Programming 1 (Ohjelmointi 1) Fall 2007 for international students

Communication

The course has now ended. THANK YOU for all international students!

Let's meet at 16:15-18 on Fridays

Mailing list for the international ppl is: ohj1_fall2007@korppi.jyu.fi -- official language of the list is English. Please, endorse conversation! Ask silly questions and receive silly answers from everybody else. It will teach everybody a great deal!

It is now safe to remove yourself from the Finnish mailing list. Removal is possible using the Korppi system somehow. But keep yourself on the above mentioned international list, and start spamming each other with knowledge. I think what the Finnish people are doing is outstanding and a good example of each one (at least trying to) teach each one. Of course the list is in Finnish, so you'll have to start up your own conversation in English :-). I really, really, truly hope it will happen.

Exercises

The exercises are not obligatory; you will be graded by your exam result only. I provide them for three purposes: (1) They are a way for you to learn and test your current knowledge. (2) If you send your answers to me by email before each Friday (which would be nice), I can see the direction where you're heading, and will be better able to guide you in the Friday minilectures to come. (3) They allow you to see the scope of knowledge that the Finnish people are learning, which will be exactly the scope that will be in the exam.

Internet resources

Overall information about everything

WikiPedia --- this is the user-generated knowledge pool of everything. Be slightly wary of the content, because it comes from hobbyist writers; but most of the computer knowledge seems to reflect reality quite well. A good overall resource for finding the meaning of terminology and general workings of information technology.
Google (or other Internet search engines of your choice...) When you reach the point in which you are able to write proper search keywords, you have billions of articles about programming stuff over there.
... and whatever you find, and seems valuable, send the link to our email list! We'll include the links here. For example, if you find a freely available textbook on Java somewhere in the Internet, it would be wonderful.

Java class library API documentation

Java Platform SE 6 Latest version of the Java built-in class library.

Code Conventions

Code Conventions for the Java Programming Language -- this document describes how every Java programmer in the world should communicate to each other (i.e., write and document their source code). Read and keep these, follow these as strictly as possible, and set your text editor/IDE to follow these automatically... Use these always until you find yourself working in a project that has defined a more specialized or customized set of conventions. Always be sure to use some coherent set of conventions, no matter what language you are using. On this course, we customize the rule set by the following: Never use tabulator characters (even set at 8 spaces); use spaces instead.

On-line textbooks

The following items are available from Wiki Books. I have no idea about their suitability, but Open Content is a good thing per se, and if you really really cannot afford a textbook, then you need at least something. I strongly recommend a printed book!!

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Java_Programming --- Java in particular
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Computer_programming --- Computer programming overview

Tools

Two first tools to begin with:

ConTEXT -- A free-of-charge text editor
Java SE Development Kit (JDK) -- Basic toolkit for making Java programs. You have to make your environment variables proper after installing! Ask for help...
You use the tools from Command Prompt (on a Windows system). Available in every Windows machine, from the Start menu somewhere ...

If you want to transfer files between home and the university:

PuTTY SSH Tools -- SSH2-communication software

For Java Programming, you should later start using an IDE like this one:

Eclipse IDE (You need to install the JDK first, see above link.)

Textbooks

Examples of Java textbooks in English (there are a lot of these in addition to the listed ones):

Walter Savitch: Absolute Java, Pearson Education. (Companion Website)

From this book, the following seem to be the most important chapters:
- Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10 completely
- Chapter 5 with a couple of omissions (I'll have to look into the text to see which parts are relevant)
- Chapter 14 partly (I'll have to look into the text to see which parts)
- Chapter 4 is a bit problematic... I guess I'll be teching the Finnish people about 10-15 pages worth of material digested from the 90 pages of Ch. 4. If you find time, read the whole chapter (it won't hurt to know more than is necessary; knowing too little will hurt!)
- Appendices
Other chapters (7, 8, 11, 12, 13) and parts of at least 4 and 14 are covered on other courses in our curriculum (Programming 2, Programming of Graphical User Interfaces, and courses in Software Design and Software Engineering)
Y. Daniel Liang: Introduction to Java Programming (Core Version), Prentice Hall. (Companion Website)
John Lewis, William Loftus: Java Software Solutions, Addison Wesley. (publisher's catalogue)
Harvey M. Deitel and Paul J. Deitel: (Small) Java How to Program, Prentice Hall. (publisher's catalogue)