Till Next Time

The grades have been posted to VIP. This site will remain up until the next time I teach this class.

If you are a visitor to this site and want to take a free intro to Java class, simply watch the 62 Java tutorial videos (or, watch them without ads at udemy.com) and do the 25 Lab assignments (2-hour programming projects) and 10 homework assignments (longer programming projects) to get some practice. You can then the tests to see how much you have learned. Have fun!

Also, if you want to leave any advise to future students, you can do so in the comments to this post.

CodingBat Bonus

As in the previous tests, you will get an extra point in Test 3 for each one of the following codingbat sections you finish before Monday at noon: AP-1, Recursion-1 and Recursion-2. Remember that to get credit you have to login to coding bat, then click 'prefs' and under 'Share To' put jmvidal@gmail.com, also set your name to the name as it appears on my roster.

Also remember to study all of Chapters 9--12, as they cover material that is not in the codingbat questions but will be on the test. Do the programming problems from the back of these chapters.

Test 2 Points Distribution

Below is the points distribution for Test 2. Points are not grades. We will talk about grades in class.

Practice Condingbat Bonus Points

Once again I will give you a bonus test point for each of the following sections you finish on codingbat.com. The sections are: Array-1, Array-2, Array-3, String-3. These will have to be done before Wed, March 14 @noon.

Remember to add jmvidal@gmail.com as your 'teacher share', click on the 'prefs' link in the top of the page to set your 'teacher share'.

Test 1 Distribution

I have graded Test 1, below is the points (not grades) distribution. I will talk about grades in class.

Test Grading Rubric

The grading rubric for the lab tests is as follows:

• If it works for all inputs and has the student's name and email and is reasonable code, then 100.
• If the program works but does it in a very silly way, like hard-coding gigantic Strings and printing them out instead of using a for loop to generate the String, then it will get at most 50.
• If it works for almost all inputs, or is almost perfect: 90:
• If it works for some inputs, or mostly works for all inputs: 80
• It if works for at least 1 input, or does something reminiscent of what we asked for: 70
• If it does not compile then it will get at most 50.
• If the program consists only of a main and the usual Scanner lines: 10.

For the in-class test (handwritten) the rubric is similar except that I will not be taking points off for missing details like: missing imports, semicolons, closing braces, etc. Still, you should try to make your code as close to compilable as possible to ensure it is not ambiguous (thus, wrong).

Lab Solutions

Here are my solutions to some of the past labs and homeworks.

• Lab 4: Distances
• Lab 5: Roommate Decision Tree
• Lab 6: Hot or Cold
• Lab 7: Flower
• Homework 2: MasterMindz

Remember, the only way to learn to program is by programming. Practice, practice, practice. I recommend:

1. Do the exercises in the textbook.
2. Do codingbat.com
3. Look at my answers and the ones in the textbook: compare with yours.
4. If confused, try watching one of my screencasts on the topic.

Test Practice and Bonus Points: Codingbat

The codingbat is a fun way to practice your coding skills.

Pretty much all the questions they have in the their Java sections Warmup-1, String-1, String-2, Logic-1, and Logic-2 are candidates for a Test 1 question. You can view your progress by clicking on "done" at the top of the screen. You can also share this page with the world (these are my results) to demo your l33t cod3rz skillz.

If you want, you can create an account there and then click on "prefs" (at the top) and in there set "Share to" to jmvidal@gmail.com. That way I will be able to see what problems you have done. I will then give you 1 extra test point (for Test 1) for each one of the 5 sections above that you finish before Monday Feb. 6 @noon.

Homework Grading Rubric

The homework assignments will be graded out of 10 points. The grade assignment will follow these guidelines:

• If it works for all inputs, and has the student(s)' names on a comment, has at least a couple short comments explaining what it does, and is properly indented then 10 points.
• If it works for all inputs but is missing one of the other requirements then 9 points.
• If it does not work for some inputs or in some cases but works in others, then 8 points.
• If it does not compile then it will get a maximum of 7 points, maybe less depending on how much working code is there.

Remote Access to your Network Drive

To access your CEC network drive (H:) from outside the college you have to first join the VPN, as the instructions explain.

Pair Programming

We will be using pair programming for the labs and the homeworks. The specific requirements for this class are

1. Pair up with whomever you want. Try to pair up with a few different other students during the semester. Try to pair up with someone who has about the same level of experience as you.
2. When you turn in your lab or homework remember to put both of your names at the top of the file.
3. It is not required that you pair up. You can work by yourself if you want to, but note that studies have shown that students who pair up do better in introduction to programming classes.
4. One of you will be the driver who types in the code, while the other is the navigator who looks on, spotting errors and thinking higher-level thoughts. You should switch roles every 30 minutes or so.
5. It is hard for two people to see one laptop screen. So, if you are working on your laptops for the homeworks consider using the screen sharing (macs) or remote desktop (windows and linux) that is built into your Operating System. You can turn these on and allow one laptop to see what the other one is doing.

Online Resources for Learning Programming

I created a bunch of screencasts (link also on the right sidebar under "Videos") which I will be posting here as we cover the relevant material. However, if you don't like my screencasts you have a plethora of other choices. Below I list the ones I've found that I like the most.

1. Our textbook has a website which you can log in using the code written inside the textbook. Once logged in you can watch the videos they provide.
2. The New Boston has a long list of Java screencasts similar to mine, but with a Boston accent.
3. The Khan Academy, of course, has a bunch of computer science videos. He uses Python.
4. Hacker CS has videos on Java and data structures. Most of what they have right now is too advanced for 145 (but perfect for CSCE 146).
5. Harvard's CS 50 is the fourth largest class at Harvard. It covers C, PHP, and JavaScript plus SQL, CSS, and HTML. You can view the lectures online. They are awesome.
6. MIT's 6.00 is their intro to programming class. They have their lectures online. They use Python.
7. Stanford has CS 101, which you can sign up for free. It starts on February 2012.
8. Codeacademy has a really cool webapp for teaching JavaScript. They are also hosting codeyear.

Spring 2012: Getting Ready

I will be teaching this class again in the Spring 2012, both sections.

The textbook will be Java: An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming (6th Edition). The tests are open book, with this book, so you want to buy this textbook. Buy it now, start reading it over the break.

You will also want to download and install eclipse. Pick the one titled "Eclipse IDE for Java Developers" or the "Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers" if you want even more plugins. If you don't already have Java installed in your machine (unlikely) then you will also need to download and install Java.

Optionally, you might also want to install dropbox in your laptop. It automatically backs up your and syncs your data, so you don't have to worry about losing homework programs.

Test 3 Averages

The averages for test 3 are shown below. As always, we will discuss about this and the final in class.

More Lectures by Better Lecturers

If you think that listening to a better lecturer will help you learn the material better then, you are in luck! As you probably know, all major Universities have their CS101-type courses online. I highly recommend MIT's 6.00: Introduction to Computer Science lectures. Another good one is Harvard's CS50.

Below is their video for binary search (using recursion, of course), which I will be talking about today.

Java 4-Ever!

Already nominated for a Developers' Choice award:

The Java Posse

These guys have had a podcast for five years. I'm a fan.

Test 2 Grade Distribution

Celebrity Interview

Below is an interview with Jeff Atwood, creator of stackoverflow.

See all 3 videos here. He talks about HTML5 issues, which we will be covering in my CSCE 242 class next semester.

Web Applications: Shameless Plug

If you are interested in building web applications, checkout my 242 class next semester. Because, all applications will be web applications.