Important!

Please note that this page is informational, and does not replace the official Module Information Pack (MIP). All students attending this module must carefully read the MIP which can be accessed online via Blackboard.

Logistics

Module leader:	Nearchos Paspallis
When and where:	Refer to the timetable (requires login)
Syllabus:	Refer to the Blackboard for the syllabus, assignments, etc (requires login)

Module content

In this module students learn how to write simple programs. No prior programming experience is assumed.

The module uses a single programming language and programming environment (Java in this case), but develops transferable programming skills by focusing on the fundamental concepts used in the majority of programming languages.

The following is a list of topics covered in the module:

• Setting up the development environment
• Overall program structure and program flow
• Variables and data types
• Conditions (if/switch statements)
• Iteration (for and do/while loops)
• Simple Input/Output (I/O)
• Methods (functions) and parameters, parameter passing mechanisms
• Arrays
• Simple structures (we mention Object Orientation but do not go into too much detail)
• Program Testing and Debugging
• Readability and maintainability of program code (e.g. layout, comments, constants)
• Editor, compiler, debugger and on-line help

Learning Outcomes

The main objective of this module is to bring students up to speed with basic programming skills. By the end of the course, students are expected to:

• Understand the core concepts of programming
• Be able to analyze a problem and be able to propose an approach to create a program that solves it
• Implement programs that make extensive use of basic programming blocks (statements, conditionals, loops, methods, math libraries)
• Understand the core concepts and methods of programming (editors, compilers, debuggers)
• Familiarize with program code readability and maintainability

Resources

Recommended textbook

Robert Sedgewick, Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Addison Wesley; 1 edition (17 July 2007) online resources

Additional resources

Oracle, Java APIs (Javadocs) available online

DrJava editor available online

IntelliJ IDEA - Community Edition editor available online

Learnable Programming available online

Additional material (including lecture slides and hand-outs) will be available in Blackboard

Collaboration

Students are encouraged to study and learn in groups. However, individual assignments should be the result of their personal effort (unless group work is explicitly asked).

As a principle, you should follow Gilligan's Island Rule: you can discuss assignments with your classmates, but you should not take any notes (electronic or not) from these meetings, in order to be able to fulfil your assignment independently using your own undestanding of the lectures and the group meetings.

General rules

In addition to the general rules of the University, you should also respect the following rules:

• Attending the lectures is mandatory.
• Students should respect the right of their classmates to attend without disruptions or unnecessary interruptions and thus you should not arrive late (or leave early) unless absolutely necessary.
• You are asked to respect the intellectual copyright legislation, concerning copying and using software and books (in electronic or print form).
• Extensions to assignments will not be granted. In exceptional situations, you should consult the Year-1 Tutor.
• Plagiarism is a serious offense. The University uses plagiarism detection software for all assignments and offenders are subject to the University's rules concerning plagiarism. More details about what plagiarism is (and is not) can be found in your MIP, which is available on Blackboard.