In preparation for MACWORLD Expo, Metrowerks last week announced the release of CodeWarrior Learning Edition v3. This product is a simplified version of their full-featured development product, CodeWarrior, and is especially tailored to students, and anyone who would like to learn how to program in C/C++ or Java or (Mac only) Objective C, under Macintosh or Windows.

CodeWarrior Learning Edition helps users learn programming, with such features as a streamlined toolbar, code completion to speed coding, and a multimedia tutorial that guides one through using the integrated development environment (IDE). One can also attend CodeWarriorU.com, which Metrowerks claims is the worldis largest resource for free online courses in programming, with over 80,000 registered users.

Also new in this version are Java Power Tools from Northeastern University, a Java rapid application development (RAD) tool to help development of Java programs. Thereis also an Advanced Placement (AP) module, to help high school students prepare for the Computer Science AP exam.

The Learning Edition does have some limitations, such as only allowing a maximum of 32 files in a project, no advanced PowerPlant (a programming framework) features, and no cross-platform development feature.