Imperative Programming II

Overview

This course starts with an introduction to the basic concepts and techniques of modular program construction and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). It continues with two modest-sized case-studies that introduce some of the basic OOP programming idioms (Design Patterns) in realistic settings.

There are three main ideas: encapsulation, that programs should be built from objects that satisfy a coherent specification and hide the details of how that specification is implemented; object identity, that each object has a distinct identity, so that multiple objects can co-exist and interact with each other; and polymorphism, that objects that implement the same interface can be used interchangeably to give a variety of behaviours.

This is a module with a one-third practical weight. There is a correspondingly heavy use of practicals to develop understanding of OOP in general, and the use of Java in particular.