Java and the Unix Teaching Service

Lecturers: Dr F.H. King, Miss C.H. Northeast and Mr R.J. Stibbs

No. of lectures and practicals: 4 + 4

This course takes place on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the main lectures begin on the first Thursday of lecture term. This course and the 16-lecture course Foundations of Programming together constitute a repeat of the Long Vacation course given in the last two weeks of July to those intending to read Part II (General) of the Computer Science Tripos.

Those who are able to attend the July run of the course are urged to consider doing so. There is a much greater opportunity to gain experience of programming and of using the Unix operating system in the Long Vacation than is possible with the timetable pressures of the Michaelmas Term.

Aims

The aim of this course is to provide sufficient information about the Unix operating system and its local implementation on the Unix Teaching Service to enable Java programs to be prepared and run.

Lectures

• Introduction. A practical introduction to programming in Java using Unix and X-windows. Unix commands. X-windows.

• Files and directories. The Unix filing system and associated commands.

• Elements of programming in Java. Imperative programming. Compiling and running simple Java programs. The Java Virtual Machine. Java classes, data fields and methods. Method arguments and local variables.

• Some Java constructs. Loops, conditions and relational operators. Reserved words. Arrays.

Objectives

At the end of the course students should:

• have some familiarity with Unix and the Emacs editor

• be able to prepare and run trivial Java programs