CSci 581-01: Special Topics in Computer Science
Object-Oriented Design & Programming
Spring Semester 1999
Syllabus

Locations

The spring semester 1999 class meets in 351 Weir Hall at 8:00 to 9:15 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The class is taught by Prof. Conrad Cunningham, whose office is in 312 Weir Hall. The official office hours for this class are 10:00 a.m. until Noon on Mondays and Wednesdays and by appointment at other times.

Prof. Cunningham's voice telephone number is (601) 232-5358 and fax number is (601) 232-5623. His WWW home page is http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/~hcc/ and his email address is cunningham@cs.olemiss.edu.

The WWW home page for this class is http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/~hcc/csci581/ and the anonymous FTP site is http://ftp.cs.olemiss.edu/pub/cunningham/csci581/99spr/.

The final examination for this class is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 4 May 1999.

Course Goals

The goals of this course (1) to extend and deepen the student's knowledge and understanding of object-oriented programming methods and languages and (2) to introduce the student to object-oriented design techniques.

Course Description

A study of the principles and practice of object-oriented design and programming. Use of object-oriented programming languages such as Java.

Prerequisites

This special topics class has been designed primarily for students pursuing graduate or undergraduate degrees in computer science. The class is also open to other students who meet the prerequisite requirements. However, graduate students in other fields should not be enrolled in this class without the explicit permission of their home department. Any students in this category are expected to provide the instructor with a note from their advisor or department chair indicating such permission.

The official prerequisite for CSCI 581, Special Topics in Computer Science, is "senior standing in computer science or consent of instructor" (as stated in the Graduate School Catalog). "Senior standing in computer science" means "successful completion of all courses specifically required in the computer science curriculum that are numbered less than 400" (as defined in the Undergraduate Catalog).

Accordingly, the expected minimum prerequisite is successful completion of 15 hours of computer science including CSCI 111, 112, 211, and 223 or their equivalents. Completion of CSCI 450 (Organization of Programming Languages) and MATH 301 (Discrete Mathematics) or their equivalents is recommended.

Anyone who does not have a mature understanding of programming in a contemporary imperative language (e.g., Pascal, C, or Java) and of basic algorithms and data structures (e.g., sorting, searching, lists, stacks, queues, and trees) should not enroll in the course.

Source Materials

Required textbook:

Timothy Budd. Understanding Object-Oriented Programming with Java, Addison-Wesley, 1998. ISBN: 0-201-30881-9.

Optional textbook:

Any good introductory book on Java programming.

Judy Bishop. Java Gently: Programming Principles Explained, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1998. ISBN: 0-201-34297-9.

Optional reference book:

Martin Fowler. UML Distilled: Applying the Standard Object Modeling Language, Addison-Wesley, 1997. ISBN: 0-201-32563-2.

Readings:

Various journal, conference, or WWW materials as appropriate.

Software:

Sun's Java Development Kit (JDK) and other software defined later

Course Topics

1. Data abstraction.
2. Introduction to object orientation.
3. Object-oriented design. Responsibility-driven design.
4. Inheritance.
5. Software reuse.
6. Polymorphism.
7. Exception handling.
8. Class libraries.
9. Application frameworks.
10. Design patterns.

Graduate or Undergraduate Credit

This course may be taken for either undergraduate or graduate credit.

• Undergraduate students in computer science who successfully complete this course will receive undergraduate credit. However, under some circumstances, last-semester seniors may enroll in this course for graduate credit. They must, however, have the approval of both the Graduate School and the department before they enroll in the course.

• Conditional and full-standing graduate students in computer science who successfully complete this course will receive graduate credit.

• Graduate students admitted in either qualifying or nondegree status in computer science will not receive graduate credit unless they have made appropriate arrangements with the Graduate School and department in advance.

• According to the Graduate Catalog, to receive graduate credit for this course, "the student must do work in addition to that required of the undergraduates enrolled in the course." Since the students in this class are mostly graduate students in computer science, the assignments and projects will be formulated with those students in mind. A few of the assignments or parts of assignments will be identified as optional for students taking the course for undergraduate credit. The criteria for determining grades may also differ somewhat for undergraduates.

Professional Conduct

As a student in CSci 581, you are expected to conduct yourself in a professional manner according to the Honor Code of the School of Engineering, the Information Technology Appropriate Use Policy, the M Book, and any other relevant policies.

Limited Collaboration Policy. Unless otherwise indicated, any homework assignment or programming exercise given in this class will be an individual assignment. The work you submit is to reflect the knowledge, understanding, and skill that you have attained as an individual. However, the instructor does want to encourage the development of a community of scholars who are actively engaged in discussion of the ideas related to this course. With this in mind, you are allowed to discuss solutions of the homework and programming problems with other students if done so according to the following guidelines:

• You may discuss ideas for homework and programming assignments with your classmates. However, you cannot collaborate on writing the solution or the program code. That is, you can talk about the problems and ideas for solving them, but you cannot write things down with anyone else. You are, of course, prohibited from copying or seeing another student's written solution, and you are not allowed to show your work to anyone else.

• You should accept help with care. If you work too closely with another student, you might mislead yourself into believing that you understand the concepts and techniques better than you actually do. Don't forget that the instructor has office hours and can probably give you hints or suggestions to get you started.

• You should give help with care. Do not help anyone too much. When you have solved a problem, it is tempting to just tell other students how you solved it. Instead, try to allow them to come to the solution on their own. Maybe give them a hint to help them get "over a hump." Remember that helping someone too much will hurt them in the long term if they can't work through problems on the exams by themselves. So avoid the temptation to do so. If you can't help other students without giving away the whole solution, direct them to see the instructor (who may or may not have a way to "edge" them toward the solution).

• You are not obligated to help anyone. If you feel uncomfortable helping another student for any reason, please direct them to see the instructor.

• Except as described above, all work in this class is covered by the School of Engineering's Honor Code statement on plagiarism. It is plagiarism "to knowingly deceive, copy, paraphrase, or otherwise misrepresent your work in a manner inconsistent with professional conduct".