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Syllabus

Text Books:

Required Text: “The Java Tutorial”, Third Edition, available online at http://java.sun.com/books/tutorial

Required Text: “Schaum's outline of UML”, by S. Bennett, J. Skelton, and K. Lunn, McGraw-Hill Schaum sereis, 2001 (can be had from amazon.com and bn.com)

Required URL: Java Application Programming Interface API (click on the link)

Overview: Our goal in this course is to learn in some depth the principles of programming and software development using the language Java. The emphasis will be on object oriented (OO) style. In particular we will study the principles of object oriented design using the UML modeling language. We will cover the OO principles such as inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, modularity, and OO patterns

Recommneded Text: “The JFC Swing Tutorial”, available online at http://java.sun.com/books/tutorial

Prerequisites: No previous knowledge of programming languages is required. However those of you that are familiar with some other language, particularly C or a C derivative, will have an easier ride in the first few weeks. You need to have access to a personal computer (Windows, Mac or Unix will all work.) You need to be able to download and install software on this machine. You also need to have access to internet.

Home works, exams and grading: We will have one final exam (40% of your grade). The remaining 60% is determined by the programming projects. Please note: Programming projects are the heart and soul of this course. Without doing them you will not be able to learn anything from this course. Therefore, I insist that you make your best efforts to do them all. To enforce this we have the following rule:

No one will be able to pass this course if they fail to hand in more than one homework assignment. Furthermore no one will pass the course if their cumulative point from programming assignments is less than 60% of total possible points. In other words if the maximum possible points from programs is, say 400, then you can not pass the course if your score from these programs is less than 240. These rules stand regardless of your score from the exams.

Attendance: is required. You are responsible for all information that is communicated in class whether procedural (such as changes in due dates, exam dates, etc. ) or course contents (lectures, changes in syllabus, corrections, etc.) If you think you will miss more than two lectures you should reconsider registering for this course.

Tentative List of Topics

As of Wed 27/Aug 03

Topic 1

Introduction to Computer Architecture, Programming Languages: 0.5 lecture (09/02)

Computer architecture: CPU, memory, disks, peripherals, networks

Programming languages: machine/assembly language, high level language, compilers

Programming: From writing to compiling to running, architecture dependence

Read: Notes

Topic 2

Introduction to Java: How to get the compilers, How to write compile and run Java Programs: 0.5 lecture (09/02)

Java virtual machine and architecture indpendence

*.java and *.class files, write and execute a java program

How to download Java compiler, editors, virtual machine, IDE (Jbuilder, Netbean)

Step by step example of writing a Java program, then compiling and running it

Read: Chapter 1 of tutorial

As of 9/1/03

Topic 3

Anatomy of Java Programs: 1 lecture (9/09)

Classes

Data and fields

Methods

Constructors

Dissection and detailed examination of simple java program

Read: Chapter 1 pages 32-41

As of 9/1/03

Topic 4

Memory Concepts, variables, simple types, expressions, assignments: 1 lecture (9/16)

Notion of memory, variables and declarations

Numerical types/operations/expressions

Character types/ operations/expressions

Boolean types/expressions/operations + truth tables

Introduction to Strings

Final variables

Read: Chapter 3 of Tutorial pages 65-98

As of 12/01/03

Topic 5

Control structures: 1 lecture (9/23)

if and if/else statements

while and do/while statements (not covered yet and not in mid term exam)

for statement

Code blocks and scope of variables

Read: Chapter 3: “Control Flow Statements” pages 99-118

As of 12/1/03

Topic 6

Methods in depth: 1 lecture (9/23, 9/30)

Definition, parameters, return values, void type

Notion of call by value, final parameters

Invoking methods others have written, invoking Java API, Math class

Notion of modular design

Method overloading and use

Recursion

Notion of algorithm

Read: Notes and study examples in Java Code Examples page for Stats.java and the three alternative noInputStat.java, onlineStat.java and guiStat.java. You may also want to jump ahead and study the following sections on Chapter 5: “Creating Classes”, pages 178-203

As of 12/1/03

Topic 7

Classes and Objects 1 lecture (9/30, 10/7)

Declaration of classes

Fields, methods, scope

Constructors, and initialization: Using new

Read: Chapter 4 of the Tutorial section “The Life Cycle of an Object”

As of 12/1/03

Topic 8

An Overview of Object Oriented Programming: Encapsulation 1 lecture (10/7)

The encapsulation principle in object oriented programming

Packages and their use

Private, package and public protection of data and methods

Declaring objects of a class

Strings and arrays

Memory allocation for objects, comparison and copying objects

Read: Chapters 2 and 4 of the Tutorial

As of 12/1/03

Topic 9

Object Oriented Programming in Detail Inheritance and abstraction: 2 lectures (10/14, 10/21)

Static/class members and methods and their use

Principles and Overview : Encapsulation, Modularity, Inheritance , Abstraction polymorphism,

Subclassing and inheritance

UML notation for classes the Argo/UML package

The object Class

Protected members and methods

Overriding methods, final methods

Polymorphism and dynamic method binding

Inner classes

Final classes

Type casting

UML class diagrams: inheritance and composition

Code reuse

Abstract classes and methods

Interfaces

Multiple inheritance via interfaces

Marker interfaces and their use

instanceOf method

Wrapper classes

Read: Chapters 2, 5, 6 of the Tutorial and UML Chaptes 1,2,4,5

As of 12/1/03

Topic 10

Exception handling: (0.5 lecture) Cancelled!

Read: Chapter 7

As of 9/1/03

Topic 11

Graphics and GUI: (3 lectures)

Swing package and use of Jbuilder software to build GUIs:

Organization of Swing classes

Jbutton and action events

Jtextfield/JPassword and related events

JcomboBox and JRadioButton

Events and event handling

Mouse events

Adapters

Layout management

Panels and Panes

Read: Chapter 10 of the tutorial

Examples: (GUI examples in JavaCode page)

Topic 12 Canceled!

Data structures and Java Collections framework: (1 lecture)

Notion of data structures

Review of Lists, adding and deleting from lists

Stacks and queues, push and pop, add and take

Binary search trees and tree searching

Brief discussion of hash table and notion of hashing

Java Collections framework

Collection, Set and Map interfaces

Abstract and concrete classes

Iterators (iterator pattern)

Algorithms in Collection class

As of 12/1/03 (Final revision)

Final exam: December 9 6-8:30 PM in RUTCOR lecture