Overview
Software engineers today are less likely to design data structures and algorithms from scratch and more likely to build systems from library and framework components. In this course, students engage with concepts related to the construction of software systems at scale, building on their understanding of the basic building blocks of data structures, algorithms, program structures, and computer structures. The course covers technical topics in four areas: (1) concepts of design for complex systems, (2) object oriented programming, (3) techniques for robustness, including testing and static and dynamic analysis for programs, and (4) concurrent software. Students will gain concrete experience designing and building medium-sized systems. This course substantially improves its students' ability to apply general computer science knowledge to real-world problems using real-world tools and techniques.
After completing this course, students will:
- Be comfortable with object-oriented concepts and with programming in the Java language
- Have experience designing medium-scale systems with patterns
- Have experience testing and analyzing software
- Understand principles of concurrency and be able to build concurrent software
Coordinates
Tu/Th 11:40 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. on Zoom
The instructors have an open door policy: If the instructors' office doors are open and no-one else is meeting with us, we are happy to answer any course-related questions. This open-door policy applies to our Zoom rooms, also; feel free to try to join without an appointment. For appointments, email the instructors.
Course Syllabus and Policies
The syllabus covers course overview and objectives, evaluation, time management, recommended books, late work policy, and collaboration policy.Learning Goals
The learning goals describe what we want students to know or be able to do by the end of the semester. We evaluate whether learning goals have been achieved through assignments and exams.Course Calendar
Schedule
| Date | Topic | Reading assignments* | Assignments due* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Sep 1 | Course introduction and course infrastructure | ||
| Wed, Sep 2 | rec 1 Introduction to course infrastructure | ||
| Thu, Sep 3 | Introduction to Java | Optional: Java Precisely (e.g., Sec. 4, 9, 10, 22) | |
| Tue, Sep 8 | Design for change, information hiding | Effective Java, Items 15 and 16 | |
| Wed, Sep 9 | rec 2 Unit testing, continuous integration | ||
| Thu, Sep 10 | Specification and unit testing | Optional: Effective Java, Items 10, 11, 68; UML and Patterns, Ch. 16 | hw1 Intro to OO and course infrastructure |
| Tue, Sep 15 | Design for reuse: Delegation and inheritance | Effective Java, Items 17 and 50 | |
| Wed, Sep 16 | rec 3 Behavioral subtyping | ||
| Thu, Sep 17 | Introduction to design patterns, and design patterns for reuse | Optional: Effective Java, Items 18, 19, and 20 | hw2 Polymorphism, unit testing |
| Tue, Sep 22 | Design patterns for reuse, continued | UML and Patterns, Ch. 9 and 10 | |
| Wed, Sep 23 | rec 4 Inheritance and delegation | ||
| Thu, Sep 24 | Object-oriented analysis: Modeling a problem domain | Optional: UML and Patterns, Ch. 17; Effective Java, Item 49, 54, and 69 | |
| Sun, Sep 27 | No class, but homework is due: | hw3 Design patterns for reuse | |
| Tue, Sep 29 | Object-oriented design: Responsibility assignment | UML and Patterns, Ch. 14, 15, and 16 | |
| Wed, Sep 30 | rec 5 Design process | ||
| Thu, Oct 1 | Midterm exam 1 | ||
| Tue, Oct 6 | Tis a gift to be simple | ||
| Wed, Oct 7 | rec 6 Design patterns | ||
| Thu, Oct 8 | Introduction to multi-threading and GUIs | hw4a Designing complex software | |
| Tue, Oct 13 | Design case study: Java Swing | UML and Patterns, Ch. 26.1 and 26.4 | |
| Wed, Oct 14 | rec 7 Introduction to GUIs | ||
| Thu, Oct 15 | Design case study: Java Collections | Optional: Effective Java, Item 1 | |
| Tue, Oct 20 | Design for large-scale reuse: Libraries & frameworks | Effective Java, Items 6, 7, and 63 | |
| Wed, Oct 21 | rec 8 GUIs++ | ||
| Thu, Oct 22 | Designing APIs | hw4b Design to implementation | |
| Tue, Oct 27 | Designing APIs, continued | Effective Java, Items 51, 60, 62, and 64 | |
| Wed, Oct 28 | rec 9 Frameworks | ||
| Thu, Oct 29 | Teams | Optional: Effective Java, Items 52 and 53 | hw4c GUI implementation |
| Tue, Nov 3 | No lecture: Election day | ||
| Wed, Nov 4 | rec 10 Git and Github++ | ||
| Thu, Nov 5 | Midterm exam 2 | ||
| Tue, Nov 10 | Concurrency: Java Primitives | Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 11.3 and 11.4 | hw5a Framework design |
| Wed, Nov 11 | rec 11 Framework presentations | ||
| Thu, Nov 12 | Concurrency: Java Primitives, continued | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 10 | |
| Tue, Nov 17 | Concurrency: Safety, Structuring applications | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 12 | hw5b Framework and plugin implementation |
| Wed, Nov 18 | rec 12 Concurrency | ||
| Thu, Nov 19 | Concurrency: Parallelizing algorithms, concurrency frameworks | ||
| Mon, Nov 23 | No class, but homework is due: | hw5c Plugins for others' frameworks | |
| Tue, Nov 24 | Design case study: Java functional APIs and streams | ||
| Wed, Nov 25 | No recitation: Thanksgiving | ||
| Thu, Nov 26 | No lecture: Thanksgiving | ||
| Tue, Dec 1 | Developer tools and devops | ||
| Wed, Dec 2 | rec 13 Java concurrency framework | ||
| Thu, Dec 3 | Devops, Monolithic repos | ||
| Tue, Dec 8 | Design pattern tour | ||
| Wed, Dec 9 | rec 14 Java functional APIs and streams | hw6 Concurrency | |
| Thu, Dec 10 | A puzzling finale | ||
| Tue, Dec 15 | Final exam, 1 - 4 p.m. EST |