The Flow of Consciousness

BlueJ, an open-source, educational IDE for beginning Java programmers, holds a very special place in my heart. You see, I learned object-oriented programming using it and its book, Objects First With Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ, in my freshman CS151 class at Westminster College. I enjoyed its in-depth look at how objects work and came to understand that objects really are objects, things that can be described generally, then subclassed to be more specific (what a wonderfully technical explanation that was!).

What really makes BlueJ stand out is its Object Bench, a pane in which all instantiated objects within the IDE can be interacted with.

In Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft added a similar—and by similar, I mean copy—of BlueJ’s Object Bench. Imitation is best form of flattery, or so Michael Kölling, a BlueJ developer, thought. So did Dan Fernandez, Visual C# Product Manager at the time.

It came to light recently that Microsoft applied for a patent for an "object test bench". This patent perfectly describes the functionality inherent in BlueJ’s object bench, functionality that clearly has prior art. The patent was filed October 20, 2005—more than two years after I learned objects using BlueJ’s object bench.

Kölling heard about this patent and has written an extensive analysis of the situation. He was originally concerned with Microsoft’s lack of attribution, as it neglected to identify BlueJ as the source of the concept of an object bench. Now he’s concerned about facing Microsoft’s lawyers when they attack, as it’s surely only a matter of time before they do. Sure, Kölling’s got plenty of prior art, but taking up a court battle across the pond (Kölling lives in the UK) is expensive, even if he pretty much knows he’s going to win.

I write this article for two purposes: to bring this matter to the attention of my readers, and to serve as my testament of prior art. BlueJ had it before Visual Studio had it and I learned OOP using BlueJ and its object bench.