An integrated Development Environment for Mobile Devices

Abstract

Integrated development environments (IDEs) offer a set of tools that help build software. The complexity of programs being developed today, along with the prevailing programming paradigms, makes the use of these tools almost indispensable. On the other hand, the evolution of mobile devices and the software they incorporate has led to a migration of several tasks, commonly performed on computers, to these devices. However, the available applications for programming from mobile devices are far from offering the same tools provided by current IDEs. In this paper, we present a proposal for an IDE for object-oriented programming from a mobile device and the implementation of an ongoing functional prototype for Android and iOS. We describe the implementation of the classic functionalities of an IDE, such as program editing, error reporting, navigation, execution, and debugging. Our aim is to present all these tools in an interface based on mobile application standards, making it intuitive and practical for users. The prototype is an application for developing programs in Wollok, an educational object-oriented programming language developed in Argentina. This project resulted from a collaborative effort with university teachers who decided to get involved in the project following the open-source philosophy.