Java Programming Essentials: AP Computer Science A

Abacus is an ancient tool for calculation. It is still used widely for training of mental calculation. It is also a good example to show how computation can be mapped to a very simple hardware (abacus: beams and beads). In this lecture, we use abacus to explain computation, hardware, programming language and programs.

Introduction to computer science from different view points: digital system, hardware, software, operation system, programming language and problem solving. 

Short overview of Java Development Kit, JRE, Java Virtual Machine, Java API and Java IDE. The purpose is to give audience the first impression of these terms but not the details of how they works. So, don't get scared if you do not fully understand what it is. We will return to them over and over again.

Show the internet resources available for eC Learning Channel by Dr. Eric Chou to support this course. 

My Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/user/eric-chou/

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXGHpbLr9O5GydD0Ja9C7Nw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007999848206

Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Eric-Chou-21 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eCwarlephant

Email: echou510@gmail.com

Show student the resources and other educational materials provided by the Lecturer.  To guide student to learn Programming step by step. 

Discuss programming languages used in different system level (machine language, assembly language, and high-level programming language). Also discuss the history and trends of programming language.

Demonstrate how to install Java Development Kit (JDK 8) and Integrated Development Environment (Eclipse and BlueJ). We use BlueJ as our default tool. Please also download the PeaZip program if you do not have proper compression/de-compression program. (In this course, we use BlueJ as the main development IDE.) If you want to use Eclipse, please download

Total_Beginner_Companion_Document.pdf

file.

You may also find PeaZip tool to be useful when you need to download a zipped source code file (.zip).

Demonstrate the advantages of BlueJ as the first Integrated IDE for beginning students.

A simple program, HelloWorld.java, is presented. In this lecture, this simple program will be compiled and run. Discussion on comment lines and basic program structure will also be included. Check study plan for the information or program files to download.

Good coding style is very very very important. (Please excuse me to repeat "very" three times. Because it is really very important. A good commonly shared style can make the program less error-prone and make the team work much more efficient and lower misunderstanding.

The programmer's habits is equally essential. Please also download and study the document.

Demonstration of the building process of a simple Java Program named OnePlusOne.java.

Description of Java compilation process, dynamic linking vs static linking. Please download the program and try it.

You may create a new class in BlueJ environment. Then, you do cut and paste from this file to you own class.

Or, you may copy this file to a specific directory that you have already build. And, after that call BlueJ, BlueJ will automatically recognize the program file.

Show the JavadocDemo.java program to demonstrate how to add Javadoc-compatible comments and how to use BlueJ and command line javadoc program to generate Javadoc html page that can be viewed using browser or BlueJ environment. (Download and save JavadocDemo.java to try for your own)

Identifiers as the identification (or name) for a program part. It is very essential to learn how the identifiers are defined and used. Keyword listing is also attached for download. chapter2.pdf can be downloaded as extra reading material

Describes the naming convention for variables, constants, methods, class, and package names.

ComputeArea.java is a demo version. ComputeAreaModified.java has one more variable defined. Please work on the ComputeArea.java to add a new variable named perimeter and write appropriate code to assign circle perimeter to it and print the result out. The expected result should be similar to ComputeAreaModified.java.

Introduce int and double data types. Other data types are also briefly mentioned. Binary number system is discussed along with two's complement and the number representation for int, float and double data types. This lecture concluded with the constant data modifier.

Coffee Break for data, input, output and data processing. 

Present the ways of writing literals for numbers and text into a program and using them to assign value for variables and constants.

Java coffee break to show the importance of binary number system. 

Discuss how to read in data from the console and the use of constant PI. (This PI is different from Math.PI.)

Scanner is part of Java API.

Provides information about arithmetic operators and their precedence level when executed. Complete precedence levels are also provided by reserved for future reference and discussion.

Introduction of augmented assignment operators. 

On topic of casting. Explain implicit casting versus explicit casting. Also, widening casting versus narrowing casting.

Introduce boolean data type, boolean operators, boolean expressions and boolean theorem.

Introduce char primitive data type and Character Class.

Use a very simple program to show boolean data type, boolean expression, char data type, arithmetic for unsigned char and String concatenation.

Briefly mention about Java API for the primitive data types, Math Class and String Class.

Coffee Break for short video clip on Boolean expression and its functionality. 

Introduce Math Class as a service and processing utility class for all numbers.

A demo program to show Random class and Math.random method.

This lab focused on Scanner and Math.random method. The student will be asked to write a program to generate two random integers and calculate the difference. Then, prompt to the console to ask for user to input the answer. If the answer is correct, then print out a correct message. Other, print out an error message and the correct answer.

(Student can download SubtractionQuiz.java but he is also encouraged to work on his own. A sample answer is in SubtractionQuizAnswer.java)

Start a series of three lectures on String class. Part 1 is on String construction and String length().

Demonstrate construction of strings and the nature of pointer (reference data type) for strings.

String Class Part 2: for String read-in from console and files. String conversion to double and integer and double. Conversion of integer and double into strings. Third part of this lecture is the methods for string comparison.

Demo proper use of Scanner input stream for integers and strings.

String Class Part 3: substring methods.

Use social security number as an example to practice substring() and charAt() methods

A lab work to experience string method replace and replaceAll

Discuss the three print out methods: println, print, printf.

Examples of printf for integer, floating points and string

Use Trigonometry function sine and cosine to demonstrate the formatted print method: printf and the use of Math class method.

ASCII code artwork has been around for many years since the text-era computers at 1970s-1980s. It is still a interesting art because it is beyond just showing the artistic presentation. It is also a good mental exercise. Enjoy it and have fun.

Short video clip for the functionality of APIs

This is the Chapter Project for this Chapter. Please download the StudentGPA.zip and unzip it. Copy the files to your own BlueJ workspace and try on the program. The StudentGPA.java is only a skeleton file. You may get started from that. Follow the comments and then do programming on yourself. Then, you may refer to the StudentGPAAnswer.java.

Should you have any issue, you are welcome to post on the discussion board, facebook page or email me.

Unit 1 review based on the programming paradigm concept of sequential programming.

Introduce software engineering development models. (Waterfall, V-model, Spiral Mode)

Introduce the pseudo code method for software development at System Design Analysis and Design stages.

Two free response questions, please follow these steps:

(1) download U1R1 Free Response Problems.pdf and print a hard copy to work on it.

(2) use the rubric to score your own answer or ask some other people to score for you with honor code.

(3) download the sample answer U1R1 FRQ Sample Answer.pdf

(4) The sample java code is in the Review01.zip, please unzip it and copy it under your BlueJ project directory.

Introduce one-way, two-way, multiple-way if-statement, if-else-statement, and if-else-if-statements.

A simple demo program for if statements. Please download and unzip SimpleIfDemo.zip to get the .java file.

Lab: Calculate and print out an BMI report of a person based on his /her body weight and height.

Modify the StudentGPA.java to a format that read in subject score on 0-100 scale and print out a score report with letter grade.

Show many useful techniques to use Math.Random to create random samples. And discuss the applications of computer program using these techniques.

Short Introduction to Boolean Algebra. If you are interested in this subject, please look at the external links for more information and study materials.

Also download a quiz file to practice.

Introduce guidelines for good logic design habits for conditional statements.

A Lab Project to determine whether a year is a leap year or not and to determine its associated Chinese Zodiac since 1948. (Based on modulo calculation.)

Discuss conditional expressions and switch statement.

Introduce Random class. How to use it? and its important methods: nextDouble(), nextInt() and random input for Gaussian (normal) distribution.

A Demo Program to update the StudentGPAWithLetterGrade.java to StudentGPASimulationMode.java

with two new features:

(1) Use Random Class to generate random inputs for the scores of each subject.

(2) revise the logic of the letter grade assignment.

Please download StudentGPASimulationMode.zip to unzip and try StudentGPASimulationMode.java

In this chapter, student are asked to simulate a darts throwing game for a player to throw 3 darts per game. Print the sum of the scores. Random class is required for this project to generate random numbers. Please work on your own and then, download Darts.zip for your reference. (The Darts.java is in there.)

Introduce while-loop and do-while loop. Please also download the extra document reading and the external web-site for while-loop example.

Use Addition Quiz program to demonstrate the while loop. The program also covers Random class, difficulty level, and while loop. Please download the (RepeatAdditionQuiz.zip and unzip for the RepeatAdditionQuiz.java) file and try it out.

Lab project: using while loop to find sum, average, maximum and minimum for some user input data.

Use Text File I/O to demonstrate how can a while loop be used to read in a Text file. File input stream using Scanner and File output stream using PrintWriter class. This while loop usage is very important for many applications.

This Lab work combine knowledge from while-loop for summation of numbers and FILE Input. bible.txt is a of reasonable size and is a good example for word count program example. Please download Bible.zip and unzip it. Bible.java is a sample answer program while bible.txt is the input file for students to work on.

Use a coffee shop example to show how to use do-while-loop. GetChange.java in chapter is ported here as a module to calculate the change for the customer.

Perform a Lottery Checking Game with a lottery of 4 decimal number (0 to 9). Use a menu selection for user to pick a way user want to play the lottery. If the first two numbers matched, player get a front-pair winning award. If the middle two numbers matched, it is a middle-pair win. If the last two numbers matched, it is a back-pair win. If all four numbers matched, it is the top prize. Ask user to enter his 4 digit lottery input. The program randomly generate a winning lottery number. Check if the plays wins the play he picked. If so, the program should say the player wins what game. If not, show sorry and try again message. Then, show the menu selection again. Enter a new game if the player does not quit.

Work on the generation of a Table for sine and cosine function over a unit circle. This lab project is to experience for-loop and handling numerical round-off error. Please work on your own version first and download sine.java (sample answer) and try it out for different round-off methods for numerical error handling.

Use Index space chart (discrete vector analysis) for nested for-loop analysis. Also, include MultiplicationTable.java to illustrate the nature of nested loop. Please download and try. Extra reading document from UT Austin for nested for-loop is strongly recommended.

Extra Topics on Loops:

(1) Break Level2 (download TestBreak.zip and unzip to try)

(2) Minimizing Numerical Errors (download TestSum.zip and unzip to try) Some discussion next Lecture.

(3) Sentinel Controlled Loop

(4) Redirection of I/O (read external web-link for I/O Redirection)

Detailed Explanation about numerical error detection and handling.

Chapter Project: work on a project to analyze the probability of each of the possible outcomes of two dice rolling game. Nested loop and random number generation techniques will be used.

A Chapter project to generate password of length from 1 to 100 with 4 different optional format. (Tough Project) Strongly recommended to try.

Introduce program structure method. Discuss the method signature, modifier, return value and method body.

Discuss the calling steps and calling stack details when a method is called. Simple example for DNA code for matched pairs is also given.

Provide examples in user-defined statistics methods for two input min, max, avg and sum.

Generate the (x, y) combination (cos, sin) for the unit circle. 

Introduce the concept of call by value and call by reference. More detailed example in DNA encoding in string is presented.

Discuss the benefits of using methods and demo three example programs (GCD, Prime Number and Hexcdecimal to Decimal).

Discuss the static methods, static variables and use RandomCharacter as an example to demonstrate how to use static method. The StrongPassword.java is also re-written into a static method version StringPasswordMethod.java.

Based on knowledge of Method signature to understand what is method overloading and its related ambiguity issue.

Background Information for DNA Computing

DNA Encoding in strings Demo Program part 2: (Java Implementation) Use Java String data type to represents DNA strands and DNA genetic code. Many string manipulation methods are used in this project. It is a good application filed for application of strings. In this project, user-defined log method is also used to demonstrate dual I/O print out examples.

Discuss the scope of local variables.

Craps is a cide game played at many casinos. A player rools a pair of of normal six-sided dice. If the initial roll is 2, 3, or 12, the player loses. If the roll is 7 or 11, the player wins. Any other initial roll causes the player to "roll for point." That is, the player keeps rolling the dice until either rolling a 7 or re-rolling the value of the initial roll. If the player re-rolls the initial value before rolling a 7, it's a win. Rolling a 7 first is a lost.

Write a program to simulate multiple games of craps and estimate the probability that the player wins. For example, if the player wins 249 out of 500 games, then the estimated probability of winning is 249/500=0.498.

(py-294)

Talk about design methodology at design and implementation stage.

Use printCalendar project to demonstrate bottom up implementation approach by design the flow chart first. The flow chart is designed using an open source free tool named Dia Diagramming Tool. This tool is good for both Structural Programming and Object-Oriented Programmin. In Unit 3 review, we will see it again along with the violet UML tool. For printCalendar project, no pseudo code will be provided. only the flow chart is given. Please download Dia.zip to unzip it to get access to all of the .dia files for the methods. You are welcome to design the two methods that is not included in the Dia.zip.

This lecture also serve as background information for the next lecture: unit project printCalendar.java.

Based on the top-down design and bottom up implementation approaches in the previous two lectures.

To write a program to print out a monthly calendar (PrintCalendar.java) to screen. The purpose of this project

is to demonstrate the methodology in design and implementation stage.

Two free response questions, please follow these steps:

(1) download U2R2 Free Response Problems.pdf and print a hard copy to work on it.

(2) use the U2R2 rubric to score your own answer or ask some other people to score for you with honor code.

(3) download the sample answer U2R2 FRQ Sample Answer.pdf

(4) The sample java code is in the Review02.zip, please unzip it and copy it under your BlueJ project directory.

Welcome to Unit 3, Data Structure and Object-Oriented Programming Basics. In this unit, various of data structure including arrays, arraylists, and objects will be discussed. In this lecture, we are focused on the basics of 1-D arrays.

A simple program to demonstrate the use of arrays. Also, discuss how to call methods from

Standard library without importing.

Introduce Part 1: Basic array processing with basic traversal, data mutation. This is part 1 of a series of lectures. In this chapter, we have part 2 and part 3. However, because array is the most essential part in data structure, this chapter cannot completely cover this topic of array processing. Searching and sorting are more advanced topics and will partly be covered in this chapter and fully on other chapters.

Lab Project: Weather Data 

Use the weather data to exercise on the array processing (taking sum and average). 

More advanced array processing methods for basic statistics and array reversal (with comparison to integer reverse and string reversal).

Basic statistics methods using arrays (2nd version Stats02.java) including new methods range, mode and median.

Introduce enhanced for-loop and use it to demonstrate array processing by re-writing Stats02.java.

Besiedes, a rangeIn, which can generate integer arithmetic seqeuence in array format, is also presented

and used to rewrite mode() method in Stats02.java.

Unguided Lab Project: Health Index 

Use for-each-loop to process the array data for temperature and humidity for the health index calculation. 

Background information for using array to represents poker card and poker card deck. An simple example program is used to demonstrate how this can be done. This similar method is used over and over again, and, finally, it will be the essential part of the College Board suggested AP Computer Science Course laboratory work: Elevens Lab.

Based on the knowledge learned from the Random Card demo program to develop a Deck of Card program. This project is very important as audience moves on to the other card related projects in this course, because it develops the building blocks of the card games.

Extensions from the Deck of Cards project. More card shuffling and reordering methods are introduced. These methods can also be used for re-ordering arrays of other applications.

Calculate the surface gravity of all the planets in the solar system. 

Discuss the various ways of copying an array in Java language. The topic of shallow copy versus deep copy is touched briefly but not explained in details because it is not in the course scope.

Discuss the topics about passing arrays to methods: anonymous arrays, call by reference, memory allocation for arrays, pointer and body of arrays, and reversal of arrays.

Hurricane project to exercise the multiple one-dimensional array and the average and sum of three arrays. 

Discuss simple linear search algorithm which is very useful in many applications. This lecture is followed by two exemplary demo program for letter occurrence count and word occurrence count in a text string.

Tally for the letter occurrence in the text file named usdeclaration.txt. This demo program shows a commonly used technique to tally for occurrence of certain letter or array items and use an occurrence array or frequency array to keep track of the occurrence data.

A demo program to count the total number of words, words used, and put the words used into a dictionary array (dict) and calculate for its occurrence in (wordCount array). This version is using array only. It is simple and very straight forward. You may compare this program with the other program in the external links. You may find out this version is very robust and very easy.

Discuss the binary search algorithm and Arrays Class binarySearch() method.

Introduce advanced topic (non-AP CS topic) for Arrays Class (Wrapper Class for arrays.)

More coverage on Arrays Class and main method's string argument array.

A lab project for student to practice to read in the student score and name information from a text file. Use a pre-run loop to determine the total student number in the file. (If you have questions, look at the "Find Line Count, Word Count, and letter.pdf" for how to determine the line number is a AP-subset style)

Then, determine the grade for each course (math and English). After that use the letter occurrence tally technique to find out the class grade distribution and print the information out.

Build the fundamental methods in processing a hand of cards when a poker game is of the primary interests. The project demonstrate the creation of occurrence array, non-recurring-elements (distinct element) array to handle complex pattern matching (category of cards) problems.

This project also leads to essential techniques in game design (poker game itself is a popular online or desktop game).

The activity 1 is the fundamentals. The activity 2 is focused on card pattern analysis for determining the category of a hand of cards.

Build the fundamental methods in processing a hand of cards when a poker game is of the primary interests. The project demonstrate the creation of occurrence array, non-recurring-elements (distinct element) array to handle complex pattern matching (category of cards) problems.

This project also leads to essential techniques in game design (poker game itself is a popular online or desktop game).

The activity 1 is the fundamentals. The activity 2 is focused on card pattern analysis for determining the category of a hand of cards.