Syllabus
Foundations of software construction and development. Intrinsic and extrinsic complexity. Pre-requisities and key decisions.
Variables and constants. General guidelines for using variables. Naming convetions. Fundamental data types. Unusual data types. Creating new data types.
Control structures and primitives. Organization of code. Conditional statements. Loop statements. General guidelines for using control structures. Unusual control structures. Table-driven methods.
Construction of quality code. Method design. Pseudo-code programming. Locality and duplicity of code. Using exceptions. Defensive programming. Class design. Inheritance and composition. Coupling and decoupling. Modularization and abstraction. Interface design.
Software craftsmanship. Layout and style. Documenting code and commenting techniques. Personal character.
Improving code. Testing. Debugging. Refactoring. Collaborative software construction. Tuning.
Software construction process. How program size affects construction. Managing construction. Software maintenance. Programming tools.
Annotation
Programming is not just about writing a working program. The quality of a program is (besides design and other functional characteristics) associated with a number of characteristics unrelated to the function of a program.
The subject introduces students into programming practices adhering to which leads to construction of high-quality programs. The goal of the subject is to motivate students for adopting such techniques for use in their own programming practice.