The Gild (Groupware-enabled Integrated Learning and Development) environment is designed to support students and teachers with the process of learning and teaching the basic concepts of computer programming. This is accomplished by providing a simple and robust environment for software development.
There are already many robust integrated development environments (IDEs), so you may find yourself asking why another one is needed. Many IDEs can be difficult to use because they are designed for professional programmers. These IDEs provide more functionality than a novice programmer needs. Gild is simple because it presents to the user only the tools that he or she will need in order to accomplish introductory programming tasks. Gild is also robust because it is designed to be more than an IDE; it is intended help students learn how to program and to help teachers organize their materials.
Gild is designed specifically to aid in learning how to program using the Java programming language. This document will deal with those features of Gild that students will need to become familiar with in order to start programming in Java using Gild.