COMP229: Object Oriented Programming Practices
Welcome to COMP229 "Object Oriented Programming Practices" and come with us on a journey into the exciting world of object oriented design and programming in the JAVA language.
To date, we have been happy to measure the success of the programs we write merely in terms of whether or not they work. However, in practice it is rarely enough simply to write a program which "does the job". As professional programmers, however, we also need to be aware of the expense involved in maintaining, extending and re-using the code we write throughout its lifetime. Then we need to build our programs using a methodology which supports those processes as efficiently as possible. Today, methods based upon object-oriented programming have become the gold standard approach to developing re-usable software.
This unit bridges the gap between introductory programming and larger multi-person software applications by considering the use of object-oriented techniques to produce intermediate-sized software. The major aims of this course are to enable participants to:
- Understand the fundamental concepts that underlie object oriented approaches to software development,
- Design functional and maintainable software systems using Object Oriented (OO) building blocks and design patterns, and
- Program proficiently in an OO programming language.
Practical and tutorial exercises in this unit emphasise the importance of programming practices such as appropriate documentation, systematic approaches to debugging and testing, and the use of software development tools. It will be taught using the JAVA programming language.
All learning materials associated with this unit will be made available via its iLearn website. We assume that students will regularly check that site for lecture notes, tutorial and practical questions, assignment descriptions, assignment feedback, assessment marks, code samples, discussion boards and other related resources.
For more information on the unit timetable, course content, set text, assessment tasks etc. please take a little time to read the COMP229 unit guide.
Unit Convenor: A/Prof. Dominic Verity.
Email: dominic dot verity at mq dot edu dot au
News
[31/07/2011] If you are having difficulties logging onto the iLearn website, or if you do not find COMP229 listed as one of your units when you do login, then you should send an email to iLearn.help@mq.edu.au or visit the ScienceIT help desk on the 3rd floor of E6A. In the meantime, you can access the week 1 mixed class exercises here.
[29/06/2011] ***Important*** Please note that the text book for for this unit has changed since last year. The text book we will be using in semester 2 2011 is Head First Design Patterns by Eric T Freeman, Elisabeth Robson, Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra, O'Rielly Media, October 2004 (ISBN:978-0-596-00712-6). Copies of this book are available for you to purchase at the COOP Bookshop in the U@MQ centre or may be ordered from your favourite online purveyor of fine literature.
[29/06/2011] Note that the lectures, tutorials and practicals for this unit all start in Week 1 of semester 2 (week starting Monday 1st August 2011). If you would like to get started right now, you might like to start by installing the Java / Eclipse development platform on your machine at home or on your laptop. To find out more about this process have a look at the Java installation and Eclipse installation pages.