Software and Programming I

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5
• Module convenor: Irene Muzi
• Module tutors: Irene Muzi, Panagiotis Charalampopoulos
• Prerequisites: none, however, a general familiarity with computer programming is assumed and successful completion of the module Introduction to Programming would be advantageous
• Assessment: two open-book in-class tests and short programming assignments (25%) and a two-hour examination (75%)

This module discusses the basic procedural and object-oriented features of the Java programming language. You will learn how to edit, compile and run small Java programs using the BlueJ integrated development environment.

Indicative module content

• Primitive data types and operators in Java
• Branching and looping statements, variable scope
• Arrays: the enhanced for loop, basic array algorithms and using arrays with methods
• Objects and classes; creating objects and constructors; manipulating objects and methods
• Access modifiers: public and private
• Passing objects as references; reference this
• The qualifier final for constants
• Instance and class variables and methods
• Inheritance and polymorphism
• Basics of exception handling and input-output
• Foundations of object-oriented analysis and design in Java: discovering classes, relationships between classes
• Packages

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand and explain the concept of object-orientation
• understand and explain the procedural and object-oriented features of the Java programming language
• construct simple algorithms and apply problem-solving strategies
• edit, compile and run programs using standard tools for Java (IDE and compiler).