An Introduction to Java

The Shift from Scheme to Java for CSC 153 Labs

Summary This laboratory begins a transition from working with the Scheme programming language to Java. The lab first reviews a simple object-oriented program and test suite written in Scheme and then considers the direct translation of the program and testing to Java. The lab then considers details of compiling and running the Java program.

A Simple Course Class in Scheme

Consider a simple class that would maintain information about a course (e.g., CSC 153). Each object in the class might have the following characteristics:

• Information stored: subject, course number, number of credits, and course title
• Constructors: a course might be constructed either
  • with a subject, but with course number and credits set to 0 and with a null string as a title, or
  • with all four information fields specified.
• Extractors: methods should allow the retrieval of any of the four information fields
  
• Modifiers: methods might allow the changing of course number and title (together as a package) and the changing of the number of credits
  
• Data Conversion: a method might return a string, putting the field information into a reasonable format suitable for printing.

  Writing this course class requires some patience, but each method is reasonably straightforward. Program ~walker/public_html/courses/153.sp01/course.ss provides one implementation of such a class.

  
  
  1. Copy this program to your account, and load it into Scheme.

  Testing of the course class might involve forming two objects (using the two construction options), retrieving the fields of the each object, modifying some fields, and printing the fields again.

  2. Test course.ss with the following sequence of commands:

     
     (define myCourse (course "CSC"  153  4  "CS Fundamentals"))
     (define yourCourse (course "Math"))
     
     ;; test of initialization, toString, and extractor methods
     (myCourse 'toString)
     (yourCourse 'getSubject)
     (yourCourse 'getNumber)
     (yourCourse 'getTitle)
     (yourCourse 'getCredits)
     
     ;; set fields
     (yourCourse 'setNumTitle 131 "Calculus I")
     (yourCourse 'setCredits 4)
     
     ;; print results of modification
     (yourCourse 'toString)
     

     
     
     
  3. Be sure you understand how this code works. In particularly, you should be able to answer the following questions.
     • What alternatives are available for initializing a course object?
     • Could one initialize a course with only a subject name and number, such as CSC 153?
     • How do the extractor methods work? (Yes, I know this question is easy, but be sure you can answer it!)
     • Can one change the number of a course without providing other information? Explain briefly.
     • Is a method available to change the subject of a course?
     • Explain how the toString method works.

  The Course Class in Java

  The initial move from Scheme to Java requires at least three major adjustments:

  • The language syntax and semantics are dramatically different,
  • Java requires that output be accomplished using one or more special output classes, and
  • Java programs must first be translated to a machine language before then can be run.

  We now consider each of these major areas, considering simple output first, then describing steps to run a Java program, and finally starting an investigation of Java syntax and semantics. We accomplish the first two parts of this work in this lab; the discussion of Java syntax and semantics continues verbally in class and in the next lab.

  SimpleOutput

  Within Java, all work is done through the use of relevant classes and objects. In particular, an output class must be utilized to print material to the screen. In many applications, rather than write such a class ourselves, we utilize a class written by someone else. In this case, we will use a SimpleOutput class, written by Samuel Rebelsky.

  4. To organize your forthcoming work in Java, open a terminal window, and create a new directory with the command

     
     mkdir java
     

     Now move to that directory with the command

     
     cd java
     

  5. Mr. Rebelsky's SimpleOutput class may be found at ~rebelsky/public_html/ExptInJava/Code/SimpleOutput.java. Copy this file to your new java directory.
     
     
  6. Program ~walker/public_html/courses/153.sp01/Course.java provides a direct translation of course.ss to Java. Copy this file to your java directory.

  While we will look at Course.java shortly, we first consider how to run a Java program.

  Compiling and Interpreting

  As you may know, computers work with a number of different ``languages''. Each computer really understands only one language: its underlying machine language. We make computers understand another language by either
  • writing programs that translate the other language to the computer's machine language (compilation)
  • writing programs that read programs written in the other language and then directly executing those programs (interpretation)

  Already in this course, you have run Scheme programs, and these run using the second approach -- with a Scheme interpreter.

  Java, however, uses an interesting combination of compilation and interpretation:

  • You must first compile your Java program to Java Virtual Machine (JVM) code.
  • You then interpret the JVM code.

  To compile and run Java programs, the first step in MathLAN is to tell the computers where to find the relevant Java compiler and interpreter. This may be accomplished once and for all as follows:

  7. In your home directory, use an editor (e.g., xemacs) to open the file .bashrc.
     
     This file is read whenever a process (e.g., a window) is started on these computers. Within this file, you probably will see several alias statements. These statements give easily used abbreviations for common commands, to make our work simpler.
     
     
  8. Immediately after any existing alias statements, add the following lines:

     
     # alias for Java
       alias jcompile="/net/jdk1.2.2/bin/javac"
       alias jrun="/net/jdk1.2.2/bin/java"
     

     and save your file.

  The commands jcompile and jrun now will be defined for any new windows that are opened. (If you want to use these commands for windows already open, type the command source ~/.bashrc at the prompt in the relevant window.)

  Execution of Java programs now involves two steps:

  • To compile Java programs, write

    % jcompile file.java
    

    That is, run the program called javac (Java compiler).
    
    
  • To interpret compiled Java programs, write

    % jrun file
    

    That is, run the program called java (Java interpreter).

  We now use these commands to run the above test cases for Course.java.

  10. Use jcompile and jrun to compile and run the program Course.java
      
      
  11. Note that the two commands may be combined on one line with the statement:

      
      jcompile Course.java && jrun Course
      

      In this command, the connection && is read as a ``conditional and''. That is, the jcompile command is issued. Then, if the compilation proceeds without error, the jrun command is followed. However, if jcompile produces an error, then jrun is ignored.

  The Course.java Program

  Java programs may be edited with XEmacs, in the same way you edit Scheme programs, labs, or other documents.

  12. Bring Course.java into your editor, so you can view it carefully.
      Also, print out a copy of course.ss.
      
      
  13. In comparing course.ss and Course.java, all field names and method names are exactly the same, and the methods do the same work in the same way. Try matching up elements of the two programs just by looking at the listings.

  Either during the last part of today's class or in the next class, the class will talk about the parallels of the two courses, and the specific syntax and semantics of Java will be discussed at some length.

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  This document is available on the World Wide Web as

  http://www.math.grin.edu/~walker/courses/153.sp00/lab-intro-java.html
  

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  created April 3, 2001 by Henry M. Walker