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A class browser is a feature of an integrated development environment that allows the programmer to browse, navigate, or visualize the structure of object-oriented programming code. An integrated development environment (IDE), also known as integrated design environment and integrated debugging environment, is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers to develop software. ...
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming paradigm in which a software system is modeled as a set of objects that interact with each other. ...
History of Class Browsers
Most modern class browsers owe their origins to Smalltalk, one of the earliest object-oriented languages. The Smalltalk browser was a series of horizontally-abutting panes at the top of a text editor window that listed the class hierarchy of the Smalltalk system. A class selected in one pane would list the subclasses of that class in the next pane to the right. For leaf classes, the farthest left pane would list the class instance variables and allow them to be edited. Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective, programming language designed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, Ted Kaehler, Adele Goldberg, and others during the 1970s, influenced by Sketchpad and Simula. ...
Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ...
An example of a graphical user interface in Windows XP, with the My Music window displayed A window is a visual area, usually rectangular in shape, containing some kind of user interface, displaying the output of and allowing input for one of a number of simultaneously running computer processes. ...
In object-oriented programming, classes are used to group related variables and functions. ...
In object-oriented programming, a subclass is a class that inherits some properties from its superclass. ...
Most succeeding object-oriented langauges differed from Smalltalk in that they were compiled and executed in a discrete runtime environment, rather that being dynamically integrated into a monolithic system like the early Smalltalk environments. Nevertheless, the concept of a table-like or graphic browser to navigate a class hierarchy. A compiler is a computer program that translates a computer program written in one computer language (called the source language) into an equivalent program written in another computer language (called the output or the target language). ...
Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ...
With the popularity of C++ starting in the late-1980s, modern IDEs added class browsers, at first to simply navigate class hierarches, and later to aid in the creation of new classes. With the introduction of Java in the mid-1990s class browsers became an expected part of any graphic development environment. C++ (pronounced see plus plus, IPA: ) is a general-purpose computer programming language. ...
The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ...
Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ...
The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ...
Class Browsing in Modern IDEs All major development environments supply some manner of class browser, including Modern class browsers fall into three general categories: the columnar browsers, the outline browsers, and the diagram browsers. CodeWarrior is an integrated development environment for the Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and embedded systems. ...
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...
Mac OS, which stands for Macintosh Operating System, is a range of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh computers. ...
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEx: 4338) is the worlds largest software corporation, with 2005 global annual sales of almost $40 billion USD and about 64,000 employees in 85 countries and regions. ...
Microsoft Visual Studio is a series of IDEs by Microsoft. ...
Eclipse is an open source platform-independent software framework for delivering what the project calls rich-client applications, as opposed to thin client browser-based applications. ...
Borland Software Corporation (formerly Borland International, Inc. ...
JBuilder is a Java IDE from Borland. ...
IntelliJ IDEA is a commercial Java IDE by the company JetBrains. ...
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services and consulting services. ...
WebSphere refers to a brand of IBM software products, although the term also popularly refers to one specific product: WebSphere Application Server (WAS). ...
Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...
Apple Computer, Inc. ...
Xcode is Apple Computers IDE for developing applications and other software for Mac OS X. It is shipped free with Mac OS X. First introduced on October 24, 2003 along with the release of Mac OS X v10. ...
Mac OS X is the operating system which is included with all currently shipping Apple Macintosh computers in the consumer and professional markets. ...
NetBeans refers to both a platform for the development of Java desktop applications, and an integrated development environment (IDE) developed using the NetBeans Platform. ...
Zeus is a general-purpose, highly configurable, fully scriptable IDE specifically designed for Windows software developers. ...
KDevelop is a free IDE for GNU/Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. ...
Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective, programming language designed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, Ted Kaehler, Adele Goldberg, and others during the 1970s, influenced by Sketchpad and Simula. ...
A software utility for Microsoft . ...
Columnar Browsers Continuing the Smalltalk tradition, columnar browsers dispaly the class hierarchy from left to right in a series of columns. Often the rightmost column is reserverd for the instance menthods or variables of the leaf class.
Outline Browsers Systems with roots in Microsoft Windows tend to use an outline-form browser, often with colorful (if cryptic) icons to denote classes and their attributes.
Diagram Browsers In the early years of the 21st century class browsers began to morph into modeling tools, where programmers could not only visualize their class hierarchy as a diagram, but also add classes to their code by adding them to the diagram. Most of these visualization systems have been based on some form of the Unified Modeling Language. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a non-proprietary, object modeling and specification language used in software engineering. ...
Refactoring Class Browsers As development environments add refactoring features, many of these features have been implemented in the class browser as well as in text editors. A refactoring browser can allow a programmer to move an instance variable from one class to another simply by dragging it in the graphic user interface, or to combine or separate classes using mouse gestures rather than a large number of text editor commands. Refactoring is the process of rewriting written material to improve its readability or structure, with the explicit purpose of keeping its meaning or behavior. ...
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