area Key Bindings List The functions are organised in groups Choose a function group first to see a list of functions in that group The information area then shows a description of the function and the key bindings list shows what key combinations call the function The second source of information is the Red Online Manual To open it select Manual from the Help menu Doing so will start a web browser displaying an HTML manual that includes a tutorial and a reference section 14 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 4 6 4 7 4 8 Find Out What A Function Key Does If you quickly want to check what function any key combination invokes in Red type Alt D and the key in question If for instance you wonder what the function key F5 might do type Alt D F5 Alt D calls the function describe key This function reads the next keypress and displays the name of the function that is called by this key in the information area Change Key Bindings editor menu Options Key Bindings shortcut Alt k To change key bindings in Red select Key Bindings from the Preferences menu This will open the key bindings dialog that is shown in the FIND Our WHAT THE EDITOR CAN Do 4 5 section Here you can add remove or change the keys and key combinations that call a function Find Out More editor menu Help Manual To find out more about Red have a look at the Red User Manual It 15
29. tion view or interface view If you have not opened the class in this session it will initially appear in interface view if it is compiled and in implementation view 1f it is uncompiled The leftmost button in the editor toolbar indicates which view is currently shown Interface Interface is pushed in The interface view is shown Interface Interface is out The implementation view is shown View The Interface Of A Class editor menu Tools Show Interface shortcut Alta toolbar button Interface To see the interface of a class you have to OPEN A CLASS 2 6 If the class display is 1n implementation mode select the Interface toggle from the Tools menu or the toolbar Showing the interface 1s only possible if the class has been compiled View The Implementation Of A Class editor menu Tools Show Interface shortcut Alti toolbar button Interface To see the implementation of a class you have to OPEN CLASS 2 6 If the class display 1s in interface mode select the Interface toggle from the Tools menu or the toolbar The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 9 Project Editing Create and Remove Classes To find out how to create or remove a class from the project see CREATE A NEW CLAss 2 1 and REMOVE A CLASS 2 2 in the Classes section of th s manual Layout A Project You can change the layout of the project the icons in the main window w
30. tomatically For example x nA step Into Continue Terminate You can then use the Step or Step Into button to step through your code The current position in the code will be indicated by an arrow in the tag bar The arrow points to the instruction that will be executed next that instruction has not yet been executed creature t creatures gethext exit on creature nil if not creature act then creatures removelCurrent if creature is Fish then elseif creature is Shark then num sharks t num_sharks 1 else assert false end if end if end loop end timelick The Step and Step Into buttons differ only if the next statement is a routine call Step will execute the whole routine and stop again at the next 22 The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 6 5 instruction after the routine Step Into will go into the routine and stop at the first instruction within the routine Continue may be used to continue execution normally until execution finishes or the next breakpoint is reached Terminate may be used to terminate the execution Inspect Variable Values In My Program If you want to inspect the value of instance variables between interactive routine calls see INSPECT AN OBJECT 6 1 If you want to see the value of local variables or instance variables at a particular moment of the execution SET BREAKPOINT 6 2 at the place in the code where you want to inspect the variable Once e
31. tructure in which you call various functions from different classes to perform the various tasks the project offers If The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 1 you do not know which class or which routine you should use have a look at the project description note It should be described there The project description note s further explained in FIND_OUT_WHAT A PROJECT Doers 1 3 Asa rule of thumb top level classes are usually placed in the project window near the top left corner Once you know what you want to execute you have to CREATE AN OBJECT 5 1 first You cannot execute code without creating an object Once you have created that object you can CALL A ROUTINE 5 2 Print The Project Window menu Project Print shortcut Alt p To print a project select Print from the project menu A dialog appears that looks like this Blue Print Print Class Printer Options send To Paper format Printer _ Print selection only _ File PostScript M Add header Pe HTME trees Insert the name of the printer in the text field You can print directly to the printer create a PostScript file for later printing or viewing or create an HTML page with the project overview on it The Print selection only option is always disabled for printing the project window it applies only to the printing of text Add headers adds a header to each page Save trees prints in red
32. uced format to save paper The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 2 1 2 2 Classes Create A New Class menu Edit New Class shortcut Alt n toolbar button New Class To create a new class in a project select the New Class menu item or toolbar button This 1s only possible while you have a project open A dialog will appear to let you enter a name for the new class E Hame of new class MyClass general class enumeration class OK Caneel Help You have to enter a name and choose one of the options enumeration class or general class The name must be a valid Blue identifier In short 1t must be a word that consists only of letters digits and the underscore _ No spaces or other characters are allowed The first character may not be a digit The enumeration class or general class options only determine what kind of skeleton is used for the initial source of the class It is not a final choice you could change your mind later and replace the complete source code of say a general class with code for an enumeration class The environment would recognise that the class is now an enumeration class and treat it accordingly Of course this works the other way around as well Remove A Class menu Edit Remove Class shortcut To remove a class select t and then choose Remove Class from the Edit menu You will be asked to confirm since removing a class is not re
33. use pointer to the server class while still holding the button down and release the button in the server class Alternatively you can add the used class to the uses clause in the source of the client class The project overview will be updated as soon as the class is saved or closed Remove A Uses Arrow menu Edit Remove Uses Arrow shortcut Ctrl Alt u To remove a uses arrow select Remove Uses Arrow from the menu and then drag the arrow from the client class to the server class This will remove the existing arrow Alternatively you can remove the used class from the uses clause in the source of the client class The project overview will be updated as soon as the class 1s saved or closed Add An Inherits Arrow menu Edit Add Inherit Arrow shortcut Alta toolbar button To add an inherits arrow select the Add Inherit Arrow item from the menu or toolbar and then drag the arrow from the subclass to the superclass That is click and hold the mouse button in the subclass move the mouse pointer to the superclass while still holding the button down and release the button in the superclass Alternatively you can insert the superclass to the class header in the source of the subclass The project overview will be updated as soon as the class is saved or closed Remove An Inherits Arrow menu Edit Remove Inherit Arrow shortcut Ctrl Alt 1 To remove an inherits arrow select Remove Inherit Arrow from the
34. versible Once a class has been removed it is deleted in the file system and cannot be restored unless it 1s a library class The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 2 3 2 4 2 5 2 6 Rename A Class To rename a class first OPEN A CLASS 2 6 then replace the name of the class 1n the class header the first line of the source with the new name you want it to have As soon as you save or close the class the new name will also be shown in the class icon in the main window Compile A Class main window menu Tools Compile Selected shortcut Shift Alt c editor menu Tools Compile shortcut Alt c toolbar button Compile There are two ways to compile a particular class from the main window or from the editor In the main window select the class and then select Compile Selected from the menu If the class is open select Compile from the Tools menu or the toolbar in the editor Both of these functions do the same thing they will first analyse the dependencies of the selected class and check whether a class that this one depends on is uncompiled Classes that this one depends on are classes used and the parent class if any Those classes are compiled first if necessary and then the selected class 15 compiled Thus it is not necessary to explicitly compile used classes first If an error is found it will be highlighted and an error message is displayed the class will be opened if it is not open al
35. xecution reaches the breakpoint and the execution controls are shown you can expand the execution controls window with the expand button at the top right corner The window will be expanded to a full debugger window that displays current values of interface and local variables rc Call Sequence instance variables World time Tick columns Integer 78 A Yorld startlife rows Integer 20 God create Time empty space String nl String n word Array lt frray Creatures lt 0 creatures BiSeq Creature lt objec num sharks Integer 10 num fish Integer 153 fish prop time Integer 4 Shark prop time Integer 12 a local variables creature Creature object references SA hi gt Epi X Pr Step step Into Continue Terminate 23 expand button The Blue Programming Environment Version 1 0 6 6 6 7 You can inspect any object listed in the variable list by double clicking it just as for interactive objects on the object bench as described in INSPECT AN OBJECT 6 1 Find Out About The Call Sequence At A Breakpoint you have SET BREAKPOINT 6 2 and the machine execution stops you can find out about the sequence of routine calls that brought you to this particular piece of code To do this expand the machine controls window as described in INSPECT VARIABLE VALUES IN My PROGRAM 6 5 The left half of the window shows the routi
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