Objects First with Java - A Practical Introduction using BlueJ

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Books Index

by David J. Barnes and Michael Kölling
July, 2002

Chapter 2, Understanding Class Definitions | Chapter 6, Well-behaved Objects

The JDC is pleased to present two chapters from Objects First with Java - A Practical Introduction using BlueJ, by David J. Barnes and Michael Kölling, published by Pearson Education, 2002 (in the USA: Prentice Hall, 2002)

Objects First with Java is an introduction to object-oriented programming for beginners and focuses on programming concepts from a software engineering perspective. Two tools are used throughout the book to teach concepts to be put into practice: the Java programming language, and the Java development environment BlueJ, a simple IDE created specifically to teach programming.

This book, ISBN 0-13-044929-6, will be available in bookshops at the end of September, 2002. To help students whose courses start earlier, the first half of the book will be publicly available (profesionally edited and typeset) from mid-August, 2002.

An electronic preview of the full text is available to teachers on request now, by mail to mik@mip.sdu.dk

Chapter 2, "Understanding Class Definitions," looks at the source code of a class, and discusses fields, constructors, and methods.

Chapter 6, "Well-behaved Objects," discusses a variety of activities related to program correctness, including testing, debugging, and writing for maintainability.

Note: These chapters are currently not in final, professional layout.

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Michael Kölling's main interests are in the fields of software engineering and computing education. Over the past years, he has been working on the design programming languages and software tools to teach software development skills to beginning students. Originally from Germany, he worked for ten years in Australia, and is now an Associate Professor at the Maersk Institute, University of Southern Denmark.

David J. Barnes is a lecturer at the University of Kent, England. His first teaching love is introductory programming, with which he has been involved for over 20 years. His research interests are in software engineering and computer science education. Outside university life, he tries to keep fit with a little rock climbing.

Chapter 2, Understanding Class Definitions | Chapter 6, Well-behaved Objects