Java-Meets Eclipse - An IDE for Teaching Java Following the Object-later Approach

International audienceIn this paper, we introduce a new Eclipse-based IDE for teaching Java following the object-later approach. Inparticular, this IDE allows the programmer to write code in Java--, a smaller version of the Java language thatdoes not include object-oriented features. For the implementation of this language we used Xtext, an Eclipseframework for implementing Domain Specific Languages; besides the compiler mechanisms, Xtext also allowsto easily implement all the IDE tooling mechanisms in Eclipse. By using Xtext we were able to provide animplementation of Java-- with all the powerful features available when using an IDE like Eclipse (includingdebugging, automatic building, and project wizards). With our implementation, it is also straightforward tocreate self-assessment exercises for students, which are integrated in Eclipse and JUnit