Hanging when you create an object

Someone suggested in class that this problem is caused by not having permission to replace the file, and that the solution is to make a copy of the examples folder in your own directory. This appears to work. (Thank you, whoever you are!)

To copy the folder under UNIX, move to your own directory and enter the command

cp -R /pkg/b/bluej-1.1.4/examples examples

Unable to start BlueJ (Windows)

If you get one of the messages Abnormal program termination or Out of environment space, this may mean that BlueJ is installed incorrectly. I don't know how to fix that, but a workaround is to start BlueJ directly from MS-DOS. Open an MS-DOS window, navigate to where you have bluej.bat installed, and type bluej into the MS-DOS window. (If you don't have an MS-DOS icon, choose Start -> Run... and type cmd.)

Automatic indentation

You can have BlueJ automatically indent for you. This does not provide "correct" indentation; it does something much simpler. When you hit Enter, instead of just going to the next line, BlueJ will go to the next line and insert spaces to give this line the same indentation as the previous line. Usually (but not always) this is more convenient.

To do this, open a BlueJ editor window on any file. Then choose Options... -> Key Bindings.... From the popup menu, choose Edit Functions. Select insert-break-and-indent, click Add Key and hit Enter.

There are a lot of other things you can do with key bindings, so feel free to experiment. If you get things too messed up, there is a Defaults button that will restore all keys to their original settings.

Entering Strings

I have been trying out the tutorial in the labs, and it now appears to work properly, if very slowly.

If a dialog box asks for a String, such as a person's name or a room number, you must put double quotes, ", around the String. If you do not, you will get a very unhelpful message about "Semicolon expected."