COMSM0103: Object Oriented Programming With Java

About the unit

• About the unit
• Booklist

An essential resource you must get used to using

• Java 1.5 API
• Java 1.6 API

Lab sessions

This unit does not have scheduled lab sessions. If you need help with programming please go to the help desk. In the past this has been sufficient, but if you feel more support is needed, for example to help with the material needed for a particular assignment, please speak to your course representative who will collate opinions and then forward them to me.

Other Resources

• Where to get help in the department of Computer Science
• BlueJ
• Example code (including projects from course text)
• Summary of new features in Java 1.5 by the authors of the course text
  • For more detail see New Features and Enhancements from the JDK 5.0 Documentations
  • The New Features and Enhancements from the JDK 6.0 Documentations is more technical.
• The department's java resources page
• Programming style guide
• Core Java Technologies Tech Tips Tips on advanced subjects
• Javaworld Q&A and Tips
• M0103 Forum
• Sun's 'New to Java' Centre
• Java tips Tips on how to implement particular things in Java
• Sun Developer Network -- Java Standard Edition Articles, example code, documentation

The first year Software Engineering course also uses Java and you may want to check its resources page.

Tutorials

• A tutorial for beginners
• A tutorial for competent Java programmers
• Sun's Java tutorial -- hundreds of example programs

Outline and Handouts

Lecture	Date	Subject and Chapter
1		Introduction to the unit, OOP, and Java
2		Objects and classes (Ch.1) and Understanding class definitions (Ch.2)
3		Object interaction (Ch.3)
4		Grouping objects (Ch.4)
5		More sophisticated behavior - libraries (Ch.5)
6		Well-behaved objects -- testing and debugging (Ch.6)
7	Monday 15 Feb.	Designing classes (Ch.7)
8	16 Feb.	Inheritance (Ch.8)
9	Monday 22 Feb.	Polymorphism (Ch.9)
10	Tuesday 23 Feb.	Further abstraction techniques (Ch.10)
11	Monday 1 March	Building Graphical User Interfaces (Ch.11)
12	Tuesday 2 March	Handling errors (Ch.12)
13	Monday 8 March	Designing applications (Ch.13)
14	Tuesday 9 March	Case study (Ch.14) and Design patterns (not in course text)
	Monday 15 March	No lecture
	Tuesday 16 March	No lecture
	EASTER BREAK
	Monday 19 April	No lecture
	Tuesday 20 April	No lecture
15	Monday 26 April	To be announced (not in text)
16	Tuesday 27 April	Script programming (not in text)
17	Wednesday 5 May	Class test from 12:30-1:30 in MVB 2.11. Please arrive for 12:15 as it will take some time to set everything up and log in.

Extra Material

This section contains slides used in previous years which either go into a subject in more detail than the handouts or which cover new areas. Most of them are based on the Core Java books and follow their structure. Most have source code in the "extra" folder of the example code page.

Subject

Script programming PDF

Networking PDF

Collections PS PDF

Exceptions PS PDF

Input/Output PS PDF

GUI Basics PS PDF

Graphics PS PDF

Event Handling PS PDF

Layout Managers and Text Components PS PDF

Non-Text Swing Components PS PDF

Dialogs PS PDF

Applets PS PDF

Articles

• Why getters and setter methods are evil
• More on getters and setters

Coursework

You are strongly advised to work through the regular exercises in the textbook on your own as the course progresses. The text's challenge exercises are harder and you may not have time to do all of them, but you can at least think about how you would solve them.

Assessed assignments will be posted below.

I assume you are using linux as installed in the labs. Java and BlueJ work under Windows but I don't have any experience with using them there and I can't provide help. If your code is run by the marker it will be under linux. If you write your code under some other operating system it is a good idea to check that it works as you expect under linux before submitting it, since Java is not 100% portable (and in any case operating systems handle things like file paths differently).

The value of the later assignments may change a little.

Assignment	Value	Deadline	General Feedback
Rectangle	10%	Monday 15 February 2010	Discussion Model solution
Club	15%	Monday 22 February 2010	Discussion Model solutions
Zuul	35%	Monday 26 April 2010

Lecturer

• Tim Kovacs
• I don't have regular office hours. It's easiest to reach me by email or through the unit forum, or to talk to me after a lecture.
• My contact details.
• If you have any feedback on how to improve the unit I'll be happy to hear it.