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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Aug 3

It's out! Objects First With Java, 7th edition.

Now out in print and as e-text.

It has been 22 years since the first edition, and we're still going.

www.bluej.org/objects-first/

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · May 30

Why is a bug called a bug?

The origin of the term is interesting, and often mis-attributed. The famous case is that of a moth found by Grace Murray Hopper inside a Mark II.

Long before this, however, Thomas Edison was onto his “bugs”...

Continue here: blogs.kcl.ac.uk/proged/2025/...

Picture of what is known as "The First Computer Bug": a moth taped with sticky tape into an old notebook, surrounded by hand writing

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · May 30

A Brief History of Java

This is a new chapter in our book "Objects First with Java".

In the book, it motivates why you should (or shouldn't) use specific language features.

It may be interesting to anyone interested in Java or the development of programming languages.

tinyurl.com/brief-java

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · May 24

ATTENTION: Free Computing Teachers Conference

Our speakers are now confirmed for CKC 2025:

@dsyme.bsky.social @megjlow.bsky.social @beckyfranks.bsky.social @tracygardner.bsky.social @lollypopstar.bsky.social @neilccbrown.bsky.social @suesentance.bsky.social

Sign up here: tinyurl.com/CKC-Kings

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · May 13

Attention: Computing teachers!

CKC 2025 will have a fantastic keynote: Don Syme @dsyme.bsky.social will talk about

Trends in AI-Assisted Software Development

Plus: a full day of presentations and workshops.

More information and sign up here: www.computingatschool.org.uk/events/2025/...

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · May 1

Save the date!

On 5th July, we are hosting the CAS & King's Computing Conference for teachers. If you are a computing teacher and can come to London, have a look at this: a fantastic free event with great talks and workshops.

Open for registration now.

www.computingatschool.org.uk/events/2025/...

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Feb 22

Come and do a PhD with us!

Interested in programming languages, development tools, HCI and computing education?

@neilccbrown.bsky.social and I are jointly supervising a fully funded PhD. Theme: "Debugging and runtime visualisation in a frame-based system".

Details www.kcl.ac.uk/study-legacy...

Industry-funded studentship in Computer Science

3.5yr Studentship funding for a specific PhD project on Debugging and runtime visualisation in a frame-based system.

www.kcl.ac.uk

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Jan 29

I am very excited to tell you that we have started a collaboration with JetBrains @jetbrains.com , makers of IntelliJ IDEA @intellijidea.com and creators of the Kotlin language @kotlinlang.org, to integrate Kotlin into BlueJ @bluej.org.

This will bring Kotlin to millions of learners of programming!

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Jan 13

Very exciting: the new edition of our book has now appeared (for pre-order) on Amazon:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1292...

The release date is given as 2 July, but I still hope we can get it out by May.

Objects First with Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ, Global Edition: Amazon.co.uk: Barnes, David, Kölling, Michael: 9781292463599: Books

Buy Objects First with Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ, Global Edition 7 by Barnes, David, Kölling, Michael (ISBN: 9781292463599) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free deli...

www.amazon.co.uk

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 20

In the last few days, I have started revisiting guidelines for teaching programming, which I published 23 (!) years ago. I wanted to see how much is still relevant.

Frustratingly, almost everything is…

Read here: blogs.kcl.ac.uk/proged/

Programming Education Blog | Michael Kölling on BlueJ, Greenfoot, Stride, and other Programming Education Topics

blogs.kcl.ac.uk

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 11

!!

Has to be a great paper that starts with "Elephants are a quintessential animal ..."

neilccbrown.bsky.social @neilccbrown.bsky.social · Dec 11

Greatly intrigued by the field of Animal-Computer Interaction. Exhibit 1: "Play That Trunky Music: Development of an Auditory Enrichment Device for Elephants in Zoos" Open access paper here: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Play That Trunky Music: Development of an Auditory Enrichment Device for Elephants in Zoos | Proceedings of the International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction

dl.acm.org

Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 11

A new paper (a contribution in honour of Niklaus Wirth):

It's an easy read and should be of interest to anyone who cares about programming languages in education.

Relevant for the discussion of Java's status as a teaching language.

Here: infedu.vu.lt/journal/INFE...

@java-champions.bsky.social

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 11

We have a cover design for the 7th Edition of our Objects First book!
Very exciting.

Image of the cover of the 7th edition of "Objects First with Java": an abstract pattern in blue, black and white, with the author names and title printed on top.

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 8

Lesson of language design? Don't try to be clever!

JavaScript:

0 == '0' -> true
0 == '' -> true
'0' == '' -> false

result: Transitivity of equality is broken!

a == b and b == c, so a == c ?

Not in JavaScript, it isn't!

Read: blogs.kcl.ac.uk/proged/2024/...

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 7

How about this:

Integer a = new Integer(1);
Integer b = new Integer(1);

Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 6

Why is this one a good multiple choice question, but many others are not?

blogs.kcl.ac.uk/proged/2024/...

On my blog, I have written about my ongoing frustration with badly written MCQs, and what makes many of them so bad (and also an example of a better one).

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 5

Yep. Nan is one option. But there is another …

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 5

Here is a question I give my students in week 6 or so:

Can you write a declaration of variables a and b so that this code prints "false"?

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 4

Last time walking over Waterloo Bridge to my programming lecture this term.

Always beautiful.

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 3

The conclusion that developers are systematically ripping off their companies is obviously evidenced by the the fact that software companies with many developers (Google, MS, Meta, Oracle) are all struggling to survive…

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Dec 1

One of our newer projects. Have a look!

Strype @strype.org · Dec 1

Coming soon...

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Nov 29

Welcome Jens!

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Nov 29

We have a new paper in pre-print: What makes a good hint for a stuck student programmer? How can you investigate this? And are Humans or LLMs better at delivering them?

Joint work with Neil (@neilccbrown.bsky.social), Pierre, Juho and Paul.

Read it here: arxiv.org/pdf/2411.18151

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Nov 24

Our original article about Frame-Based Editing has now got more than 40k downloads from our KCL research repository! That's a record in the department by orders of magnitude.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's here:
kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/pu...

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Michael Kölling @kolling.uk · Nov 20

With the latest releases, both BlueJ (@bluej.org) and Greenfoot (@greenfoot.org) are optimised for Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypi.bsky.social) again, and now have dedicated installers for this platform.

Get them here:

BlueJ v5.4.1: bluej.org
Greenfoot v3.9.0: greenfoot.org

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