Java Programming Fall 2005

Course number: CSPP51036
Location: Reyerson 277
Time: Tue 5:30-8:30

Professor: Andrew Siegel
Office: Ry175-B
Email:asiegel@cs.uchicago.edu
Office Hours: 3:30-5:30 Tue

TA: Mo Alkhafaji
Office: 177
Office Hours: 4:30-6:30 W
Email: Mo.Alkhafaji@bankofamerica.com

Course description: This is a fast-paced first course in Java for students with some prior programming experience, though not necessarily in an object-oriented language. A strong emphasis will be placed on understanding basic fundamentals of OO design -- inheritance, polymorphism, composition, etc, and more generally on applying sound principles of modern software engineering to real-world problems. In the latter half of the course more advanced OO design patterns will be studied in the context of certain Java libraries (e.g. Swing). However, the main focus will be on using the "core language" to write good software rather than a detailed study of particular high-level libraries.

Course Format: Instructor lecture with significant student participation. Please come prepared.

40% bi-weekly assignments
40% Final project
10% Periodic Quizzes
10% participation (either in-class or listhost)

Getting Help: The TA will have a group review session followed by more informal office hours on Wednesday. He will also be available by appointment. The Instructor will be available both by appointment and at regular office hours, before class each Tuesday. The course listhost is the best place to get help quickly. We will monitor it as frequently as possible and often be able to answer immediately. Students are encouraged to help their peers on the listhost by contributing when it is convenient. Please register at cspp51036@cs.uchicago.edu

Required text Core Java 2, Volume I: Fundamentals (7th Edition) by Gary Cornell, Cay S. Horstmann

Recommended Texts

Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel
The Java Programming Language by Arnold and Gosling
Java How to Program, Deitel and Deitel

Required Software

Sun's Java SDK version 1.5: available free here and already installed on CS Linux cluster.
Note: SDK is disabled on abyss
You will probably want to install JDK locally on your own computer if you prefer to work remotely. Displaying Swing graphics is clumsy across the network and requires additional emulator software if you're not using X-windows.
If you choose to use something other than JDK, you are responsible for exporting the source and verifything that it runs on the local system under JDK.

Important Links:

What's new in java 1.5
Sun's Java Website
JDK1.5 online API
JGuru's Java tutorials (see Introduction to Java course link on right panel)
JavaWorld's everything-about-java pages.
Java IFAQ
Bruce Eckel's free online books, etc.
Java Language Specification

All course material (updated throughout course)

All Homeworks
All notes
All Quizzes
Mid-term assignment
Final assignment
All Examples by topic

Lectures

Week 1 Sept 27: Introduction

Topics

Overview of Java Language
First Java Program
Java native datatypes
Quick overview of fundmental programming structures
Development tools
- Javadoc
- Ant
- CVS
Some simple programming strategies (needed for homework)
- Strings
- Arrays
- Type conversions (Integer.parseInt, etc.)
- Keyboard Input, file reading, etc.
- Random numbers
Intro to objects and classes -- some basics

Suggested examples/readings

Core Java, ch. 1-3
Online CVS manual
Ant tutorial
Eclipse home page
Common compiler/interpreter problems
Good to start browsing API now.
Sun's New to Java Programming Center
Some simple commented examples
Lecture notes
In class hacks

Homework 1

Writeup
Useful support classes
Solutions

Week 2 Oct 4: Object Basics (Prof. Shacklette, guest Lecturer)

Topics

Basic Objects, cont.
- Constructors
- Methods -- static vs. non-static, calling semantics
- Object Composition
- Interfaces
- Packages

Suggested examples/readings

Shacklette's lecture notes
Core Java, ch. 4
Course examples
In-class hacks
Sun's Object Concepts tutorial

Week 3 Oct 11: Interfaces and abstract classes

Topics

Rules for interfaces and abstract classes
Upcasting/downcasting
Polymorphism
Techniques for writing general code
Callbacks

Suggested examples/readings

Lecture Notes
In-class hacks

Homework 2

Writeup
Useful support classes
Solution

Week 4 Oct 18: More complex Object relationships

Topics

Implementation inheritance
Simple design patterns
More on abstract classes
Object composition
Inner classes

Suggested examples/readings

Lecture notes (continued from Lesson 3)
In-class hacks
Core Java ch. 5

Week 5 Oct 25: io, exceptions, other language features

Topics

Java i/o libraries
Overriding Object methods
Serialization
Exceptions
Assertions

Suggested exmaples/readings

Lecture notes
Class commented examples
In-class hacks
Sun's good Java io tutorial
Some examples of formatted output

Homework 3

Writeup
Useful support classes
Solution

Week 6 Nov 1: Swing

Topics

Intro to Swing Java GUI Library
"for each" loop
varargs
autoboxing
metadata
Enumerations
static import

Suggested examples/readings

Lecture notes
An article on the subtleties of painting components
Full JAR file specification
Simple explanation of MVC
Class commented examples

Week 7 Nov 8: Collections, etc.

Topics

Collections Framework: Case-study in an OO library
Introduction to JNI