CSC 221: Computer Programming I
Fall 2004

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE overview & history: hardware vs. software, technology generations, ... object-oriented design: approach to problem-solving, manage complexity, ... problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, communiation skills JAVA LANGUAGE FEATURES classes & objects using classes, Java libraries, calling methods on objects class definitions fields: private, data types (int, double, char, boolean, String), static methods: public (usually), parameters, local variables, return constructor(s): same name as class, no return type examples: Die, Dot, DotRace, Notebook, Card, DeckOfCards, FileScanner Java statements assignment: variables, expressions, operators (+, -, *, /, ++, --, +=, ...) output: System.out.print, System.out.println return: returns value from method local variable declaration: primitive vs. reference types (objects) if: conditional execution, if, if-else, cascading if-else Boolean expression, operators (==, !=, <, ...), connectives (&&, ||, !) while: conditional loop, Boolean expression for: counter-driven loop, equivalent to while but clearer String class methods: +, length, charAt, substring, indexOf, equals, compareTo ArrayList class methods: add, get, set, size, remove, contains, indexOf, toString array alternative, wrapper classes PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES object-oriented design principles classes model real-world entities methods implement behaviors, provide for coputational abstraction fields maintain state of an object (final for constants, static for shared) classes/methods should be cohesive; classes should be loosely coupled conditionals for alternatives (1-way if, 2-way if-else, multi-way cascading if) loops for repetition (conditional while loops, counter-driven for loops) counters & sums for collecting data String traversal/concatenation for manipulating text ArrayLists for storing and accessing large amounts of related data