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 3:00 - 4:20 p.m. in Doherty A302
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. 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
We are expecting several changes to the course this semester. The schedule below is a draft based on previous instances of the course and is likely to change.
| Date | Topic | Reading assignments* | Assignments due* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Jan 15 | Course introduction and course infrastructure | ||
| Wed, Jan 16 | rec 1 Introduction to course infrastructure | ||
| Thu, Jan 17 | Introduction to Java + Design for change: Information hiding | Optional: Java Precisely (e.g., Sec. 4, 9, 10, 22) | |
| Tue, Jan 22 | Design for change, information hiding | Effective Java, Items 15 and 16 | |
| Wed, Jan 23 | rec 2 Unit testing, continuous integration | ||
| Thu, Jan 24 | Specification and unit testing | Optional: Effective Java, Items 10, 11, 68; UML and Patterns, Ch. 16 | hw1 Intro to OO and course infrastructure |
| Tue, Jan 29 | Design for reuse: Delegation and inheritance | Effective Java, Items 17 and 50 | |
| Wed, Jan 30 | rec 3 Behavioral subtyping | ||
| Thu, Jan 31 | Class Canceled for Polar Vortex | Optional: Effective Java, Items 18, 19, and 20 | hw2 Polymorphism, unit testing |
| Tue, Feb 5 | Introduction to design patterns, and design patterns for reuse | UML and Patterns, Ch. 9 and 10 | |
| Wed, Feb 6 | rec 4 Inheritance and delegation | ||
| Thu, Feb 7 | Object-oriented analysis: Modeling a problem domain | Optional: UML and Patterns, Ch. 17; Effective Java, Item 49, 54, and 69 | |
| Tue, Feb 12 | Object-oriented analysis: Modeling a problem domain Continued | UML and Patterns, Ch. 14, 15, and 16 | hw3 Inheritance and delegation |
| Wed, Feb 13 | rec 5 Design process | ||
| Thu, Feb 14 | Midterm exam 1 | ||
| Tue, Feb 19 | Object-oriented design: Responsibility assignment | ||
| Wed, Feb 20 | rec 6 Design patterns | ||
| Thu, Feb 21 | Testing Continued | hw4a Designing complex software | |
| Tue, Feb 26 | Introduction to multi-threading and GUIs | UML and Patterns, Ch. 26.1 and 26.4 | |
| Wed, Feb 27 | rec 7 Introduction to GUIs | ||
| Thu, Feb 28 | Design case study: Java Swing | Optional: Effective Java, Item 1 | |
| Tue, Mar 5 | Design case study: Java Collections | Effective Java, Items 6, 7, and 63 | |
| Wed, Mar 6 | rec 8 GUIs++ | ||
| Thu, Mar 7 | Design for large-scale reuse: Libraries & frameworks | hw4b Design to implementation | |
| Tue, Mar 12 | No Lecture, Spring Break | ||
| Wed, Mar 13 | rec 9 No Recitation, Spring Break | ||
| Thu, Mar 14 | No Lecture, Spring Break | ||
| Tue, Mar 19 | Designing APIs | Effective Java, Items 51, 60, 62, and 64 | |
| Wed, Mar 20 | rec 10 Frameworks | ||
| Thu, Mar 21 | Designing APIs part II | Optional: Effective Java, Items 52 and 53 | |
| Mon, Mar 25 | hw4c GUI implementation | ||
| Tue, Mar 26 | Version Control with Git | ||
| Wed, Mar 27 | rec 11 Git and Github++ | ||
| Thu, Mar 28 | Midterm exam 2 | ||
| Tue, Apr 2 | Git workflows, Concurrency: Java Primitives | ||
| Wed, Apr 3 | rec 12 Framework presentations | hw5a Framework design | |
| Thu, Apr 4 | Concurrency: Java Primitives, continued | Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 11.3 and 11.4 | |
| Tue, Apr 9 | Concurrency: Safety, Structuring applications | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 10 | hw5b Framework and plugin implementation |
| Wed, Apr 10 | rec 13 Concurrency | ||
| Thu, Apr 11 | No Lecture, Carnival | ||
| Tue, Apr 16 | Concurrency: Parallelizing algorithms, concurrency frameworks | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 12 | |
| Wed, Apr 17 | rec 14 Java concurrency framework | ||
| Thu, Apr 18 | Design case study: Java functional APIs and streams | hw5c Plugins for others' frameworks | |
| Tue, Apr 23 | 313 Pitch class | ||
| Wed, Apr 24 | rec 15 Java functional APIs and streams | ||
| Thu, Apr 25 | Developer tools | ||
| Tue, Apr 30 | DEVOPS | hw6 Concurrency | |
| Wed, May 1 | TBD | ||
| 5/2/2019 | Design pattern tour | ||
| TBD | Final exam |