Schedule

This page is a schedule of topics and readings (including lecture notes) and will be updated as the semester progresses.

Java review, testing and debugging

22 Jan

01: Welcome and Java Review

Topics:

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

Suggested reading (This is a lot of reading that I expect you to skim as you need to, and/or to read over several days, not all at once before the first lecture! Later I’ll give less reading but expect you to read it more closely.):

OpenDSA http://lti.cs.vt.edu/LTI_ruby/Books/COMPSCI186/html/, chapters 1 and 2
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

24 Jan

02: Java Review: Control Flow

Topics:

expressions, statements, and blocks
control flow constructs in Java (if/else; while; for)

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

29 Jan

03: Developing with Eclipse

Topics:

finishing up for
developing with Eclipse
unit tests

Suggested reading:

Burnette, chapters 1 – 5
Niemeyer and Leuck, appendix A
http://tutorials.jenkov.com/java-unit-testing/simple-test.html

31 Jan

04: Developing, continued, and classes, objects, and methods

Code from last class

tictactoe.zip

Topics:

more on developing with Eclipse
introduction to the debugger

Suggested reading:

OpenDSA, chapter 3
Sestoft, chapter 9
Downey and Mayfield, chapters 4, 6, 10, 11
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 4 and 5
the Classes and Objects lesson

04 Feb

Discussion! You’re going to do a POGIL lab to further explore the idea of testing. The code you need to download is here: [Anagrams.zip]; the worksheet will be linked to from Piazza.

05 Feb

05: Aliasing, Namespaces, Packages and the CLASSPATH; Intro to Lists

Topics:

more on classes/objects
aliasing
namespaces
packages
the CLASSPATH / build path
very brief intro to lists

Suggested reading:

OpenDSA, chapter 4
Sestoft, chapters 16 and 17
Niemeyer and Leuck, chapter 6
the Packages lesson
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

The List Abstract Data Type (ADT)

07 Feb

06: Array-backed lists

Topics:

more on list usage
implementing array-based lists, part 1

Suggested reading (in addition to last class’s):

OpenDSA, chapter 5

12 Feb

☃️ Snow day! ☃️

14 Feb

07: Linked lists

Topics:

implementing array-based lists, part 2
implementing linked lists

Suggested reading:

OpenDSA, chapter 6

19 Feb

Discussion! You’re going to do a POGIL lab to further explore the idea of linked structures. The code you may want to download is here: [linked.zip]

21 Feb

08: More linked lists; Generics

Topics:

finishing up linked lists
generic lists
using 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

26 Feb

09: More on using lists; Comparators

Topics:

another worked example of using lists
methods that objects must implement to participate in the Collections framework
Comparable and Comparator

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 that’s been used in COMPSCI 220.)

The Set ADT

28 Feb

10: Introducing Sets

Topics:

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

Suggested Reading:

04 Mar

Discussion! The code you need to download is here: [lets-talk-about-sets-baby.zip]; the worksheet will be linked to from Piazza.

05 Mar

11: Hashsets and Treesets

Topics:

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

Suggested Reading:

OpenDSA, chapter 13
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_search_tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_(graph_theory)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(discrete_mathematics)
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/TreeSet.html
Sestoft, chapter 22.9

The Map ADT

07 Mar

12: Santa and Maps

Topics:

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

Suggested Reading:

19 Mar

13: Maps, Multimaps, Anagrams

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
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/collections/interfaces/map.html (Multimaps are described about 2/3 down this page)

Introduction to algorithms

25 Mar

Discussion! You’re going to do a POGIL lab to introduce the idea of graphs, search, and their application. We’ll see these next week more formally in lecture, but you’ll get a hands-on introduction today.

Please download and familiarize yourself with: [hex.zip]

26 Mar

14: Introduction to Running Times

Topics:

Introduction to running time and related concepts
constant vs linear time
linear vs quadratic time
early escape from loops
binary search and log_2 time

Suggested Reading:

OpenDSA, Chapter 7
Downey and Mayfield, chapter 12.8–12.10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_of_algorithms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_complexity

28 March

15: Searching and Sorting

Topics:

more on runtime
binary search
sorting
selection sort, bubble sort

Suggested Reading:

02 April

16: More Sorting; Graphs and Search

Topics:

insertion sort
graphs and graph terminology
introduction to graph search
finding paths in graphs

Suggested Reading:

Graphs and search

04 April

17: More on Graph Search

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

09 April

18: Graph Representation

Topics:

graph implementations

Suggested Reading:

Implementing ADTs (Stacks and Queues)

11 April

19: Introducing Stacks and Queues

linear (and not-so-linear) data structures, general and specialized (lists, stacks, queues, dequeues, priority queues)
implementing an array-based stack
implementing a linked-list-based stack

Suggested Reading: