Experiences with IDEs and Java Teaching: What Works and What Doesn't: Together ControlCenter (Borland) Paul J. Wagner University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire ITiCSE 2003

Integrated Design/Development/Deployment

Features (version 6.0.1) Basic Basic l Integrated UML 1.3 design and JDK development F Changes to design generate code, changes to code affect design F UML: class, use case, sequence, collaboration, activity, state component, deployment l Flexibility in window display: explore, design, edit/develop, messages l UI Builder l Integrated debugging Advanced Advanced l Tools: e.g. Database System Connections, Refactoring l Good support for J2EE, Web Services l Version control l Integrations F Accelerators – Together products that extend ControlCenter (few) F Plug-Ins – Together and 3 rd party modules that provide added functionality off of the Together API (many; e.g. Ant, Oracle 9i, J2EE) l Other Editions: Solo, JBuilder, WebSphere Studio

Feature Tabs

Pros and Cons Pros Pros l Tight integration of object-oriented design, development, debugging and deployment l Subset of environment is accessible for beginners (one lab exercise mid-semester after familiar with another IDE) l Smoother transition into full-scale software development Cons Cons l Resource hungry – good with 2 GHz processor/1GB main memory, not good with significantly lesser machines l Whole product is too much for beginners l Cost

Miscellaneous More information: More information: l l l Note: Note: l In the past we used both Together and IBM Visual Age l Visual Age for Java will not be supported past 12/03 l New/Updated products => WebSphere Studio/Eclipse l If still interested in Visual Age, look at: F