Overview
Software engineers today are less likely to design data structures and algorithms from scratch and more likely to build systems from library and framework components. In this course, students engage with concepts related to the construction of software systems at scale, building on their understanding of the basic building blocks of data structures, algorithms, program structures, and computer structures. The course covers technical topics in four areas: (1) concepts of design for complex systems, (2) object oriented programming, (3) static and dynamic analysis for programs, and (4) concurrent and distributed software. Student assignments involve engagement with complex software such as distributed massively multi-player game systems and frameworks for graphical user interaction.
After completing this course, students will:
- Be comfortable with object-oriented concepts and with programming in the Java language
- Have experience designing medium-scale systems with patterns
- Have experience testing and analyzing software
- Understand principles of concurrency and distributed systems
Coordinates
Tu/Th 3:00 - 4:20 p.m. in Doherty A302
Both instructors have an 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
The syllabus covers course overview and objectives, evaluation, time management, recommended books, late work policy, and collaboration policy.Learning Goals
The learning goals describe what we want students to know or be able to do by the end of the semester. We evaluate whether learning goals have been achieved through assignments and exams.Course Calendar
Schedule
We are expecting several changes to the course this semester. The schedule below is a draft based on previous instances of the course and is likely to change.
| Date | Topic | Reading assignments* | Assignments due* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Jan 16 | Course introduction and course infrastructure | ||
| Wed, Jan 17 | rec 1 Introduction to course infrastructure | ||
| Thu, Jan 18 | Introduction to Java + Design for change: Information hiding | Optional: Java Precisely (e.g., Sec. 4, 9, 10, 22) | |
| Tue, Jan 23 | Specification and unit testing | Effective Java, Items 15 and 16 | |
| Wed, Jan 24 | rec 2 Unit testing, continuous integration | ||
| Thu, Jan 25 | Behavioral subtyping | Optional: Effective Java, Items 10, 11, 68; UML and Patterns, Ch. 16 | hw1 Intro to OO and course infrastructure |
| Tue, Jan 30 | Design for reuse: Delegation and inheritance | Effective Java, Items 17 and 50 | |
| Wed, Jan 31 | rec 3 Behavioral subtyping | ||
| Thu, Feb 1 | Introduction to design patterns, and design patterns for reuse | Optional: Effective Java, Items 18, 19, and 20 | hw2 Polymorphism, unit testing |
| Tue, Feb 6 | Design patterns for reuse, continued | UML and Patterns, Ch. 9 and 10 | |
| Wed, Feb 7 | rec 4 Inheritance and delegation | ||
| Thu, Feb 8 | Object-oriented analysis: Modeling a problem domain | Optional: UML and Patterns, Ch. 17; Effective Java, Item 49, 54, and 69 | hw3 Inheritance and delegation |
| Tue, Feb 13 | Object-oriented design: Responsibility assignment | UML and Patterns, Ch. 14, 15, and 16 | |
| Wed, Feb 14 | rec 5 Design process | ||
| Thu, Feb 15 | Midterm exam 1 | ||
| Tue, Feb 20 | Analysis | ||
| Wed, Feb 21 | rec 6 Design patterns | ||
| Thu, Feb 22 | Introduction to Concurrency and GUIs | hw4a Designing complex software | |
| Tue, Feb 27 | Design case study: Java Swing | UML and Patterns, Ch. 26.1 and 26.4 | |
| Wed, Feb 28 | rec 7 Introduction to GUIs | ||
| Thu, Mar 1 | Design case study: Java Collections & I/O | Optional: Effective Java, Item 1 | |
| Tue, Mar 6 | Design for large-scale reuse: Libraries & frameworks | Effective Java, Items 6, 7, and 63 | |
| Wed, Mar 7 | rec 8 GUIs++ | ||
| Thu, Mar 8 | Design for large-scale reuse: Libraries & frameworks, part 2 | hw4b Design to implementation | |
| Tue, Mar 13 | No lecture: Spring break | ||
| Wed, Mar 14 | No recitation: Spring break | ||
| Thu, Mar 15 | No lecture: Spring break | ||
| Tue, Mar 20 | Designing APIs | Effective Java, Items 51, 60, 62, and 64 | |
| Wed, Mar 21 | rec 9 Frameworks | ||
| Thu, Mar 22 | Designing APIs, continued | Optional: Effective Java, Items 52 and 53 | hw4c GUI implementation |
| Tue, Mar 27 | Concurrency: Java Primitives | ||
| Wed, Mar 28 | rec 10 Git and Github++ | ||
| Thu, Mar 29 | Midterm exam 2 | ||
| Tue, Apr 3 | Concurrency: Java Primitives, continued | Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 11.3 and 11.4 | hw5a Framework design |
| Wed, Apr 4 | rec 11 Framework presentations | ||
| Thu, Apr 5 | Concurrency: Safety, Structuring applications | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 10 | |
| Tue, Apr 10 | Concurrency: Parallelizing algorithms, concurrency frameworks | Optional: Java Concurrency in Practice, Ch. 12 | hw5b Framework and plugin implementation |
| Wed, Apr 11 | rec 12 Concurrency | ||
| Thu, Apr 12 | Design case study: Java functional APIs and streams | ||
| Mon, Apr 16 | No lecture Monday, but homework is due: | hw5c Plugins for others' frameworks | |
| Tue, Apr 17 | Toward software engineering in practice (incl. teams and process) | ||
| Wed, Apr 18 | rec 13 Java concurrency framework | ||
| Thu, Apr 19 | No lecture: Carnival | ||
| Tue, Apr 24 | Developer tools and devops | ||
| Wed, Apr 25 | rec 14 Java functional APIs and streams | ||
| Thu, Apr 26 | Developer tools and devops 2 | ||
| Tue, May 1 | Developer tools and devops 3 | ||
| Wed, May 2 | rec 15 Devops | hw6 Concurrency | |
| Thu, May 3 | Design patterns, finale | ||
| Mon, May 7 | Final exam (5:30 - 8:30 p.m.) |