CSCI.2600 Principles of Software -- Spring 2021

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Course Description

Pre-requisites

CSCI 1200 Data Structures and CSCI 2200 Foundations of Computer Science.

Course Themes

Software Development Tools. Reasoning about Code. Inheritance and Polymorphism. Design Patterns. GUI and Event-Driven Programming.

Learning Outcomes

When the students have successfully completed this course, they will be able to write correct and maintainable software in high-level languages. Concretely, students will be able to:

• apply fundamental principles such as reasoning about code, specification, abstraction, design patterns, testing, refactoring and software process, towards building software systems,
• demonstrate competence with modern software engineering tools such as the Eclipse IDE, the JUnit Framework, revision control, test coverage tools and others, and
• demonstrate competence with the Java programming language and the Java libraries.

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Course Contents

1. Introduction
• Java, Eclipse, Git
2. Reasoning about Code
• Hoare logic
• Loop invariants
• Dafny
• Specifications
• Abstract Data Types
• Testing
• Exceptions
• Identity, Equality
3. Inheritance and Polymorphism
• Subtype Polymorphism
• Liskov Substitution Principle
• Inheritance
• Parametric Polymorphism
4. Design Patterns
• Patterns
• Antipatterns, Refactoring
• Event-Driven, GUI Programming
• Software Process
• Usability

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Tentative Course Syllabus

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Reading Material

• Effective Java, Third Edition, by Joshua Bloch, Addison-Wesley, 2019.
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides, Addison-Wesley, 1995
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler, Addison-Wesley, 2019
• A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout, Yaknyam Press, 2018
• Program Development in Java: Abstraction, Specification, and Object-Oriented Design by John Guttag, Barbara Liskov, Addison-Wesley, 2000

While none of the books is required, these are all highly recommended books worth having in your bookshelf.

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Java Resources

• Main Java website by Oracle: http://java.com
• Java documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/
• Java API: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/8/docs/api/index.html
• Java tutorial: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/
• Java language specification: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/
• Java News, and Resources: https://go.java/index.html

Grading

There are 8 homework assignments to be completed individually. Do not show your code to any other student and do not look at any other student's code. Do not put your code in a public directory or otherwise make it public. You are encouraged to use the Submitty Discussion Forum to post questions so that other students can also answer/see the answers. Assignments are due at 11:59pm on the due date. You have 7 late days for the entire semester without penalty with a maximum of 2 late days per assignment.

Project requirements and instructions for submitting assignments will be made available for each assignment. Projects requiring programming must include the submission of well-commented source code. All programming assignments must execute successfully on the Linux operating system installed on the Submitty system. Documented source code and separate files containing answers to questions will be required for each assignment.

There are two partial exams and one final exam, to be completed individually. All answers must be your own.

There are 8 in-class quizzes, which are to be completed individually after a brief group discussion.

Final letter grades will be assigned as follows:

Academic Integrity

Student-teacher relationships are built on trust. For example, students must trust that teachers have made appropriate decisions about the structure and content of the courses they teach, and teachers must trust that the assignments that students turn in are their own. Acts that violate this trust undermine the educational process. The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities and The Graduate Student Supplement define various forms of Academic Dishonesty and you should make yourself familiar with these. In this class, all assignments that are turned in for a grade must represent the student’s own work. In cases where help was received, or teamwork was allowed, a notation on the assignment should indicate your collaboration.

Violations of academic integrity may also be reported to the appropriate Dean (Dean of Students for undergraduate students or the Dean of Graduate Education for graduate students, respectively).

If you have any question concerning this policy before submitting an assignment, please ask for clarification. In addition, you can visit the following site for more information on our Academic Integrity Policy: Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Judicial Affairs..

Disability Services

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is committed to providing equal access to our educational programs and services for students with disabilities. If you anticipate or experience academic barriers due to a disability, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss your options. To establish reasonable accomodations, please register with THE Office of Disability Servicces for Students. After registration, make arrangements with the Director of Disability Services as soon as possible to discuss your accomodations so that they may be implmented in a timely fashion. DSS contact information: dss@rpi.edu; +1-518-276-8197; 4226 Academy Hall.

Disability Services for Students

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