CSci 581-01: Special Topics in Computer Science
Object-Oriented Design & Programming
Spring Semester 1999
Instructor's Bulletin Board

25 January 1999: Input/Output Packages

On the course Resource Links page, I gave links to the corejava package associated with Horstmann and Cornell's Core Java 1.2 books (Addison-Wesley, 1999). You may find the Console and Format classes useful.

I also gave links to the Text class from the book Java Gently: Programming Principles Explained, Second Edition (Addison-Wesley, 1998). You might find it useful.

21 January 1999: Assignment #1

Assignment #1 was handed out in class today. It is due on Thursday, 4 February.

This is not a particularly difficult assignment. My purposes are:

• To give those students who have previously programmed very little in Java a chance to learn the basics of the language.

• To get all students to think about implementing abstract data types in Java, perhaps in a more precise way than they have previously.

Note that I do want the classes and methods specified using preconditions, postconditions, and invariants. You might consider using my Assert class (or something similar of your own) to check for preconditions, etc.. You might want to use Javadoc to document the code. Etc.

If any of you are looking for more of a challenge, you might think about developing the program, in particular the BingoCard and GameCards classes, as an "application framework" for a whole class of Bingo-like games. By application framework, I mean a set of base classes, interfaces, and library classes that can be extended, implemented, or used to provide different specific games. Here are some ideas--perhaps all cannot coexist within the same design.

• Consider changes like making the size of the board variable, making the techniques for initializing the board, ranges on values, etc., something that can be done in different ways (e.g., in an overridden method), etc.

• The row, column, and diagonal winning patterns are not the only ones used in Bingo. Perhaps allow design the class where different winning pattern detection techniques can be "plugged into" the class in some way. You may need to do some research into what different kinds of patterns are used in varous Bingo games.

  You might want to investigate the Template Method and Strategy design patterns for ideas on how to implement this (and other of the possible enhancements).

• Consider using a general class of objects for the labels in the Bingo grid, not just primitive ints. Since an equality operation is needed you will need to define an appropriate base class or interface to represent this hierarchy labels.

• I implied a simple text-based display of the bingo card. If you like graphics, you might consider having the game to have a "real-time" display of bingo cards on the screen. This capability should not be built directly into the BingoCard class but should be a separate class that gets its information from a BingoCard instance. You would probably need to be able to selectively choose cards to display, since all in a GameCards class will not likely fit on a screen at once.

  If you do this, please try to stay with standard Java graphics.

• Etc.

Finally, if you have a programming problem you would like to tackle, then let me know. I could perhaps substitute it for this one, but more likely I might consider it for future individual or group programming exercises.

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