About Jurtle:

Jurtle is a simple integrated development tool for learning to program in the Java programming language. Perfect for a high school curriculum or for anyone else just starting out.

You learn to program by writing code that moves a virtual turtle on the computer screen, drawing figures in its wake. This approach to teaching programming is patterned after Turtle Graphics in the Logo programming language.

Java + Turtle = Jurtle

After mastering the basics, Jurtle may even be used to create complete Java applications with full-fledged graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
 
Jurtle comes with a self-paced tutorial allowing a novice to learn the basics of Java programming.

You can learn more about Jurtle at http://www.otherwise.com/Jurtle.html.

Note: Jurtle will run unlicensed for a 7 day evaluation period. After this time, if you wish to keep using Jurtle, you need to purchase a license.  Single user licenses may be purchased from the Plimus store at

 http://www.plimus.com

Multiuser and site licenses can be obtained directly from Otherwise.  Please contact us at

 info@otherwise.com

Installing Jurtle:

Jurtle requires the Java JDK (Java Development Kit) be installed before use (version 1.4 or higher).  Mac OS X users will already have the JDK since it is on the standard OS X distribution.  For other platforms the JDK may be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp.  Please make sure you choose the standalone SDK, not the NetBeans co-bundle.  Install the Java JDK following the instructions on Sun’s site. 

Installing Jurtle on Windows
Run the Jurtle_1.8.exe installer and follow the instructions.

Installing Jurtle on Mac OS X
Double click the Jurtle_1.8.dmg file to expand and mount the disk image.  Open the Jurtle disk image and drag the Jurtle folder into your /Applications folder.

Installing Jurtle on Linux (or any other generic Java environment)
Expand the Jurtle_1.8.zip file and copy the directory to your prefered location.  The Jurtle directory has a run.sh file that will launch Jurtle for you.  You will need to edit the run.sh file to specify which browser to use in Jurtle. You will also need to make sure the JAVA_HOME environment variable is defined and points to your current Java SDK installation (e.g. /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_03).