Java Course

Here are some (Hebrew) lecture notes for a crash course on the Java Programming Language I once gave. In some places they are complete and in other places they are only sketches of what I actually taught. They are in Hebrew MS-Word 97 format. This course was intended for people with some programming background.

Lecture 1	Handout 1
Lecture 2		Exercise 2
Lecture 3	Handout 3	Exercise 3
Lecture 4	Handout 4
Naming Conventions

Course Outline:

1. What is Java?
• Motivation for creating the Java Programming Language.
• The way we write programs in the Java envirnment (as contrasted
  with C - compiling to byte-code instead of machine-code, dynamic linking)
• Advantages of Java over C/C++.
• Our first and second Java program.
2. Very short introduction to OOP.
• What is a class and what is an object (example: class - Nokia 6120 ,
  object - my specific cell phone).
• A program as a collection of interacting objects (Example: a calculator).
3. Objects in Java
• Java objects. Pointers to objects. Fields and methods.
• Constructors.
• Example: importance of encapsulation for flexibility of implementation.
  Private and public access modifiers.
• Maintaining correctness conditions (invariants) of objects using constructors
  and access modifiers.
4. Interfaces
• Interfaces in the real world (two different kinds of earphones can plug in
  to the same WalkMan).
• Interfaces in Java.
• Breaking a program into components using interfaces. Calculator example.
5. Extension (inheritence)
• Example of code duplication and how extension avoids it.
• Constructors.
• super keyword.
• Differences between extension and interfaces.
• How an extended object looks in memory.
• The class Object.
6. Advanced use of extension
• Using abstract classes and interfaces to plug-in different codes into the
  same frame work (menu example).
• An example from the Java library: the Servlet API
7. Exceptions
• Problems with error handling in C.
• Exceptions as "alarms"
• Exceptions are part of the function's definition.
• Runtime exceptions.
• The finally keyword.
8. Some Java features:
• packages
• static members
• overloading (important: depends on the argument's declared type and
  not its actual type)
• Nested (inner) classes (only static).
9. The Java API
• java.lang
• java.util - Data Structures - Collections and Maps
• java.io - stream based input and output (Example: makezip)
• Serialization
10. Threads and Networking
• Threads in Java
• Waiting, Deadlocks, etc.
• TCP Networking in Java - as easy as using the phone Examples: email sender,
  echo server, chat server.

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