Advanced Programming 1

Lecture 1: Introduction to JAVA Programming

Computers of the past
The computers in the past used to be very big. They could occupy a big room as shown in the
following picture.

But the invention of the microprocessor reduced their sizes to the present day desktop
computers, laptop computers and palmtop computers.

What is a Program?
- A set of instructions to be carried out by a computer.
What is program execution?
- It is the act of carrying out the instructions contained in a program.
What is programming Language?
- It is a systematic set of rules used to describe computations in a format that is editable
by humans.

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History of Programming Languages

Some influential Programming Languages:

 FORTRAN
 science / engineering
 COBOL
 business data
 LISP
 logic and AI
 BASIC
 a simple language
Some modern languages
1. procedural languages: programs are a series of commands
 Pascal (1970): designed for education
 C (1972): low-level operating systems and device drivers

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 2. functional programming: functions map inputs to outputs
 Lisp (1958) / Scheme (1975), ML (1973), Haskell (1990)
3. object-oriented languages: programs use interacting "objects"
 Smalltalk (1980): first major object-oriented language
 C++ (1985): "object-oriented" improvements to C
 successful in industry; used to build major OSes such as Windows
 Java (1995): designed for embedded systems, web apps/servers
 Runs on many platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, cell phones...)
What is Java?
- Java is a complete programming language developed by Sun
- Can be used to develop either web based or stand-alone software

Who invented Java?

- Java is invented by James Gosling
of Sun Microsystems
- Its first name was “Oak”
- But there was already another programming
language by the same name
- Hence the name “Java” is identified in a Coffee shop James Gosling

- So Java acquired the image

A basic Java program 1:

public class Hello {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
}
A closure look at the above program
- Code or source code: The sequence of instructions in a program.
- The code in this program instructs the computer to display a message of Hello,
world! on the screen.
- Output: The messages printed to the user by a program.
- The output in the above program is Hello, world!
- Console: The text box onto which output is printed.

Some editors pop up the console as an external window, and others contain
their own console window.

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Compiling/running a program

Before you run your programs, you must compile them.

- Compiler: Translates a computer program written in one language into another

language.

 Java Development Kit includes a Java compiler.

 byte code: The Java compiler converts your source code into a format named
byte code that can be executed on many different kinds of computers.

Class activity 1: Type the above hello world program on your computer, compile it, execute it
and display the result.

Class activity 2: Write a simple Java program to display your name on the console.

Class activity 3: Write a simple Java program to display hello world, your name.

Have you observed the output? Is it displayed on a single line?

How can you modify your program to display the same output on different lines?

Basic Java program 2:

public class Hello2 {

public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
System.out.println();
System.out.println("This program produces");
System.out.println("four lines of output");
}
}

The code in this program instructs the computer to print four lines of messages on the
screen.

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 Its output:
1. Hello, world!
2.
3. This program produces
4. four lines of output

The above two programs have only one class (hello) and one method (main). Now let us
understand what their meanings and structure of Java programming.

Structure of Java programs

public class <name> {

public static void main(String[] args) {
<statement>;
<statement>;
...
<statement>;
007D
}
Every executable Java program consists of a class that contains a method named main that
contains the statements (commands) to be executed
Java terminology
 Class: A module that can contain executable code.
o Every program you write will be a class.
 Statement: An executable command to the computer.
 Method: A named sequence of statements that can be executed together to
perform a particular action.
o A special method named main signifies the code that should be executed
when your program runs.
o Your program can have other methods in addition to main. (seen later)

 Syntax: The set of legal structures and commands that can be used in a
particular programming language.
Some Java syntax:
- every basic Java statement ends with a semicolon ;
- The contents of a class or method occur between { and }

Class activity 4: Write the class name and method name in the above basic java program 1
Class name ____________________
Method name___________________

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Class activity 5: Write the class name and method name in the above basic java program 2

Class name ____________________

Method name___________________

System.out.println

It is a statement to instruct the computer to print a line of output on the console.

There are two ways to use System.out.println :

i. System.out.println("<Message>");
- Prints the given message as a line of text on the console.
ii. System.out.println();
- Prints a blank line on the console.

Strings and string literals

String: A sequence of text characters that can be printed or manipulated in a program.

Sometimes also called a string literal
- Strings in Java start and end with quotation mark " characters
Examples:
"hello"
"This is a string"
"This, too, is a string. It can be very long!"
- A string may not span across multiple lines.
Example:
"This is not
a legal String."

Details about Strings

- A string may not contain a “character. (The ' character is okay)

Example:
"This is not a "legal" String either."
"This is 'okay' though."
- A string can represent certain special characters by preceding them with a backslash \
(this is called an escape sequence).

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 - \t tab character
- \n new line character
- \" quotation mark character
- \\ backslash character
1. Program using \t in string of the println statement
public class Hello {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, \tworld!");
}
}
2. Program using \n in string of the println statement

public class Hello {

public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, \nworld!");
}
}
3. Program using \\ in string of the println statement
public class Hello {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, \\world!");
}
}
4. Write a Program to display the following output
- \hello

how are "you"?

public class Hello {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("\\hello\nhow\tare \"you\"?");
}
}

5. Observe the following program. Just type it on your computer, compile and run it to
see the output. What output did you notice? Is there any problem?

public class Hello {

pooblic static void main(String[] args) {
System.owt.println("Hello, world!")_
}
}

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 byte code
Hello.class
Syntax error or compiler error:

An error in the program causes the compiler to fail.

- If you type your Java program incorrectly, you may violate Java's syntax and
cause a syntax error.

What is the error in the above program? How to fix it?

Fixing syntax errors

Error messages do not always help us understand what is wrong:

Hello.java:2: <identifier> expected
pooblic static void main(String[] args)

We'd have preferred a friendly message such as, "You misspelled public"
The compiler does tell us the line number on which it found the error...
But it is not always the true source of the problem.

The correct code for the above program is:

public class Hello {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
}

1 public class MissingSemicolon {

2 public static void main(String[] args) {
3 System.out.println("A rose by any other name")
4 System.out.println("would smell as sweet");
5 }
6 }
MissingSemicolon.java:4: ';' expected
System.out.println("would smell as sweet");

The correct code for the above program is:

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 public class MissingSemicolon {

public static void main(String[] args) {

System.out.println("A rose by any other name");

System.out.println("would smell as sweet");

The output of the above program is

A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet

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