Getting Started

BotWorld is simply a jar file that is added to the DrJava Development Environment. If your system already has DrJava installed and running, skip to step two.

1. Install DrJava

DrJava Logo

In order for DrJava to run, your machine must have Java (JDK and JRE) installed. The introductory programming course at Penn currently uses DrJava with Java 1.5.

Why DrJava? DrJava's interactive interpreter is perfect for instructors' live demos, yet easy enough for students to use and understand on their own.

2. Download and Add the BotWorld Jar

  • Download the BotWorld jar file (see panel to the right).
  • Open DrJava. Go to Edit > Preferences. Select Resource Locations on the left.
  • Select Extra Classpath > Add and choose your downloaded BotWorld jar.
  • Click on Apply and then Okay to close the panel. Quit and restart DrJava.

3. Create a BotWorld

Once the jar has been successfully added, you should be able to create Bots and BotWorlds. Below is some sample code that can be typed into the Interactions Pane.

Interactions

If you encounter a static error when creating a new BotWorld, be sure that you added the jar file correctly.

An empty BotWorld

4. Explore with BotPlay

In the Botplay lab, students are encouraged to browse the Javadocs and try out additional methods such as eatDot(), hasDot(), getX() and addWall().

Download Jar