Welcome!

About this Subject

  • Prerequisites Undergraduate: CSE1PE Programming Environment or equivalent. Postgraduate: Nil.
  • Students enrol in this subject from a variety of backgrounds. Most will have done some programming, either in Programming Environment or in year 12 or in a course elsewhere. However the unit is intended as an introduction to programming, commencing at the basics. Despite this, it does cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. It does not assume any prior knowledge of programming, just an interest and willingness to learn to program.
  • We hope you find this subject an interesting, enjoyable and rewarding learning experience!
Subject Objectives
  • Analyse a problem and construct a logical solution suitable for implementation as a computer program.
  • Develop a valid, well structured, efficient, maintainable solution to a problem
  • Produce a correctly coded Java solution to a problem specification
  • Develop a modular solution, making use of local variables and parameters where appropriate
  • Develop a basic understanding of the object-oriented concepts of objects and classes
  • Develop and code simple classes
  • Use one-dimensional arrays in problems such as sorting and searching
  • Understand and use multi-dimensional arrays for tables etc.
  • Develop internal and external documentation for a programming problem including logic, comments etc.
  • Specify and execute test plans
Topics Covered
  • Introduction to problem solving and programming
  • Introduction to Java
  • Operators and expressions
  • Input/output
  • Selection: if-else, switch
  • Iteration: while, for, for-each, do-while
  • Methods & parameter passing
  • Classes and objects
  • Arrays
  • Sorting & searching
  • Documentation & Testing
Staffing 2009

Mary Martin, Lecturer
Mary Martin
Senior Lecturer
Computer Science
& Computer Engineering
La Trobe University, Bendigo

References & recommended reading

Malik D.S., "Java Programming: From Problem Analysis To Program Design", (2nd or 3rd ed.) Thomson Course Technology, 2006/2007. ISBN 0-619-21608-5 (2nd ed.), 1-4239-0135-5 (3rd. ed.)

Savitch W., "Absolute Java" 4th edn, Pearson Education International, 2010. ISBN 978-0-13-136589-6