Final Exam Topics

You will need to write Java code and Unix and/or DOS commands.

The final exam will include but is not limited to the following topics.

Material from before the midterm:

• All class and variable modifiers, including "abstract" and "interface", visibility modifiers, and class methods versus instance methods.
• L&L Chapters 7 and 8, though you'll also need to know the content of all of the chapters in order to write working Java code.
• Exceptions: Throwing, catching, writing your own.
• Inheritance: How to use abstract classes and interfaces. What kinds of restrictions they impose.
• ArrayList: How to create one, add items, remove items, and traverse it.
• How to create and use packages. How to set up a CLASSPATH in Windows, DOS, and/or Unix.
• Static classes and variables. What are they? How do they work?
• What is a singleton? How do you create one? This is discussed in Project 3, and is shown in the solution to Project 3.
• All of the reading assignments on the course "Topics and Reading" web page, including compiling from the command line, basic Unix, and everything else listed. Be sure to log onto a Unix system and read the "man" page for "chmod".
• Know how to read the entire contents of an "ls -la" command when issued at the Unix command prompt, and how to change permissions on folders and files.

Material since the midterm:

• The basics of how to build a simple GUI using Java Swing and the convention shown in the class examples and in the course web page under "Sample Swing Code." In this convention, the entire GUI is set up within the constructor of a JFrame object.
• L&L Chapter 9, and the graphics track throughout the entire book.
• L&L Chapters 7, 8 and 9, and the graphics track throughout the entire book, though you'll also need to know the content of all of the chapters in order to write working Java code.
• How to add listeners to JButton, JTextField, and JFrame objects.
• The model-view-controller architecture. You should be able to identify the appropriate distribution of labor and communications among the model, view, and controller of a system.
• Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams. You should be able to understand the basic components of UML class and interaction diagrams, and write the corresponding code.
• Both chapters in the reserve reading for the class in Knight Library. From "Debugging", you should know the scientific approach to debugging, a number of useful testing debugging techniques, and common debugging pitfalls. From "Design Patterns," you should know what design patterns are, why they are useful, how they differ from programming constructs built into programming languages, what are the essential components of a design pattern, and two or three examples of specific design patterns.

The best way to prepare is to give yourself problems that incorporate the above concepts, such as the following:

• Write a small Swing program that would allow the user to type in a few words followed by the "Enter" key. The program would display the string elsewhere in the the window. Clicking on the close-window button quits the program.
• Design a small Java program that uses the MVC architecture and works as follows: The user can type in a command to "add book" and the word "book" gets added to a collection of words. The user can then type "show" and the entire collection of words gets output. Use the MVC architecture and a clearly defined public interface so that the View could either output the words to a file or the display and the other two components would not know or care, and so that the Model could store the words in an ArrayList or any other data structure and the other components would not know or care.
• Write a Java program that takes two filename arguments from the command line, quits with an error if two arguments are not provided, and then proceeds to copy each word in the first file to the second file, quitting with an error if the first file can't be read or the second file exists or can't be written.

After you write the problem, you should close all your books and notes, write the code as best as you can using paper and pencil, and then open your books and type it into the computer, fixing it until it is perfect. Then, close all your books and notes and again write it using paper and pencil. Continue until you can write it perfectly from your knowledge of Java.