15-214: Principles of Software System Construction

15-214: Threads, Objects, Analysis, Design (TOAD)

Principles of Software Construction: Objects, Design, and Concurrency

Spring 2013
Lecture: Tuesday/Thursday 3:00 - 4:20 p.m., Porter Hall (PH) 100
12 units

Section A: Wednesday 9:30-10:20, Wean Hall (WEH) 5310

TA Daniel Lu, dylu [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu, Office Hours: Wednesdays 4:30 - 6 p.m. in the Gates 4100 corridor

Section B: Wednesday 10:30-11:20, Wean Hall (WEH) 5310

TA: Alex Lockwood, alockwoo [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu, Office Hours: Sundays at 8 - 10 p.m. in the Gates 4100 corridor

Section C: Wednesday 11:30-12:20, Wean Hall (WEH) 5310

TA: Shannon Lee, sjl1 [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu, Office Hours: Mondays 6:30 - 8 p.m. in the Gates 4100 corridor

Section D: Wednesday 12:30-1:20, Wean Hall (WEH) 5310

TA: Michael Maass, mmaass [at] cs [dot] cmu [dot] edu, Office Hours: Tuesdays 4:30 - 6 p.m. in Wean 5317

Instructors

Professor Christian Kästner

kaestner@cs.cmu.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. in Wean 5122 (except Feb 28)

Professor Charlie Garrod

charlie@cs.cmu.edu
Office Hours: Fridays 1:30 - 3 p.m. in Wean 5101

Open Door Policy: If either of the instructors' office doors are open and no-one else is meeting with us, we are happy to answer any course-related questions. For appointments, email the instructors.

Course Syllabus and Policies

Covers course overview and objectives, evaluation, time management, late work policy, and collaboration policy

Textbooks

Required text:

Alan Shalloway and James Trott. Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design (Second Edition).

Optional references by topic:

Design Patterns

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

This is an excellent book, but more of a reference text than the Design Patterns Explained book. In addition, because it was the original patterns book, the examples are in C++ and Smalltalk, not Java

Concurrency

Java Concurrency in Practice

Excellent book on concurrency in Java

The Art of Multiprocessor Programming

An excellent, more general book on parallel programming

Java

Note: Here are some popular textbook and online resources for learning Java. I have not looked at them in enough detail to specifically recommend one over the others.
Head First Java (available physically and electronically in the CMU libraries)
Introduction to Java Programming (the Comprehensive version has the benefit of covering threads too)
Introduction to Programming Using Java (free online textbook)
Blue Pelican Java (free online textbook)

The physical books above have all been requested to be on reserve in the Engineering and Science Library.

Course Piazza Site

Used for discussion groups

Course Help Topics

A few HowTos

Schedule of Topics, Readings, and Assignments

Below is the schedule of topics and lecture notes for the course. Assignments are due at 11:59 p.m. on their scheduled due date (unless otherwise indicated within the assignment document).

Date Topic Additional Notes/Code Assignment Due

Jan 15 Course introduction; Concept of objects

Jan 16 Recitation: SVN + Java Warmup

Jan 17 Encapsulation, polymorphism, equality

Jan 22 Packages and inheritance Assignment 0: Java warmup

Jan 23 Recitation: Java Semantics

Jan 24 Packages and inheritance (continued), typechecking, method dispatch

Jan 29 Method dispatch (continued), Object contracts, exceptions 05 examples

Jan 30 Recitation: Method dispatch and exceptions

Jan 31 Exceptions, scope, static, and generics 06 examples Assignment 1: Objects and interfaces

Feb 5 (Formal) Analysis of Software Artifacts Extended Static Checking for Java

Feb 6 Recitation: Exceptions and the Eclipse Java debugger