JHU / CS / 600.107: Introduction to Programming (in Java)

Schedule (Tentative!)

Stuff listed in bold indicates a due date of some sort, attached to a grade item that will influence your final grade. See Assessment for more details.
Assignments are due on the day listed before lecture! Tasks that don't have a specific time attached are due before midnight that day!

Lecture 0: Introduction and Overview (May 28)

Lecture:

Welcome to "Introduction to Programming (in Java)"
The "Computer Science" Misnomer and Other Inconvenient Truths
Theory: Languages, Programs, and Machines
Java: A View from 9,144 Meters
Practice: Compilers, Interpreters
Theory: Instructions and Expressions
Java: Cryptic Incantations and Printing Stuff
Theory: Values, Types, Operations
Java: Integers, Floats, Strings, Overloaded Names and Operators, Precedence, Associativity, Coercion, Casting

Reading:

S&W: Sections 1.1: Your First Program, 1.2: Built-in Types of Data
Edsger W. Dijkstra: On the Cruelty of Really Teaching Computing Science, EWD 1036, December 1988. See also this article on Wikipedia.

Tasks:

Grab Assignment 0 and get started!
Introduce yourself on the course mailing list!

Lecture 1: Imperative Programming (May 30)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 0
Questions on Sections 1.1 and 1.2
Java: Booleans, Characters, more on Strings, command-line arguments
Discussion of the Dijkstra paper
Dijkstra's Pebble Game
Theory: State and Variables
Java: Variables and Assignments
Theory: Conditionals and Repetitions
Java: Comparisons, if instruction, while loop
Java: Implementing the Pebble Game

Reading:

S&W: Sections 1.3: Conditionals and Loops
Paul Graham: Good and Bad Procrastination, December 2005. See also this article on Wikipedia.

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 0 and relax!
Grab Assignment 1 and get started!

Lecture 2: More Imperative Programming (June 2)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 1
Questions on Sections 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3
Java: do and for loops
Java: final variables (aka "constants")
Discussion of the Graham paper
Java: More Examples of Simple Programs
Theory: Characterizing State, Preconditions, Postconditions
Java: assert

Reading:

S&W: Section 1.3: Conditionals and Loops
Jeannette M. Wing: Computational Thinking, Communications of the ACM, vol. 49, no. 3, March 2006, pp. 33-35.
Optional: Jorma Sajaniemi: An Introduction to the Roles of Variables (especially the table toward the bottom!)
Optional: Programming with Assertions (mentions some advanced stuff we have not covered yet!)

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 1 and relax!
Grab Assignment 2 and get started!

Lecture 3: Arrays (June 4)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 2
Questions on Sections 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3
Code Reviews for Assignment 1: Gravity Problem
Discussion of the Wing paper
Theory: Arrays or "Bunches of Variables"
Java: Working with Arrays
Theory: Value Semantics versus Reference Semantics
Java: Arrays as References

Reading:

S&W: Section 1.4: Arrays

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 2 and relax!
Grab Assignment 3 and get started!

Lecture 4: Input and Output (June 6)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 3
Questions on Sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4
Basics of Input and Output
API: StdIn and StdOut
Redirection and Piping in Unix
Basics of Computer Graphics
API: StdDraw
Basics of Electronic Sound
API: StdAudio

Reading:

S&W: Section 1.5: Input and Output
Donald E. Knuth: Computer Programming as an Art, December 1974. See also this article on Wikipedia. Our friend Paul Graham has an online version of Knuth's talk.

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 3 and relax!
Grab Assignment 4 and get started!

Lecture 5: Abstractions: Functions and Procedures (June 9)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 4
Questions on Chapter 1 (please read 1.6 on your own if you didn't)
Code Review for Assignment 4: Tic Tac Toe Problem
Discussion of the Knuth paper
Theory: Functions and Procedures as Abstractions
Java: Static Methods as Functions and Procedures
Example: Refactoring the Audio Demo using Static Methods

Reading:

S&W: Section 2.1: Static Methods
Some old exams from 2006: Exam 1 Exam 2 Exam 3

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 4 and relax!
Grab Assignment 5 and get started!

Lecture 6: Abstractions: Modules and Libraries (June 11)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 5
Questions on Chapter 1 and Section 2.1
Midterm Exam
Java: Scope and Lifetime of Variables
Java: Side Effects and Referential Transparency
Theory: Modular Programming, Interface and Implementation
Java: Classes as Modules, public and private, Overloading
Example: Hacking StdArrayIO
Example: Iterated Function Systems
Java: Documenting APIs with javadoc

Reading:

S&W: Section 2.2: Libraries and Clients

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 5 and relax!
Grab Assignment 6 and get started!

Lecture 7: Recursion (June 13)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 6
Questions on Sections 2.1 and 2.2
Theory: Unit Testing, Automated Testing
Java: Using assert in main() for unit testing
Theory: Recursion
Java: Factorial Example
Java: Towers of Hanoi Example
Java: Hilbert Curve Example

Reading:

S&W: Section 2.3: Recursion

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 6 and relax!
Grab Assignment 7 and get started!

Lecture 8: Hacking Hard (June 16)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 7
Questions on Chapter 2 (please read 2.4 on your own if you didn't)
Code Review for Assignment 7
Practice: Hacking the Tracker, Filter and Count classes for Assignment 7

Reading:

Nothing really, but starting S&W: Chapter 3 was a good idea anyway

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 7 and relax!
Grab Assignment 8 and get started!

Lecture 9: Object-Oriented Programming (June 18)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 8
Demo: The three coolest Moonraker games (plus two honorable mentions for general weirdness :-)
Theory: Types, Classes, Objects, Methods, Messages
Java: Recap of Reference Types, new operator
Example: A Counter class
Java: Look! No static except for main()!
Example: A Buffer class based on growing arrays
Theory: Growing arrays by Amortized Doubling
Example: A Buffer class based on linked lists

Reading:

S&W: Section 3.1: Data Types, 3.2: Creating Data Types

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 8 and relax!
Grab Assignment 9 and get started!

Lecture 10: More Object-Oriented Programming (June 20)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 9
Java: Creating a Timer class
Java: Creating a Turtle class
Java: Exploring java.lang.Object: the toString() and equals() methods
Theory: The Basics of Subtype Polymorphism
Java: Inheritance and the extends clause
Java: protected visibility for subclasses
Java: abstract methods and classes
Example: Number and subclasses for polymorphic arithmetic

Reading:

S&W: Section 3.2: Creating Data Types, 3.3: Designing Data Types

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 9 and relax!
Grab Assignment 10 and get started!

Lecture 11: Generics, Interfaces, Performance (June 23)

Lecture:

Java: Introduction to Generics (Chancellor Pascale)
Questions on Assignment 10
Questions on Chapter 3 (please read 3.4 on your own if you didn't)
Java: Interfaces and what they are good for
Java: Nested classes and how to hide Node inside LinkedBuffer
Example: Hacking a generic LinkedBuffer<T> step-by-step
Example: Hacking a generic Dictionary<K,V> based on generic buffers
Theory: Performance in time, space, power
Theory: Experimental versus Asymptotic Performance Analysis (and using simplified models for the latter)
Example: Linear Search O(n) versus Binary Search O(log n)
Example: Bubble Sort O(n*n)

Reading:

S&W: Section 4.1: Performance, 4.2: Searching and Sorting

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 10 and relax!
Grab Assignment 11 and get started!

Lecture 12: Algorithms and Data Structures (June 25)

Lecture:

Questions on Assignment 11
Questions on Chapter 4
TBD

Reading:

Prepare for the final exam: Review the whole S&W book, go over all our lecture notes, review all the homeworks, form study groups, do all the sample exams, ask questions on the mailing list, feel confident on Friday! :-)
Bernard Chazelle: Could Your iPod Be Holding the Greatest Mystery in Modern Science?, April 2006. See also this article on Wikipedia.

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 11 and relax!
Grab Assignment 12 and get started!

Lecture 13: Le Grande Finale (June 27)

Lecture:

Discussion of the Chazelle paper
Stump The Chump (Q&A session with candy)
Final Exam
What to do if you don't like Java (aka How to forget Java but keep Hacking Happily Ever After)

Reading:

Whatever you think helps...
A.K. Dewdney: The (New) Turing Omnibus, 1993. [Buy] A collection of 66 interesting excursions into (almost) all areas of computer science, check it out if you want to appreciate the variety of CS ideas a little more.
Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon, 1999. [Buy] See also this article on Wikipedia. You don't have to read this for the course, I am just recommending something for the rest of your summer. Enjoy!

Tasks:

Hand in Assignment 12 and relax!
If you feel comfortable doing it, please send us some feedback about how you liked the course and what we need to change for the future. Comments about the book are also most welcome! If you want you can wait until after you got your final grade... :-)