The first test for this course takes place in class on Monday, February 24. It will cover material from classes and labs as well as from assigned readings. The test will be four pages long. It can include definitions and short answer questions; longer essay-type questions; questions that ask you to write code segments or a complete program; and questions that ask you to determine the purpose or the output of a given code segment.
The test covers material from Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the textbook. From Chapter 1, we covered only some basic concepts, from Sections 1.1, 1.3, and 1.4. We covered most of Chapter 2 except for Section 2.6, programming environments. We covered most of Chapter 3. We omitted all the material in Chapters 2 and 3 on enum and Scanner. You are not responsible for every detail of the reading. In particular, you are not responsible for memorizing every subroutine defined in Math, TextIO, and String; see the lists, below, of subroutines for which you are responsible. You will not be asked about the switch statement, the do..while statement, the continue statement, or labeled break statements. You will not be asked about specific examples,such as the 3N+1 problem or interest rate computations, that are covered in the text. There will be no questions on Linux or the command-line environment, except possibly for the javac and java commands and the general process of editing, compiling, and running a program.
You are also responsible for material from the labs. In particular, you should be familiar with the drawing commands that were used in Labs 2 and 3. I will not, however, ask you about command-line arguments.
Here is a list of some of the things that you should know about:
CPU
computer programs
machine language
high-level programming language
compiler
Java bytecode
Java Virtual Machine
syntax
semantics
style rules and why they are important
style rules for variable names
comments using //
comments using /* ... */
formatting and indentation of programs
how to compile and run a Java program
the javac command
the java command
the basic structure of a Java program (You should have it memorized by now!!!):
public class <program-name> {
public static void main(String[] args) {
<statements>
}
}
identifiers
reserved words like public and if
compound names (with ".") such as System.out.print or str.equals
variables
data types
Java's primitive types: int, double, char, boolean
the String type
literals
Java literals of various types (numeric, char, String, boolean)
special characters in char and String literals, such as '\n' and '\t'
the basic idea of binary numbers (strings of 0's and 1's)
assignment statements
type compatibility rules for assignment statements
declaring variables
subroutines, and "calling" a subroutine such as System.out.print or g.drawRect
parameters in subroutines, such as the x in System.out.println(x)
functions: subroutines that "return a value"
important functions in the Math class:
Math.random(), Math.sqrt(x), Math.pow(x,y)
important functions in any String str:
str.length(), str.charAt(i), str.indexOf(ch), str.equals(str2), str.equalsIngoreCase()
comparing Strings with str.equals(str2) instead of str == str2
System.out.print(x), System.out.println(x), and System.out.print()
formatted output with System.out.printf(formatString, v1 v2, ...)
important format specifiers for use in the formatString of printf:
for example: %s %d %4d %1.2f
getting input from the user
TextIO
important TextIO input functions:
TextIO.getln(), TextIO.getlnInt(), TextIO.getlnDouble()
reading input from a file with TextIO:
TextIO.readFile(filename)
expressions
operators
precedence of operators and using parentheses to control order of evaluation
important operators:
+ - * / % == < > != <= >= && || ! ++ -- += *=
type-casting, especially using (int) and (double) for type-casting numbers
converting strings to numbers with Integer.parseInt(str) and Double.parseDouble(str)
making random integers: (int)( m * Math.random() ) + n
how the / and % operators work for integers
using the + operator with a String
statements
control structures
the empty statement: ;
block statement: { ... }
while statement: while ( condition ) { statements }
for statement: for ( initialize ; condition ; update ) { statements }
simple if statement: if ( condition ) { statements }
if..else statement: if ( condition ) { statements } else { statements }
using if..else if...
using while(true) loops
using break in a loop
infinite loop
algorithm (the most basic object of study in computer science!)
pseudocode
algorithm development using pseudocode and stepwise refinement
exceptions
how exceptions affect the flow of control
try..catch statement: try { statements } catch ( exception-type identifier ) { statements }
NumberFormatException when using Integer.parseInt(str) and Double.parseDouble(str)
IllegalArgumentException when using TextIO to read from a file
the paintComponent() method in GUI programs
pixels
the xy coordinate system that is used for drawing
important subroutines in a Graphics object g (for use in paintComponent):
g.setColor(c), g.drawRect(x,y,w,h), g.fillRect(x,y,w,h),
g.fillOval(x,y,w,h), g.drawOval(x,y,w,h), g.drawLine(x1,y1,x2,y2),
g.drawString(str,x,y)
basic color values: Color.RED, Color.GREEN, Color.BLUE, Color.WHITE, Color.BLACK, etc.