Computer Laboratory – Course material 2008–09: Paper 1: Programming in Java

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Paper 1: Programming in Java

Lecturers: Dr A.R. Beresford and Dr A.C. Rice

No. of practical classes: 8 $\times$ 2-hour sessions

Prerequisite course: Foundations of Computer Science

Companion courses: Software Design, Floating-Point Computation, Programming Methods

This course is a prerequisite for Algorithms I and II, and for the Group Project and Part IB course Concurrent Systems and Applications.

Aims

The goal of this course is to provide students with the ability to write programs in Java and apply concepts from the Software Design course to concrete examples. The course is designed to accommodate students with diverse programming backgrounds; consequently Java is taught from first principles in a practical class setting where students can work at their own pace from a course handbook. Each practical class will culminate in an assessed exercise.

Practical classes

Introduction. This class will introduce the students to PWF Linux, the Java compiler and tool chain. Students will design, implement and test their first Java application.
Methods, operators and types. This class will concentrate on the fundamentals of imperative programming. Students will learn about Java primitive types, variable declaration, operators and method calls.
Control structures and exceptions. Students will explore the control structures found in Java. Students will also explore exceptions and how they affect the control structure and calling pattern in Java programs.
Input/Output. This class will examine streams. Students will read and write data to and from the filesystem and network.
Classes and interfaces. This class will explore object-oriented programming as expressed in Java. Students will define new classes and instantiate them, as well as specify and provide implementations for Java interfaces.
Inheritance and inner classes. Students will examine code-reuse through inheritance and the use of inner classes for encapsulation. Students will revisit exception handling and define their own exceptions.
Packages and access modifiers; Generics; JAR files. This class will explain how Java packages aid encapsulation and help in the construction of libraries. Students will also explore the packaging of library routines into JAR files and the use of generics to enable generalization and aid code reuse.
Extended exercise. Students will design and begin the implementation of a program design task first described in the Programming Methods course. Students will complete the implementation and testing over the Easter vacation.

Objectives

At the end of the course students should

be familiar with the main features of the Java language
be able to write a Java program to solve a well specified problem
understand a Java program written by someone else
be able to debug and test Java programs and use JUnit
be familiar with major parts of Java 6 SE libraries
understand how to read Javadoc library documentation and reuse library code

Recommended reading

* Eckel, B. (2006). Thinking in Java. Prentice Hall (4th ed.).

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