As i stated earlier that i had an idea that would improve the learning experience of students, this is how it goes,
- We know when we start to code many a time we get a doubt as to what is the syntax or how to use a particular method, To some extent the description that pops up for every suggestion does helps mostly for people who know or who have used that method before. (Reading from API and understanding, might not be so easy for students).
- So what i thought of was, to attach an other segment to the "Show View" sub menu, which would have something like "References/Tutorials". When we click on this option there would be a small tutorial(simple code snippet with sample input and output) of the method pointed to by the current cursor position.
- This would help the student learn more java features as they are completing their task.
This basically covers the part of teaching the student how to correctly use the power of Java. Now to the part when they are stuck with an error and clueless about the actual reason behind it.
Usually the moment i find myself in this kind of a situation the one site i can always trust( or at least 90% of the time) to solve my problem or at least give me a better explanation to the problem is Stack Overflow.
- So basically when we see the error stack on the console, we give another option "help from stack overflow" or something like that, and get some posts related to that error or exception.
- Then there would be a new tab opening (in Eclipse itself) where we can display the questions and comments related to that error.
The motivation is simple, the way typically i learn a new feature in java is to read a tutorial(Reference), implement it and get hands on experience(Eclipse) and then play around with the code. If we run into errors read about it in Stack Overflow. Reading those expert answers usually gives me a very good insight as to how the language works. So integrate everything and release it for students and they will love Eclipse even more.
This is the idea i was exited about. I do have a basic plan as to how go about the implementation. But yes, i wanted to get a nod from the team about the Idea before i go ahead and discuss the implementation details.
Thank You,
Meher Vamsi K
