The first test for this course takes place in class on Monday, October 5. 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 similar to those given on the quizzes; 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 to 1.4. We covered all of Chapter 2 except for enum types (Subsection 2.3.3) and programming environments (Section 2.6). We covered pretty much all of Chapter 3 except for the material related to enums (3.4.4 and 3.6.3). Note that the material on GUI programming in Section 3.8 has been covered in lab. You are not responsible for every detail of this 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 or the try..catch statement or about specific examples, such as the 3N+1 problem, 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.
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
how to compile and run a Java program
the basic structure of a Java program (memorize it!):
public class <program-name> {
public static void main(String[] args) {
<statements>
}
}
identifiers
reserved words
compound names (with ".") such as System.out.print or str.equals
variables
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'
binary numbers
int values are 32-bit binary numbers
assignment statements
different meaning of variables on the left or right of =
type compatibility rules for assignment statements
declaring variables
subroutines
parameters in subroutines
subroutine call statements
functions
important functions in the Math class:
Math.random(), Math.sqrt(x), Math.pow(x,y)
important functions in any String:
str.length(), str.charAt(i), str.equals(str2),
comparing Strings with str.equals(str2) instead of str == str2
System.out.print(x) and System.out.println(x)
formatted output with System.out.printf(formatString, v1 v2, ...)
important format specifiers for use in the formatString of printf:
for example: %s %4d %1.2f %12.8g
TextIO
important TextIO input functions:
TextIO.getln(), TextIO.getlnInt(), TextIO.getlnDouble()
Using TextIO to read from a file, using TextIO.readFile(fileName)
TextIO.eof()
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
the / and % operators for integers
using the + operator with a String
the assignment operators += and -=
statements
control statements
the empty statement: ;
block statements: { ... }
while statement: while ( condition ) statement
for statement: for ( initialize ; condition ; update ) statement
do..while statement: do statement while condition
simple if statement: if ( condition ) statement
if..else statement: if ( condition ) statement else statement
using if..else if...
using while(true) loops
using break in a loop
infinite loops
priming a loop
flag variable
algorithm
pseudocode
algorithm development using pseudocode and step-wise refinement
bugs and debugging
exceptions
how exceptions affect the flow of control
the paintComponent() method in GUI programs
using the Graphics class for drawing
pixels and coordinate systems for drawing
important subroutines in a Graphics object:
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)
computer animation
frames in an animation
style rules and why they are important
comments using // or /* ... */
formatting and indentation of programs