Download Tool Support for Introductory Software Engineering Education

Figure 3 - A Smalltalk Browser.
It has been noted [Cook1992] that whilst the inheritance hierarchy is a good
navigational relationship for developers who have authored classes, it is not
necessarily the best for students looking for classes. Students who are looking for a
class to use should start with the most specific (the leaves of the inheritance tree).
The problems with navigation are similar to those with visualisation in that some of
the semantic relationships that would form an excellent basis for navigation are
difficult to enter and maintain.
2.3.5.3
Smalltalk
The Smalltalk environment is interesting because it was the first object-oriented
programming environment and despite many different implementations over the
years, current Smalltalk implementations retain much of the same look-and-feel as
the earliest versions. Central to this look-and-feel is the importance of a class
browser within the environment.
Smalltalk class browsers are structured as a row of scrollable list panes, each
displaying a different level of granularity. The left most list displays general
categories, the centre left list displays class names that belong to the chosen general
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