CS 110: Introduction to Programming in Java
	Kalamazoo College
	Winter 2008

Reading Assignments, Discussion Questions, and Programming Projects will be listed here in chronological order by due date, i.e., with the most recent ones at the bottom of the list.

CS 110 Home Homework Labs Class Notes Key People Syllabus Bibliography

This document was last modified on February 26, 2008.

Jump directly to Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10

Note: The textbook contains six different types of side notes. You should always read the first three types: Quality Tips, Common Errors, and Productivity Hints. The Quality Tips contain important information on good programming style. Reading the Common Errors notes will help you avoid well-known pitfalls. The Productivity Hints are sometimes more challenging, but helpful. You should also generally read the Advanced Topics and How To sections unless I specify otherwise. Random Facts are optional -- read them if you find them interesting.



The book has a Student Companion web site that includes web-only features (such as source code that appears in the book and some of the Productivity Hints or Random Facts) and also has a list of any typos that have been found. You can get to the website by going to www.wiley.com/college/horstmann, then clicking on the picture of our textbook (5th Edition of Java Concepts), and then clicking on the "Go to the Student Companion Site" link within the "Students" box. Or you can click on this Student Companion Site link directly. From there, click on the appropriate Resource link, such as "Source Code" or "Features: By Chapter". For example, you could find Productivity Hint 1.2 by going to the Student Companion Site, clicking on Features: By Chapter, clicking on Chapter 1, then clicking on Productivity Hint 1.2.

Week 4: Monday

• Reading assignment:
  • Designing and Implementing Classes: Read HOW TO Section 3.1 on pp. 92 - 95 and Sections 3.6 - 3.8, including the Common Errors.  (Have you ever made Common Error 3.2?)   Read the Chapter Summary for Chapter 3.
  • Writing Methods: Read the handout on method descriptions.
  • Look over the implementation for the AquaFish class in AquaFish.java.  You do not need to read all the method implementations, but you should be able to find and identify the main pieces of the class -- the declarations of instance variables, the constructors, the public methods, and the private methods that are available only within the class.
• Discussion questions:
  • R3.1 - R3.6.
  • Where is an object's state reprepresented in the AquaFish class?
  • How many constructors does the class have?
  • How many public methods does the class have?  Does this correspond to the class documentation for AquaFish?  Why, or why not?
  • What private methods does the class have?  Are they represented in the class documentation?  Why, or why not?

Week 4: Tuesday

• Lab Entrance Assignment:
  • Make sure you have finished all previous mini-labs in the Aquarium Lab Series.  Bring a hard-copy of your main method to class to turn in.  (Make sure you have updated the documentation as well as the code!)
• Programming Project #3 is due at the beginning of lab.

Week 4: Wednesday

• Reading assignment:
  • Scope: Read Section 8.1.
  • Array Algorithms: Read Section 7.5.
• Discussion questions:
  • R7.3 on p. 282.
  • Answer the analysis questions from the "Modeling a Simulation" Section from Tuesday's lab Fish With Class.
  • Questions on analyzing Method Visibility

Week 4: Friday

• Reading assignment:
  • Filling in gaps (or, Reviewing primitive types and arithmetic operations): Read all of Section 4.2 (previously you stopped in the middle of p. 128), including Quality Tips 4.1 and 4.2. Read Sections 4.3 - 4.5, including the Common Errors and Quality Tips. Take a deep breath and then read HOW TO 4.1 slowly, or maybe even twice (pp. 141 - 143). How does this process compare with how you approached the Histogram lab or programming project, or any of the other projects you have worked on? Could it help you improve your own approach to programming or problem-solving?
  • Review strings: Review Section 4.6. Also, read the Chapter Summary for Chapter 4.
  • Review comparing values: Review Section 5.2.
• Discussion questions:
  • No new discussion questions.
• Programming Project #4
  Be prepared to run your program in class. Note that the final exercise involves creating user documentation for your program that is accessible from the "Help" menu.  Be particularly careful to document the three methods that are unique to your program, including how they can be used to draw a picture, and whether they makes any assumptions about the minimum dimensions for the grid.

Week 5: Monday

• Reading assignment:
  • Review Boolean expressions: Review Section 5.4. Also, read the Chapter Summary for Chapter 5.
  • While Loops, For Loops, Do Loops: Read Sections 6.1 - 6.4. (Sections 6.2 and 6.3 should be review.) Skip Quality Tip 6.1 on p. 213 (Horstmann's right that the bad for loops he gives in Quality Tip 6.1, but I disagree with his over-generalized conclusion.) Read the Chapter Summary for Chapter 6.
  • Implementing Classes: Review Sections 3.4 and 3.5. Read Sections 3.7 and 3.8, and the Chapter Summary for Chapter 3.
• Discussion questions:
  • R6.1, R6.3, R6.4, and R6.11 on pp. 238-239.