Unit 1

Read Chapter 1 of the textbook: Overview: The Mental Landscape

This chapter provides some background to computing, in general, and some of the particulars of Java.

Section 1.1 The Fetch and Execute Cycle: Machine Language

Section 1.2 Asynchronous Events: Polling Loops and Interrupts

Section 1.3 The Java Virtual Machine

This section explains how Java compiles and runs programs, which is useful information to help you complete the course successfully.

Section 1.4 Fundamental Building Blocks of Programs

This section discusses subroutines, which are a common feature of many programming languages. However, the term subroutine is incorrect in the context of Java. Java is an object-oriented language (OOL) from the very foundation, and the units of programming statements in Java are called methods. In Java, methods are always used in the sense, a class (or object) has methods. This may seem to be an arbitrary distinction, but it is important to professional Java programmers.

Section 1.5 Objects and Object-oriented Programming

This section provides background on object-oriented programming, which is the essence of Java programming. Take note of the class diagram.

Section 1.6 The Modern User Interface

This section contains information about aspects of Java programming that were abandoned by the programming community in 2005. It provides a bit of history on Java graphical user interface (GUI)-programming, which is not used in mainstream Java programming anymore.

Section 1.7 The Internet and Beyond

This section provides some background on Java and the Internet. Java Internet programming has likely been the most common use of Java after 2010, with server-side programming. Java servlets and Java server pages (JSP) are among the most common server applications. Java is used on the server to interact with clients via a browser to obtain, display and modify data in server databases. Such applications include online or e-commerce, enterprise data systems and distributed systems.

Quiz

It is a good practice to review the chapter quizzes in the textbook, as the questions allow you to reflect on the material you have read.

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