103. Java Programming

Rev. 5.0.2

 

This course is now available directly from our partner, Capstone Courseware.

This course teaches programming in the Java language – the Java 2 Standard or J2SE platform.  It is intended for programmers with experience in languages other than Java, but who may or may not have any previous Java experience.  It focuses on procedural and structured coding skills first, and then offers meticulous, in-depth coverage of object-oriented concepts and how to apply them to Java software design and development.  The latter part of the course moves from these basic skills into key parts of the J2SE Core API, including collections, logging, streams, and object serialization.  A final chapter introduces automated unit-testing practices using JUnit.

 

This revision of the course targets the 5.0 version of the Java language and Core API.  (Java 5.0 is also known as Java 1.5, as this revision effects a transition to a new numbering scheme for the Java environment.)  It has been rebuilt thoroughly, not only to cover new 5.0 language features, but also to comb out old programming techniques in favor of new ones.  A special appendix to the course addresses practical issues of compatibility between 1.4 and 5.0 code, compilers, and runtimes, and discusses migration strategies.  (For training within the Java 1.4 environment, please see version 1.4.3 of this course, which works to the old version but looks ahead to some 5.0 language features.)

 

Students come to Java from a wide range of backgrounds, and this course is designed to be as flexible as possible over the upper end of that range.  Specifically:

 

·         Experienced C and C++ programmers will find this course a very good fit and if anything will find that they complete it in a little less than the full five-day timeline.
 

·         Those with experience in languages less like Java, such as Visual Basic, ASP and other Web-scripting languages, and other pseudo-object-oriented languages may need more time in the early going, and this course covers its introductory topics in good depth and offers many optional and “challenge” labs to support this. 

·         Less experienced programmers or those coming from non-structured languages – such as COBOL, PL/1, or 4GL tools – will probably not cover the whole course in a week, and may want to pursue an abbreviated version at a slower pace.  This too is quite feasible, but this audience may also want to consider our Course 102, “Introduction to Java Programming,” for a more relaxed pace through the early material.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

·         Chiefly, learn to program effectively in the Java language.

·         Understand the Java software architecture, and the design decisions which make Java software portable, efficient, secure and robust.

·         Learn how to configure a simple Java development environment.

·         Know the grammar, data types and flow control constructs of the Java language for simple procedural programming.

·         Understand Java as a purely object-oriented language, and implement software as systems of classes.

·         Implement and use inheritance and polymorphism, including interfaces and abstract classes.

·         Design appropriate exception handling into Java methods, and use the logging API appropriately.

·         Understand the structure of streams in Java, and learn how to use streams to manage file I/O.

·         Learn how to use Java Serialization to internalize and externalize potentially complex graphs of objects.

·         Build unit tests for Java classes using JUnit.

 

Course Duration:  5 days 

 

Prerequisites:  No prior Java experience is required, but students must be experienced programmers in another third-generation (high-level) language.  See the overview for suggestions about pace and scope for different backgrounds.

 

1. The Java Environment

Overview of Architecture

Forms for Java Software

J2SE, J2EE, and J2ME Platforms

Java Virtual Machine

The Core API

Java Runtime Environment

Java Developer’s Kit

Java Class Path

Classes

Built-In Streams and Command-Line Parameters

 

2. Language Fundamentals

Source File Format

Application Classes

Code Grammar and Expressions

Identifiers

Literals

Operators

Calling Methods

Variable Parameter Lists (“varargs”)

 

3. Data Types

Strict Type Checking

Primitive Types

Numeric Types

Characters and Booleans

Enumerations

Type Conversion

Formatted Output

Object References

Comparing and Assigning References

Strings

Arrays

 

4. Flow Control

The main Method

Calling and Returning from Methods

Conditional Constructs

Looping Constructs

Processing Arrays

Looping and Enumerations

Processing Varargs

The Flow-Control Operator

Break and Continue

Recursion

 

5. Object-Oriented Software

Complex Systems

Abstraction

Classes and Objects

Responsibilities and Collaborators

UML

Relationships

Visibility

 

6. Classes and Objects

Java Classes

Constructors and Garbage Collection

Naming Conventions and JavaBeans

Relationships Between Classes

Using this

Visibility

Packages and Imports

Overloading Methods and Constructors

JARs

 

7. Inheritance and Polymorphism in Java

UML Specialization

Extending Classes

Using Derived Classes

Type Identification

Compile-Time and Run-Time Type

Polymorphism

Overriding Methods

Superclass Reference

 

8. Using Classes Effectively

Class Loading

Static Members

Statics and Non-Statics

Static Initializers

Static Imports

Prohibiting Inheritance

Costs of Object Creation

Strings and StringBuffers

Controlling Object Creation

Understanding Enumerated Types

Stateful and Behavioral Enumerations

 

9. Interfaces and Abstract Classes

Separating Interface and Implementation

UML Interfaces and Realization

Defining Interfaces

Implementing and Extending Interfaces

Abstract Classes

 

10. Collections

Dynamic Collections vs. Arrays

UML Parameterized Type

Generics

Using Generics

The Collections API

The Collection<E> and List<E> Interfaces

The ArrayList<E> and LinkedList<E> Classes

Looping Over Collections: Iterable<E>

Collecting Primitive Values: Auto-Boxing

Using Wildcards with Generic Types

Iterators and the Iterator<E> Interface

Maps and the Map<K,V> Interface

Sorted Collections

The SortedSet<E> and SortedMap<K,V> Interfaces

The Collections Class Utility

Algorithms

Conversion Utilities

 

 

11. Exception Handling and Logging

Reporting and Trapping Errors

Exception Handling

Throwing Exceptions

Declaring Exceptions per Method

Catching Exceptions

The finally Block

Catch-and-Release

Chaining Exceptions

The J2SE Logging API

Severity Levels

Log Hierarchies

 

12. Inner Classes

Passing Behavior

Inner Classes in GUI Programming

Named Inner Classes

Outer Object Reference

Static Inner Classes

Anonymous Inner Classes

 

13. The Java Streams Model

Delegation-Based Stream Model

InputStream and OutputStream

Media-Based Streams

Filtering Streams

Readers and Writers

 

14. Working with Files

File Class

Modeling Files and Directories

File Streams

Random-Access Files

 

15. Advanced Stream Techniques

Buffering

Data Streams

Push-Back Parsing

Byte-Array Streams and String Readers and Writers

 

16.  Java Serialization

The Challenge of Object Serialization

Serialization API

Serializable Interface

ObjectInputStream and ObjectOutputStream

The Serialization Engine

Transient Fields

readObject and writeObject

Externalizable Interface

 

17.  Automated Unit Testing with JUnit

Automated Testing

JUnit and Related Tools

TestCases and TestSuites

TestRunners

TestResults and Asserts

Developing JUnit Tests

 

Appendix A.  Learning Resources

 

Appendix B.  Compatibility and Migration

Compatibility: Compiler and Runtime

Mixing 1.4 and 5.0 Classes

Compatibility with Generics: Type Erasure

Compatibility with Enumerations and Varargs

Migrating 1.4 Code to 5.0

Runtime Type Safety with “Checked” Collections

 

 

System Requirements

 

The courseware has been tested on  Windows XP Professional.  Software setup involves only free, downloadable packages – primarily the 5.0 JDK.  Hardware specifications are as follows:

·         Minimum:  Pentium 500MHz, 128meg of RAM, 1 gigabyte of disk space

·         Recommended:  Pentium 1GHz, 256meg of RAM, 1gigabyte of disk space

 

IDEs: No particular IDE is required for use with this course; the lab software includes scripts that use the JDK’s command-line tools to build and test.  A simple text editor is recommended; or, a capable instructor might choose to guide students through using an IDE such as Eclipse 3.1 with the course software – though we cannot offer technical support for IDE usage at this time.