Exploiting Smalltalk Modules In A Customizable Programming …

Short Description
structure of the Smalltalk LearningWorks to provide a. programming environment deigned for very … thousands of learners use the Smalltalk programming …

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Content
Exploiting Smalltalk Modules In A Customizable Programming Environment
Mark Woodman, Rob Griffiths, Malcolm Macgregor, Simon Holland, Hugh Robinson
Computing Department
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes, England MK7 6AA
+44 1908 274066
m.woodman, r.w.griffiths, m.d.macgregor, s.holland, h.m.robinsonopen@open.ac.uk
This paper appeared as:
Woodman, M., Griffiths, R. Macgregor, M., Holland, S. and Robinson, R. (1999) Exploiting
Smalltalk Modules In A Customizable Programming Environment. Proceedings of the International
Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 1999Exploiting Smalltalk Modules In A Customizable
Programming Environment
ABSTRACT
This paper describes how we have extended a module structure of the Smalltalk LearningWorks to
provide a programming environment deigned for very large scale technology transfer. The ‘module’ is
what we have termed the LearningBook, a set of classes and persistent objects, including an HTML
browser, programming and visualization tools, and microworlds. The context for this development is
a distance learning university course in object technology which has enrolled over 5,100 mature
students in its first year - making it the largest such course in the world. While promoting a systems
building approach, we have successfully added support for programming in the small and the needs…