Course description, from the catalogue:

COM1204 Object-Oriented Design 4 QH
Introduces the philosophy and methodology of object-oriented software design and the techniques of object-oriented programming. Discusses the design and implementation of individual classes and the tradeoffs in designing collections of classes. Introduces class libraries and application frameworks. Examines simple design patterns and compares object-oriented design to other software design paradigms. Applies object-oriented design to several medium-sized projects. Prereq. COM1201 or permission of instructor."

Course Key Number:

04218

Institution:

Northeastern University, and the College of Computer and Information Sciences, Boston, MA.

Instructor:

Professor Robert P. Futrelle   Email me at: futrelle@ccs.neu.edu.
You can also use a web form to contact me without needing email access at all.

Futrelle's Office:

115 Cullinane

Course grader

Mingyan Shao myshao@ccs.neu.edu. Office: 53CN. Phone 617-373-4607.

Hardcopy mailbox:

161 Cullinane

Telephone:

Futrelle's office: 617-373-4239, Lab: 617-373-4607

Textbook:

Design Patterns. Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides; 395 pages; Addison-Wesley Pub Co; (1995); ISBN: 0201633612

Personal Help and Office Hours:

Futrelle has regularly scheduled office (and advising) hours Wednesdays from 3:30-5:30 in 115CN. If you need help at any time, find Futrelle or Ms. Shao in her office, or call or send email, or ask in class to set up an appointment.

The Questionnaire - Information about you:

Every student must fill out a questionnaire with information about themselves. This will include your all-important PIN and email information, which we'll need to manage the course.

On-line help:

There is a ton of information about computer graphics and about Java graphics on the web. See the graphics info link on the homepage.

Classes:

Mondays and Thursdays, 1:00-2:05, Wednesdays 2:15-3:20 (Seq. 5), 220 Shillman NOTE: There will be four additional class meetings and an equal number of cancelled ones when Prof. Futrelle is in Europe. Stay tuned.

Projects:

All students will participate in a project team with three or four other students. See the Projects page for details. Every student in the course is expected to do programming in Java. At least one student in each project will be designated to maintain the required team web page. Without a web page for us to access for grading, your projects will receive a zero grade, so these web pages are critically important. All projects must be in Java and accessible to us and compiled and tested on Sun Solaris, no matter where developed. So at least one team member will need a CCS account.

You will be required to write Java code on tests:

So that we can be confident that you do know how to program (rather than having another member in your Project team do all the programming), each test will have at least one question that will require you to write Java code. Since all tests will be closed-book, this will require you to learn the basics by heart. In some cases, you will only be asked to write pseudocode. (Remember, the ultimate goal of all programmers should be to be able to sit at the beach or by a mountain lake or ski resort fireplace and write code without any references at all ;-)

Grading:

Grading will be "zero-based". Your grade on every project and quiz will start at zero and build up on the basis of the correctness and adequacy of your work. Since writing (in English) will be an increasingly important of your career as it develops, points will be awarded for clarity, adequacy and correctness of your English, from the choice of variable names to Javadoc comments to your exams.

• Project credit will be 10% for each of your three reports, total of 30%
• Quiz #1, 10%
• Midterm Exam, 20%
• Quiz #2, 10% e
• Final Exam, 30%

Note carefully that each 10% is worth one full letter grade in the course. There will normally be some extra credit possible on each test and extra credit will be given for extraordinary project accomplishments. Project grading will be via your team web pages and your code we access there.

Your personal identifier (PIN):

Each student will be assigned a PIN on the first day of the course, or as soon as they add the course. This 4-digit PIN will allow us to post grades, comments and other information in an efficient manner. Do not reveal your PIN to anyone. If you forget your PIN, check with Prof. Futrelle or Ms. Shao.

The course email archives:

All students in the course must sign up at the beginning of the course for the mailing list in order to receive important notices. Subscribe here immediately: https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/com1204-sm03-rpf. You can only post mail to the list using the email address you sign up with. All mail to the list is archived here and available only to you through your mailing list address and password: https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/private/com1204-sm03-rpf/. (Note that I've added a trailing slash to this URL. Your browser may or may not link properly with/without the slash.) Post away -- your questions and information may well be of interest to other students in the class. Post mail to the list from your registered email address to here: com1s04-sm03-rpf@lists.ccs.neu.edu

Go to com1204 home page.

Return to Prof. Futrelle's home page