Schedule

This page is a schedule of topics and readings. Lecture notes will posted sometime following each lecture, but please remember that the notes are a supplement to, not a replacement for, attending class and taking your own notes.

Assignments and due dates are listed separately.

Introduction and Java review

September 6 Tue

Notes

Topics:

course overview
computers and memory
variables and values
primitive types
arrays
scope
the (call) stack

Suggested reading:

Sestoft, pages 1–8
Downey and Mayfield, chapters 1, 2, 4
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapters 1 and 4 (focus on subheadings related to the topics above)
the A Closer Look at the “Hello World!” Application lesson
the Language Basics lesson

September 8 Thu

Notes

Topics:

expressions, statements, and blocks
control flow constructs in Java

Suggested reading:

Sestoft, chapters 11 and 12
Downey and Mayfield, chapters 5 (first half), 6, 7
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 4 (focus on subheadings related to the topics above)
the Language Basics lesson

September 13 Tue

Notes

Topics:

methods
classes and objects
aliasing

Suggested reading:

Sestoft, chapter 9
Downey and Mayfield, chapters 4, 6, 10, 11
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 4 and 5
the Classes and Objects lesson

September 15 Thu

Notes

Topics:

namespaces
packages
the CLASSPATH / build path

Suggested reading:

Sestoft, chapters 16 and 17
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 6
the Packages lesson

September 20 Tue, 22 Thu

Notes Sep 20
Notes Sep 22

Topics:

containers: arrays and lists

Suggested reading:

the Arrays trail
the List interface
Downey and Mayfield, chapters 8, 12
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 4 (section on arrays), 8 (first few sections)
Sestoft, chapter 22 section 2

Lists

September 27 Tue

Notes

Topics:

generics and Java containers
working with lists

Suggested Reading:

the Generics lesson
the List interface
the List docs
Java doc for wrapper types, such as java.lang.Integer
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 8 (first few sections)
Sestoft, chapter 21

September 29 Thu

Notes

Topics:

quiz review
implementing important support methods (toString, equals, compareTo)
comparators

Suggested Reading:

Java doc for Object, Comparable, Comparator
Sestoft, chapter 22.9, 22.10
How to Write an Equality Method in Java (Only read this if you want to start going down the rabbit hole. Odersky is a developer of Scala, a language you’ll use in COMPSCI 220.)

Sets

October 04 Tue

Notes

Topics:

introduction to sets
the Set abstract data type
HashSet and hash tables

Suggested Reading:

October 06 Tue

Notes

Topics:

more on HashSets
trees (and an introduction to graphs)
binary search trees
TreeSet

Suggested Reading:

Maps

October 13 Thu

Notes

Topics:

Santa’s little helper
the Map ADT
Java’s Map interface (and HashMap implementation)

Suggested Reading:

October 18 Tue

Notes

Topics:

Another worked Map example: anagrams
BufferedReader for reading lines from a file

Suggested Reading:

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/io/BufferedReader.html
Character encoding, how hard can it be?
http://utf8everywhere.org/

October 20 Thu

(No meeting)

Algorithms

October 25 Tue

Notes

Topics:

MAP review
Project 7 Q+A
Introduction to running time

October 27 Thu

Notes

Topics:

linear vs quadratic
early escape from loops
binary search and log_2 time

Suggested Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_of_algorithms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_complexity
Downey and Mayfield, chapter 12.8–12.10

November 01 Tue

Notes

Topics:

more on runtime
sorting
selection sort, bubble sort, insertion sort

Suggested Reading:

Graphs and Search

November 03 Thu

Notes

Topics:

graphs and graph terminology
introduction to graph search

Suggested Reading:

November 08 Tue

Notes

Topics:

graph implementations
search in graphs

Suggested Reading:

November 10 Thu

Notes

Topics:

finding paths in graphs
BFS, DFS, and the search tree
“greedy” search and priority queues
A*

Suggested Reading:

Grids and Graphs
Introduction to A* (also includes information on BFS and greedy BFS)
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Queue.html
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Stack.html
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/PriorityQueue.html

Implementation notes

November 15 Tue

Notes

Topics:

linear data structures, general and specialized (lists, stacks, queues, deques, priority queues)

November 17 Thu

Notes

Topics:

implementing an array-based stack
implementing a linked-list-based stack

Suggested Reading:

November 29 Tue

Notes

Topics:

implementing a linked-list-based queue
implementing an array-based queue

Tools and Testing

December 01 Thu

Notes

Topics:

building Tic-Tac-Toe
writing JUnit tests
debugging in Eclipse

December 06 Tue

Notes

Topics:

building War
reasoning about test cases
constructing programmatic test cases

Intro to Recursion

December 08 Thu

Notes

Topics:

recursion, baby steps only!

Wrap-up

December 13 Tue

course review
wrap-up
questions and answers
enthusiastic applause is mandatory for passing
as is filling out your SRTI
just kidding about the SRTI thing
I can’t believe you actually read all of this, you maniac!

Final Exam

Our exam is scheduled for:

12/22/2016
Thursday
3:30–5:30pm
Hasbrouck Lab Addition, room 126

A review is available.

Please note (from the Academic Rules and Regulations):

…it is University policy not to require students to take more than two final examinations in one day of the final examination period. If any student is scheduled to take three examinations on the same day, the faculty member running the chronologically middle examination is required to offer a make-up examination if the student notifies the instructor of the conflict at least two weeks prior to the time the examination is scheduled. The student must provide proof of the conflict. This may be obtained from the Registrar’s Office, 213 Whitmore.