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 4:00 - 5:20 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
As a result of the unusual Univeristy schedule this spring, the schedule below is more likely than usual to change.
| Date | Topic | Reading assignments* | Assignments due* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Feb 2 | Course introduction and course infrastructure | ||
| Wed, Feb 3 | rec 1 Introduction to course infrastructure | ||
| Thu, Feb 4 | Introduction to Java | Optional: Java Precisely (e.g., Sec. 4, 9, 10, 22) | |
| Tue, Feb 9 | Design for change, information hiding | Effective Java, Items 15 and 16 | |
| Wed, Feb 10 | rec 2 Unit testing, continuous integration | ||
| Thu, Feb 11 | Specification and unit testing | Optional: Effective Java, Items 10, 11, 68; UML and Patterns, Ch. 16 | hw1 Intro to OO and course infrastructure |
| Tue, Feb 16 | Design for reuse: Behavioral subtyping, delegation and inheritance | Effective Java, Items 17 and 50 | |
| Wed, Feb 17 | rec 3 Behavioral subtyping | ||
| Thu, Feb 18 | Introduction to design patterns, and design patterns for reuse | Optional: Effective Java, Items 18, 19, and 20 | |
| Sun, Feb 21 | No class, but homework is due: | hw2 Polymorphism, unit testing | |
| Tue, Feb 23 | No lecture: CMU break | UML and Patterns, Ch. 9 and 10 | |
| Wed, Feb 24 | rec 4 Inheritance and delegation | ||
| Thu, Feb 25 | Design patterns for reuse, continued | Optional: UML and Patterns, Ch. 17; Effective Java, Item 49, 54, and 69 | |
| Sun, Feb 28 | No class, but homework is due: | hw3 Design patterns for reuse | |
| Tue, Mar 2 | Object-oriented analysis: Modeling a problem domain | UML and Patterns, Ch. 14, 15, and 16 | |
| Wed, Mar 3 | rec 5 Design process | ||
| Thu, Mar 4 | Object-oriented design: Responsibility assignment | exam Midterm exam 1 | |
| Tue, Mar 9 | Tis a gift to be simple | ||
| Wed, Mar 10 | rec 6 Design patterns | ||
| Thu, Mar 11 | Introduction to multi-threading and GUIs | hw4a Designing complex software | |
| Tue, Mar 16 | Design case study: Java Swing | UML and Patterns, Ch. 26.1 and 26.4 | |
| Wed, Mar 17 | rec 7 Introduction to GUIs | ||
| Thu, Mar 18 | Design case study: Java Collections | Optional: Effective Java, Item 1 | |
| Tue, Mar 23 | Design for large-scale reuse: Libraries & frameworks | Effective Java, Items 6, 7, and 63 | |
| Wed, Mar 24 | rec 8 GUIs++ | ||
| Thu, Mar 25 | Designing APIs | hw4b Design to implementation | |
| Tue, Mar 30 | Designing APIs, continued | Effective Java, Items 51, 60, 62, and 64 | |
| Wed, Mar 31 | rec 9 Frameworks | ||
| Thu, Apr 1 | Teams | Optional: Effective Java, Items 52 and 53 | hw4c GUI implementation |
| Tue, Apr 6 | Concurrency: Java Primitives | ||
| Wed, Apr 7 | rec 10 Git and Github++ | ||
| Thu, Apr 8 | Concurrency: Java Primitives, continued | exam Midterm exam 2 | |
| Tue, Apr 13 | Concurrency: Safety, Structuring applications | Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 11.3 and 11.4 | hw5a Framework design |
| Wed, Apr 14 | rec 11 Framework presentations | ||
| Thu, Apr 15 | No lecture: Carnival | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 10 | |
| Tue, Apr 20 | Concurrency: Parallelizing algorithms, concurrency frameworks | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 12 | |
| Wed, Apr 21 | rec 12 Concurrency | hw5b Framework and plugin implementation | |
| Thu, Apr 22 | Design case study: Java functional APIs and streams | ||
| Tue, Apr 27 | Toward SE in practice: People and process | hw5c Plugins for others' frameworks | |
| Wed, Apr 28 | rec 13 Java concurrency framework | ||
| Thu, Apr 29 | Devops, Monolithic repos | ||
| Tue, May 4 | Design pattern tour | ||
| Wed, May 5 | rec 14 Java functional APIs and streams | hw6 Concurrency | |
| Thu, May 6 | A puzzling finale | ||
| Friday, May 14 | Final exam due at 11:59 pm |