103. Java Programming
Rev. 6.0
This course is now available directly from our partner, Capstone Courseware.
This course teaches programming in the Java language -- i.e. the
Java Standard Edition 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 Java SE 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 6.0 version of the Java language
and Core API; but it is equally applicable to Java 5 and groups looking for
Java training who know they'll be using Java 5 are encouraged to use this
course. 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 Java-5/6
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, 5.0, and 6.0 Classes
Compatibility with Generics: Type Erasure
Compatibility with Enumerations and Varargs
The @SuppressWarnings Annotation
Migrating 1.4 Code to 5.0
Runtime Type Safety with "Checked" Collections
System Requirements
Hardware – minimal: 500 MHz, 256 meg RAM, 500 meg disk space
Hardware – recommended: 1.5 GHz, 512 meg RAM, 1 gig disk
space
Operating system: Tested on Windows XP Professional.
Course software should be viable on all systems which support a Java 6
Developer's Kit.
Software: All
free downloadable tools.
