Further Programming
Spring and Summer Terms 2010

Rudi Lutz

The website for this course is under development. Extra material will be placed on these pages as needed. Watch this space!

Overview

This course covers Java programming, including the use of subclasses and library classes to create well-organised programs, the choice and implementation of appropriate algorithms and data structures (e.g. arrays, lists, trees, graphs, depth- and breadth-first search, the minimax and A* algorithms), and the construction of graphical user interfaces for Java programs.

A prerequisite for the course is to have completed the Autumn term course Introduction to Programming.

By the end of the course, successful students will be able to

Explain and exploit subclasses, inheritance and interfaces in Java to produce modular, well-organised code

Implement simple algorithms and data structures in Java

Produce graphical user interfaces for Java programs

Lectures

During the Spring term there will be three lectures per week, all in JMS-1A1.

Tuesdays at 9am
Thursdays at 11am
Fridays at 11am

The first lecture will be on Tuesday January 12th, 2010.

Times of lectures in the Summer term will be announced at the beginning of that term.

PLEASE NOTE: Attendance at lectures is compulsory

Exercise classes

Each student is expected to attend one exercise class per week, beginning in week two. You can find out which class you are to attend by looking at your timetable. Contact Rudi Lutz in case of any queries.

Exercise classes begin in week two, commencing Monday January 18th 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: Attendance at exercise classes is compulsory

Core texts and other resources

Barnes and Kolling, Objects First with Java: a Practical Introduction using BlueJ, third edition, Prentice-Hall 2006. The core book for this course.

Fischer, An introduction to graphical user interfaces with Java Swing, Pearson 2005. The relevant parts of this text are also available in a custom package consisting of the Barnes and Kolling book together with this material. It is sold at the University bookshop.

Arnold, Gosling and Holmes, The Java Programming Language (4th edition), Addison-Wesley 2005. This book describes the core Java language clearly and accurately. Not quite a reference book, and not a tutorial book, but a good thing to have around!

Sharon Zakhour, Scott Hommel, Jacob Royal, Isaac Rabinovitch, Tom Risser, Mark Hoeber. The Java Tutorial: A short course on the basics (4th edition), Addison-Wesley 2006. A very well written tutorial text explaining how to do most of the things you would want to do with Java. There is excellent material on building GUIs here. It is also available on-line here

The Platform Java API Documentation It is vital to have access to this when programming in Java. It is available here.

Weighting, timing and assessment

This is a Spring and Summer term, 18 credit course, assessed 50% by coursework and 50% by unseen exam. The Spring term coursework is worth 70% of the coursework mark, and the Summer term coursework is worth 30% of the coursework mark.

The Spring term coursework consists of a single program built up in 3 parts, each with its own deadline:

4.00pm on Thursday 11th February, worth 10% of the overall coursework mark
4.00pm on Thursday 18th February, worth 25% of the overall coursework mark
4.00pm on Tuesday 16th March, worth 35% of the overall coursework mark

The Summer term deadline will be in week 5 of the Summer term, exact date and time to be announced later.

Acknowledgements

Some of the material for this course is slightly modified from slides provided by David Barnes and Michael Kolling to accompany the core text for the course. Many thanks to them for making these available.

Rudi Lutz 21st December 2009