06-06994 Software Workshop (2000/01)

R.J.Hendley

40 credits in Semesters 1 & 2

Aims

To introduce and develop object oriented design and programming skills.
To introduce the Java programming language as an example of an object oriented programming language
to develop software development skills through Java.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, the student should be able to:

Understand the Java programming language
Understand and use object oriented analysis and design processes
Develop large software systems from specification through design and implementation
Develop and use test plans
Work in groups as part of a larger project
Produce documentation for large software systems
Be familiar with professional issues relevent to software engineering

Prerequisites and Corequisites

06-06995 Fundamentals of Computer Science (i) Introduction to Comp. Sci. (ii) Prog. Meth. (iii) Data Structures

Teaching Methods

Lectures (2 hour/week), tutorials (1 hour/week), supervised and unsupervised laboratory sessions

Continuous assessment: This course is assessed entirely through coursework. There are a collection of exercises of increasing size and complexity. The overall assessment is a weighted (by time allocated) average of the assessable exercises.

Recommended Books

Title	Author(s)	Publisher, Date	Comments
Computing Concepts with Java 2 Essentials (2nd Edition), 1999	Cay Horstmann	John Wiley & Sons;1997	This book is provided by the School to all students on the course. It covers the core material and is used in place of handouts.
Java : How to Program (How to Program Series)	Harvey M. Deitel, Paul J. Deitel	1997	This provides an alternative view on Java as a programming language.
Java in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (The Java Series)	David Flanagan	1997	A very good reference, but not a good book to learn Java from
Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days, Second Edition	Laura Lemay, Rogers Cadenhead	Sams, 2000	Some people have found this book very helpful. More people dislike it. Check whether the style suits you before you buy.
Software Engineering : A Practitioner's Approach	Roger S. Pressman	1996	Provides information about software engineering methodologies that are used in the course.

Detailed Syllabus

The Java Programming Language
- Object Orientation
- Classes
- Algorithms
- Objects and variables
- Basic Control structures
- Exceptions
- Threads
- Inheritence
- GUIs
- Other Java packages
Case Studies
Exercises: A series of exercises starting with small simple problems and developing towards large group exercises integrating applets and relational databases
Professional Issues, Data security, privacy, The data protection act The course is taught through a combination of lectures, tutorial and both supervised and independent practical work. The course has a strong practical element. The lectures introduce and develop the major topics of object oriented software development. Small groups are used for tutorials through which practical work is assigned, discussed and asssessed.

Relevant Links

The Course web pages provide access to the exercises, discussion group etc. for this course.

Maintained by: R.J.Hendley, School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham
Last update: 22 November 2000