Gf0100: objects first with greenfoot

Greenfoot is not a toy

Your first impression when you enter the Greenfoot home page may be that Greenfoot is a toy, but that definitely is not the case.

While it is true that the first impulse of many beginning programmers is to create computer games (as evidenced on the home page and the Greenfoot Gallery ), Greenfoot can also be used to create serious interactive simulations. As an example, I willpoint you to the following simulations:

• Ants by mik
• Wave-Lab by delmar
• Birds and Trees by polle

(Click a link given above to download and run a simulation. When the simulation window appears, click the Run button on the simulation window tostart the simulation running.)

You can view more than 7500 scenarios (Greenfoot programs are commonly referred to as scenarios) by clicking the Scenarios link at the top of the home page . Some of the scenarios are impressive. Some are not so impressive. Many, possibly most, were written by beginningprogrammers.

(Note that you must have Java applets enabled on your computer to run these simulations. Alternatively, if you have Greenfoot installed on yourcomputer, you can click the "Open in Greenfoot" button to cause the program to be downloaded for compilation and execution locally on your computer.)

The Greenfoot Gallery

What you see when you click the Scenarios link at the top of the home page has been called the Greenfoot Gallery in times past. This is a place where the authors of Greenfoot scenarios can publish their scenarios if they so choose.

This is a social network or virtual programming community where Greenfoot programmers gather to encourage one another and tocritique the work being done by themselves and others. Note however that active participation in the gallery is completely voluntary.

Software

The Greenfoot software and the Java Development Kit (JDK), both of which run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, are available for free download .

Software to download and install

When you visit the download page, you will find download links for Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu. Click oneof those links to download and install the appropriate version of Greenfoot on your computer.

You will also need to download and install the Java Development Kit (JDK). There is a download button labeled Download JDK for that purpose.

Stand alone software

As an alternative to the version that can be installed on your computer, there is a self-contained Stand Alone version that you can download, unzip, copy to, and run either from a disk folder or from a USB memorystick with no other installation required. This version contains both the Greenfoot software and the Java JDK.

Once you extract the software from the zip file, you will need about 200 Mbytes to store it in a disk folder. Depending on the formatting, you may needas much as 275 Mbytes of available space to copy the software to a USB memorystick.

The stand alone version is particularly useful in several situations including the following:

• You want to run Greenfoot on a computer for which you don't have installation privileges, such as in a public library or a college computerlab.
• You don't already have the Java JDK installed on your computer and would prefer not to go through the effort to download and install it.
• You want to run Greenfoot, but you don't want to install anything on your computer.