via BlueJ

BlueJ is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) written in Java, designed for the teaching of java for beginners.

From version 3.14, BlueJ fully supports the Raspberry Pi, a credit card sized single board computer aimed at promoting the teaching of basic computer programming in schools. BlueJ is a Java development environment that allows development as well as program execution on the Pi.

BlueJ provides full access to hardware attached to the Raspberry Pi via the open source Pi4J library, from the the familiar Java SE language, including the new Java 8.

Installation
Just download the Raspbian installer from the BlueJ website and install it with:

sudo dpkg -i bluej-315.deb

Where bluej-315.deb is the downloaded Ubuntu/Debian installer file.

BlueJ already includes Pi4J, which is an object-oriented API for Java to access the GPIOs of the raspberry pi.

There is no need to install the JDK first, as it is included on the default Raspberry Pi image.

Tutorials
LED tutorial
Button tutorial
Adjustable LED tutorial
Controlling a servo motor

As basis for your own projects, all of the above I/O helper classes, plus helper classes to use analog inputs: using the MCP3008, and another one using a just a capacitor (described here) are avaliable in a single BlueJ project for download.

Note:
All of the normal BlueJ functionality also works on the Raspberry Pi, however, although BlueJ runs as a regular user, your code runs as root (to support access to the hardware). In normal use, you will not notice the difference, but if you write code which e.g. delete system files, then you can cause system problems on the Pi.

Read more

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!