103. Java Programming

Rev. 1.4.3

 

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-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, exception handling, and object serialization.  The course software also includes an optional overlay of workspace and project files to support use of the Eclipse IDE in the classroom.  (This requires that the instructor be experienced in use of Eclipse and able to walk students through basic tasks in the IDE.)

 

This revision of the course begins Object Innovations’ migration from Java 1.4 to Java 5.0:  it continues to focus on the 1.4.2 SDK and language, but highlights missing features and areas that are improved in the 5.0 JDK and language.  It includes two code examples which will of course not build in the 1.4.2 environment, but work in 5.0 and offer examples of emerging Java-5.0 coding practices.  (For training entirely within the Java 5.0 environment, see version 5.0 of this course; to read more about different versions of Java and for help deciding on which version of this course to use, see “Java Versions and Terminology Demystified”.)

 

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.

 

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.

·         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.

 

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

Three Platforms

Java Virtual Machine

The Core API

Java Runtime Environment

Java SDK

Java Class Path

Portability and Efficiency

 

2. Language Fundamentals

Source File Format

Application Classes

Code Grammar and Expressions

Identifiers

Literals

Operators

Expressions

Calling Methods

 

3. Data Types

Primitive Types

Type Conversion

Numeric Types

Characters and Booleans

Java 1.5: Enumerations

Object References

Comparing and Assigning References

Strings

Arrays

 

4. Flow Control

The main Method

Calling and Returning from Methods

Conditional Constructs

Looping Constructs

Java 1.5: the For-Each Loop

Processing Arrays

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

Packages and Imports

Relationships Between Classes

Using this

Visibility

Overloading Methods

JARs

 

7. Inheritance and Polymorphism in Java

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

Prohibiting Inheritance

Costs of Object Creation

Strings and StringBuffers

Controlling Object Creation

 

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

Collections vs. Arrays

The Collections API

Abstraction: The Collection Interface

Vector, LinkedList, ArrayList

Reading Elements and Downcasting

Collecting Primitive Values

Algorithmic Programming

Iterators

Maps

Sorted Collections

Java 1.5: Generics

Java 1.5: Auto-Boxing

Java 1.5: Type-Safe Collections

Java 1.5: Variable Argument Lists

Java 1.5: Formatted Output

 

11. Exception Handling

Reporting and Trapping Errors

Exception Handling

Throwing Exceptions

Declaring Exceptions per Method

Catching Exceptions

The finally Block

Catch-and-Release

Chaining Exceptions

 

12. Inner Classes

Passing Behavior

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

 

Appendix A.  Learning Resources

 

System Requirements

 

Hardware – minimal:                     Pentium 500MHz, 128 meg RAM, 500 meg HD.

Hardware – recommended:           Pentium 1.5gHz, 512 meg RAM, 1 gig HD.

 

Operating system:                          Tested on Windows XP Professional.  The course software should be viable on all Windows or Linux systems which support J2SE 1.4.

 

Software:                                       All free downloadable tools.