What is JGRASP?
jGRASP is an integrated development environment (IDE) designed specifically for introductory computer science students learning Java or other object-oriented languages. It provides a variety of visualizations, such as a Control Structure Diagram and UML class diagram, to help students understand complex software more easily.
Key features of jGRASP include:
- Code editor with syntax highlighting and auto-indentation to simplify coding
- Compiler and debugger to find and fix errors in code
- Control structure diagrams to visualize control flow of methods and classes
- UML class diagrams to visualize class relationships
- Object viewers to inspect objects and data structures at runtime
- Workspace tabs for organizing multiple open projects
- Customizable themes and fonts
jGRASP helps beginning programmers visualizeboth the control flow and the data structures in their code. This aids students inlearning essential concepts in object-oriented programming. The visualizations make the structure and execution of a program apparent and lower the barrier to understanding complex software. jGRASP runs on Windows, Mac and Linux systems.