Week 3 [Fri, Aug 21st] - Topics

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm. A programming paradigm guides programmers to analyze programming problems, and structure programming solutions, in a specific way.

Programming languages have traditionally divided the world into two parts—data and operations on data. Data is static and immutable, except as the operations may change it. The procedures and functions that operate on data have no lasting state of their own; they’re useful only in their ability to affect data.

This division is, of course, grounded in the way computers work, so it’s not one that you can easily ignore or push aside. Like the equally pervasive distinctions between matter and energy and between nouns and verbs, it forms the background against which you work. At some point, all programmers—even object-oriented programmers—must lay out the data structures that their programs will use and define the functions that will act on the data.

With a procedural programming language like C, that’s about all there is to it. The language may offer various kinds of support for organizing data and functions, but it won’t divide the world any differently. Functions and data structures are the basic elements of design.

Object-oriented programming doesn’t so much dispute this view of the world as restructure it at a higher level. It groups operations and data into modular units called objects and lets you combine objects into structured networks to form a complete program. In an object-oriented programming language, objects and object interactions are the basic elements of design.

_{-- Object-Oriented Programming with Objective-C, Apple}

Some other examples of programming paradigms are:

Some programming languages support multiple paradigms.

Every object has both state (data) and behavior (operations on data). In that, they’re not much different from ordinary physical objects. It’s easy to see how a mechanical device, such as a pocket watch or a piano, embodies both state and behavior. But almost anything that’s designed to do a job does, too. Even simple things with no moving parts such as an ordinary bottle combine state (how full the bottle is, whether or not it’s open, how warm its contents are) with behavior (the ability to dispense its contents at various flow rates, to be opened or closed, to withstand high or low temperatures).

It’s this resemblance to real things that gives objects much of their power and appeal. They can not only model components of real systems, but equally as well fulfill assigned roles as components in software systems.

_{-- Object-Oriented Programming with Objective-C, Apple}

Object Oriented Programming (OOP) views the world as a network of interacting objects.

OOP solutions try to create a similar object network inside the computer’s memory – a sort of virtual simulation of the corresponding real world scenario – so that a similar result can be achieved programmatically.

OOP does not demand that the virtual world object network follow the real world exactly.

Every object has both state (data) and behavior (operations on data).

Every object has an interface and an implementation.

Every real world object has:

• an interface through which other objects can interact with it
• an implementation that supports the interface but may not be accessible to the other object

Similarly, every object in the virtual world has an interface and an implementation.

Objects interact by sending messages. Both real world and virtual world object interactions can be viewed as objects sending messages to each other. The message can result in the sender object receiving a response and/or the receiver object’s state being changed. Furthermore, the result can vary based on which object received the message, even if the message is identical (see rows 1 and 2 in the example below).

Writing an OOP program is essentially writing instructions that the computer will use to,

1. create the virtual world of the object network, and
2. provide it the inputs to produce the outcome you want.

A class contains instructions for creating a specific kind of objects. It turns out sometimes multiple objects keep the same type of data and have the same behavior because they are of the same kind. Instructions for creating a 'kind' (or ‘class’) of objects can be done once and those same instructions can be used to i.e. create instances ofinstantiate objects of that kind. You call such instructions a Class.

The concept of Objects in OOP is an abstraction mechanism because it allows us to abstract away the lower level details and work with bigger granularity entities i.e. ignore details of data formats and the method implementation details and work at the level of objects.

Encapsulation protects an implementation from unintended actions and from inadvertent access.
_{-- Object-Oriented Programming with Objective-C, Apple}

An object is an encapsulation of some data and related behavior in terms of two aspects:

1. The packaging aspect: An object packages data and related behavior together into one self-contained unit.

2. The information hiding aspect: The data in an object is hidden from the outside world and are only accessible using the object's interface.

Java is an "object-oriented" language, which means that it uses objects to represent data and provide methods related to them. Object types are called classes e.g., you can use String objects in Java and those objects belong to the String class.

importing

import java.awt.Point;

public class Main{
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Point spot = new Point(3, 4);
        int x = spot.x;
        System.out.println(x);
   }
}

new operator

Point spot = new Point(3, 4);

Variables that belong to an object are called attributes (or fields).

To access an attribute of an object, Java uses dot notation.

Point spot = new Point(3, 4);
int sum = spot.x * spot.x + spot.y * spot.y;
System.out.println(spot.x + ", " + spot.y + ", " + sum);

3, 4, 25

You can i.e., change/modifymutate an object by assigning a different value to its attributes.

Point spot = new Point(3, 4);
spot.x = 5;
System.out.println(spot.x + ", " + spot.y);

5, 4

Java uses the dot notation to invoke methods on an object too.

Point spot = new Point(3, 4);
System.out.println(spot.x + ", " + spot.y);
spot.translate(5,5);
System.out.println(spot.x + ", " + spot.y);

3, 4
8, 9

You can pass objects as parameters to a method in the usual way.

public static void printPoint(Point p) {
    System.out.println("(" + p.x + ", " + p.y + ")");
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Point spot = new Point(3, 4);
    printPoint(spot);
}

3, 4

You can return an object from a method too.

public static Point findCenter(Rectangle box) {
    int x = box.x + box.width / 2;
    int y = box.y + box.height / 2;
    return new Point(x, y);
}

null and NullPointerException

Point spot = null;
int x = spot.x;          // NullPointerException
spot.translate(50, 50);  // NullPointerException

public static Point createCopy(Point p) {
    if (p == null) {
        return null; // return null if p is null
    }

    // create a new object with same x,y values
    return new Point(p.x, p.y);
}

Point result = createCopy(null);
System.out.println(result);

null

It is possible to have multiple variables that refer to the same object.

Point p1 = new Point(0,0);
Point p2 = p1;
System.out.println("p1: " + p1.x + ", " + p1.y);
System.out.println("p2: " + p2.x + ", " + p2.y);
p1.x = 1;
p2.y = 2;
System.out.println("p1: " + p1.x + ", " + p1.y);
System.out.println("p2: " + p2.x + ", " + p2.y);

p1: 0, 0
p2: 0, 0
p1: 1, 2
p2: 1, 2

Java does not have explicit pointers (and other related things such as pointer de-referencing and pointer arithmetic). When an object is passed into a method as an argument, the method gains access to the original object. If the method changes the object it received, the changes are retained in the object even after the method has completed.

public static void swapCoordinates(Point p){
    int temp = p.x;
    p.x = p.y;
    p.y = temp;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Point p3 = new Point(2,3);
    System.out.println("p3: " + p3.x + ", " + p3.y);
    swapCoordinates(p3);
    System.out.println("p3: " + p3.x + ", " + p3.y);
}

p3: 2, 3
p3: 3, 2

What happens when no variables refer to an object?

Point spot = new Point(3, 4);
spot = null;

The first line creates a new Point object and makes spot refer to it. The second line changes spot so that instead of referring to the object, it refers to nothing. If there are no references to an object, there is no way to access its attributes or invoke a method on it. From the programmer’s view, it ceases to exist. However, it’s still present in the computer’s memory, taking up space.

In Java, you don’t have to delete objects you create when they are no longer needed. As your program runs, the system automatically looks for stranded objects and reclaims them; then the space can be reused for new objects. This process is called garbage collection. You don’t have to do anything to make garbage collection happen, and in general don’t have to be aware of it. But in high-performance applications, you may notice a slight delay every now and then when Java reclaims space from discarded objects.

As you know,

• Defining a class introduces a new object type.
• Every object belongs to some object type; that is, it is an instance of some class.
• A class definition is like a template for objects: it specifies what attributes the objects have and what methods can operate on them.
• The new operator instantiates objects, that is, it creates new instances of a class.
• The methods that operate on an object type are defined in the class for that object.

public class Time {
    private int hour;
    private int minute;
    private int second;
}

You can give a class any name you like. The Java convention is to use e.g., MyHelloWord rather than myHelloWorld or myhelloword or my_hello_worldPascalCase format for class names.

The code is there are exceptions to this ruleusually placed in a file whose name matches the class e.g., the Time class should be in a file named Time.java.

When a class is public (e.g., the Time class in the above example) it can be used in other classes. But the Attributes are also called instance variables, because each instance has its own variables.instance variables that are private (e.g., the hour, minute and second attributes of the Time class) can only be accessed from inside the Time class.

Constructors

public Time() {
    hour = 0;
    minute = 0;
    second = 0;
}

public Time(int h, int m, int s) {
    hour = h;
    minute = m;
    second = s;
}

this keyword

public Time(int hour, int minute, int second) {
    this.hour = hour;
    this.minute = minute;
    this.second = second;
}

public Time() {
    this(0, 0, 0); // call the overloaded constructor
}

public Time(int hour, int minute, int second) {
    // ...
}

public int secondsSinceMidnight() {
    return hour*60*60 + minute*60 + second;
}

Time t = new Time(0, 2, 5);
System.out.println(t.secondsSinceMidnight() + " seconds since midnight!");

As the instance variables of Time are private, you can access them from within the Time class only. To compensate, you can provide methods to access attributes:

public int getHour() {
    return hour;
}

public int getMinute() {
    return minute;
}

public int getSecond() {
    return second;
}

Methods like these are formally called “accessors”, but more commonly referred to as getters. By convention, the method that gets a variable named something is called getSomething.

Similarly, you can provide setter methods to modify attributes of a Time object:

public void setHour(int hour) {
    this.hour = hour;
}

public void setMinute(int minute) {
    this.minute = minute;
}

public void setSecond(int second) {
    this.second = second;
}

While all objects of a class have the same attributes, each object has its own copy of the attribute value.

However, some attributes are not suitable to be maintained by individual objects. Instead, they should be maintained centrally, shared by all objects of the class. They are like ‘global variables’ but attached to a specific class. Such variables whose value is shared by all instances of a class are called class-level attributes.

Similarly, when a normal method is being called, a message is being sent to the receiving object and the result may depend on the receiving object.

However, there can be methods related to a specific class but not suitable for sending messages to a specific object of that class. Such methods that are called using the class instead of a specific instance are called class-level methods.

Class-level attributes and methods are collectively called class-level members (also called static members sometimes because some programming languages use the keyword static to identify class-level members). They are to be accessed using the class name rather than an instance of the class.

The content below is an extract from -- Java Tutorial, with slight adaptations.

public class Bicycle {

    private int gear;
    private int speed;

    // an instance variable for the object ID
    private int id;

    // a class variable for the number of Bicycle objects instantiated
    private static int numberOfBicycles = 0;
        ...
}

public class Bicycle {

    private int gear;
    private int speed;

    private int id;

    private static int numberOfBicycles = 0;


    public Bicycle(int startSpeed, int startGear) {
        gear = startGear;
        speed = startSpeed;

        numberOfBicycles++;
        id = numberOfBicycles;
    }

    public int getID() {
        return id;
    }

    public static int getNumberOfBicycles() {
        return numberOfBicycles;
    }

    public int getGear(){
        return gear;
    }

    public void setGear(int newValue) {
        gear = newValue;
    }

    public int getSpeed() {
        return speed;
    }

    // ...

}

An Application Programming Interface (API) specifies the interface through which other programs can interact with a software component. It is a contract between the component and its clients.

When developing large systems, if you define the API of each component early, the development team can develop the components in parallel because the future behavior of the other components are now more predictable.

Java comes with a rich collection of classes that you can use. They form what is known as the Java API (Application Programming Interface). Each class in the API comes with documentation in a standard format.

• List of all Java classes
• Example: API documentation of the String class

String is a built-in Java class that you can use without importing. Given below are some useful String methods:

Find characters of a string

String fruit = "banana";
char letter = fruit.charAt(0);

char[] fruitChars = fruit.toCharArray()

Change a string to upper/lower case

String name = "Alan Turing";
String upperName = name.toUpperCase();
System.out.println(name);
System.out.println(upperName);

Alan Turing
ALAN TURING

String s = "Ada";
s.toUpperCase(); // no effect
s = s.toUpperCase(); // the correct way

Replacing parts of a string

String text = "Computer Science is fun!";
text = text.replace("Computer Science", "CS");
System.out.println(text);

CS is fun!

Accessing substrings

Searching within strings

Comparing strings

String name1 = "Alan Turing";
String name2 = "Alan Turing";
System.out.println(name1 == name2);

if (name1.equals(name2)) {
    System.out.println("The names are the same.");
}

String name1 = "Alan";
String name2 = "Ada";
int diff = name1.compareTo(name2);
if (diff == 0) {
    System.out.println("The names are the same.");
} else if (diff < 0) {
    System.out.println("name1 comes before name2.");
} else if (diff > 0) {
    System.out.println("name2 comes before name1.");
}

String s1 = "Apple";
String s2 = "apple";
System.out.println(s1.equals(s2)); //false
System.out.println(s1.equalsIgnoreCase(s2)); //true

Printing special characters (line breaks, tabs, ...)

System.out.println("First line\nSecond \"line\"");

First line
Second "line"

System.out.println("First line" + System.lineSeparator() + "Second line");

First line
Second line

String formatting

public static String timeString(int hour, int minute) {
    String ampm;
    if (hour < 12) {
        ampm = "AM";
        if (hour == 0) {
            hour = 12;  // midnight
        }
    } else {
        ampm = "PM";
        hour = hour - 12;
    }
    return String.format("%02d:%02d %s", hour, minute, ampm); // returns "07:05 PM"
}

Primitive values (like int, double, and char) do not provide methods.

int i = 5;
System.out.println(i.equals(5));  // compiler error

But for each primitive type, there is a corresponding class in the Java library, called a wrapper class, as given in the table below. They are in the java.lang package i.e., no need to import.

Double d = new Double(2.5);
int i = d.intValue();
System.out.println(d);
System.out.println(i);

2.5
2

Each wrapper class defines constants MIN_VALUE and MAX_VALUE.

System.out.println(Integer.MIN_VALUE + " : " + Integer.MAX_VALUE);

Wrapper classes provide methods for In this context, parse means something like “read and translate”parsing strings to other types e.g., Integer.parseInt converts a string to (you guessed it) an integer. The other wrapper classes provide similar methods, like Double.parseDouble and Boolean.parseBoolean.

Integer.parseInt("1234") 1234

Wrapper classes also provide toString, which returns a string representation of a value.

Integer.toString(1234) "1234"

java.util.Arrays provides methods for working with arrays. One of them, toString, returns a string representation of an array. It also provides a copyOf that copies an array.

int[] a = new int[]{1,2,3,4};

int[] b = Arrays.copyOf(a, 3); // copy first three elements
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(b));

int[] c = Arrays.copyOf(a, a.length); // copy all elements
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(c));

[1, 2, 3]
[1, 2, 3, 4]

Scanner is a class that provides methods for inputting words, numbers, and other data. Scanner provides a method called nextLine that reads a line of input from the keyboard and returns a String. The following example reads two lines and repeats them back to the user:

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Echo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String line;
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

        System.out.print("Type something: ");
        line = in.nextLine();
        System.out.println("You said: " + line);

        System.out.print("Type something else: ");
        line = in.nextLine();
        System.out.println("You also said: " + line);
    }
}

Scanner class normally reads inputs as strings but it can read in a specific type of input too.

Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

System.out.print("What is your age? ");
int age = in.nextInt();
in.nextLine();  // read the newline character the user enters following the integer
System.out.print("What is your name? ");
String name = in.nextLine();
System.out.printf("Hello %s, age %d\n", name, age);

Proper naming improves the readability of code. It also reduces bugs caused by ambiguities regarding the intent of a variable or a method.

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. _{-- Phil Karlton}

Every system is built from a domain-specific language designed by the programmers to describe that system. Functions are the verbs of that language, and classes are the nouns.
_{-- Robert C. Martin, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship}

Use nouns for classes/variables and verbs for methods/functions.

Distinguish clearly between single-valued and multi-valued variables.

Person student;
ArrayList<Person> students;

name = 'Jim'
names = ['Jim', 'Alice']

Use correct spelling in names. Avoid 'texting-style' spelling. Avoid foreign language words, slang, and names that are only meaningful within specific contexts/times e.g. terms from private jokes, a TV show currently popular in your country.

A name is not just for differentiation; it should explain the named entity to the reader accurately and at a sufficient level of detail.

If a name has multiple words, they should be in a sensible order.

Imagine going to the doctor's and saying "My eye1 is swollen"! Don’t use numbers or case to distinguish names.

While it is preferable not to have lengthy names, names that are 'too short' are even worse. If you must abbreviate or use acronyms, do it consistently. Explain their full meaning at an obvious location.

Related things should be named similarly, while unrelated things should NOT.

Avoid misleading or ambiguous names (e.g. those with multiple meanings), similar sounding names, hard-to-pronounce ones (e.g. avoid ambiguities like "is that a lowercase L, capital I or number 1?", or "is that number 0 or letter O?"), almost similar names.

RCS tools store the history of the working directory as a series of commits. This means you should commit after each change that you want the RCS to 'remember'.

Each commit in a repo is a recorded point in the history of the project that is uniquely identified by an auto-generated hash e.g. a16043703f28e5b3dab95915f5c5e5bf4fdc5fc1.

You can tag a specific commit with a more easily identifiable name e.g. v1.0.2.

To see what changed between two points of the history, you can ask the RCS tool to diff the two commits in concern.

To restore the state of the working directory at a point in the past, you can checkout the commit in concern. i.e., you can traverse the history of the working directory simply by checking out the commits you are interested in.

Git can show you what changed in each commit.

To see which files changed in a commit, click on the commit. To see what changed in a specific file in that commit, click on the file name.

git show < part-of-commit-hash >

Example:

git show 251b4cf

commit 5bc0e30635a754908dbdd3d2d833756cc4b52ef3
Author: … < … >
Date:   Sat Jul 8 16:50:27 2017 +0800

    fruits.txt: replace banana with berries

diff --git a/fruits.txt b/fruits.txt
index 15b57f7..17f4528 100644
--- a/fruits.txt
+++ b/fruits.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 apples
-bananas
+berries
 cherries

Git can also show you the difference between two points in the history of the repo.

Select the two points you want to compare using Ctrl+Click. The differences between the two selected versions will show up in the bottom half of SourceTree, as shown in the screenshot below.

The same method can be used to compare the current state of the working directory (which might have uncommitted changes) to a point in the history.

The diff command can be used to view the differences between two points of the history.

• git diff: shows the changes (uncommitted) since the last commit.
• git diff 0023cdd..fcd6199: shows the changes between the points indicated by commit hashes.
  Note that when using a commit hash in a Git command, you can use only the first few characters (e.g., first 7-10 chars) as that's usually enough for Git to locate the commit.
• git diff v1.0..HEAD: shows changes that happened from the commit tagged as v1.0 to the most recent commit.

• Git-Tower Tutorial: Inspecting Changes with Diffs
• How to view the next page of a git command result

Git can load a specific version of the history to the working directory. Note that if you have uncommitted changes in the working directory, you need to stash them first to prevent them from being overwritten.

Double-click the commit you want to load to the working directory, or right-click on that commit and choose Checkout....

Click OK to the warning about ‘detached HEAD’ (similar to below).

The specified version is now loaded to the working folder, as indicated by the HEAD label. HEAD is a reference to the currently checked out commit.

If you checkout a commit that comes before the commit in which you added the .gitignore file, Git will now show ignored files as ‘unstaged modifications’ because at that stage Git hasn’t been told to ignore those files.

To go back to the latest commit, double-click it.

Use the checkout <commit-identifier> command to change the working directory to the state it was in at a specific past commit.

• git checkout v1.0: loads the state as at commit tagged v1.0
• git checkout 0023cdd: loads the state as at commit with the hash 0023cdd
• git checkout HEAD~2: loads the state that is 2 commits behind the most recent commit

For now, you can ignore the warning about ‘detached HEAD’.

Each Git commit is uniquely identified by a hash e.g., d670460b4b4aece5915caf5c68d12f560a9fe3e4. As you can imagine, using such an identifier is not very convenient for our day-to-day use. As a solution, Git allows adding a more human-readable tag to a commit e.g., v1.0-beta.

Here's how you can tag a commit in a local repo (e.g. in the samplerepo-things repo):

Right-click on the commit (in the graphical revision graph) you want to tag and choose Tag….

Specify the tag name e.g. v1.0 and click Add Tag.

The added tag will appear in the revision graph view.

To add a tag to the current commit as v1.0,

git tag –a v1.0

To view tags

git tag

To learn how to add a tag to a past commit, go to the ‘Git Basics – Tagging’ page of the git-scm book and refer the ‘Tagging Later’ section.

Remember to push tags to the repo. A normal push does not include tags.

# push a specific tag
git push origin v1.0b

# push all tags
git push origin --tags

After adding a tag to a commit, you can use the tag to refer to that commit, as an alternative to using the hash.

You can use Git's stash feature to temporarily shelve (or stash) changes you've made to your working copy so that you can work on something else, and then come back and re-apply the stashed changes later on. _{-- adapted from Atlassian}

Here's a scenario you can try in order to learn how to pull commits from another repo to yours.

1. Clone a repo (e.g., the repo used in [Git & GitHub → Clone]) to be used for this activity.

2. Delete the last few commits to simulate cloning the repo a few commits ago.

Right-click the target commit (i.e. the commit that is 2 commits behind the tip) and choose Reset current branch to this commit.

Choose the Hard - … option and click OK.

This is what you will see.

Note the following (cross refer the screenshot above):

Arrow marked as a: The local repo is now at this commit, marked by the master label.
Arrow marked as b: The origin/master label shows what is the latest commit in the master branch in the remote repo.

Use the reset command to delete commits at the tip of the revision history.

git reset --hard HEAD~2

Now, your local repo state is exactly how it would be if you had cloned the repo 2 commits ago, as if somebody has added two more commits to the remote repo since you cloned it.

3. Pull from the other repo: To get those missing commits to your local repo (i.e. to sync your local repo with upstream repo) you can do a pull.

Click the Pull button in the main menu, choose origin and master in the next dialog, and click OK.

Now you should see something like this where master and origin/master are both pointing the same commit.

git pull origin

You can also do a fetch instead of a pull in which case the new commits will be downloaded to your repo but the working directory will remain at the current commit. To move the current state to the latest commit that was downloaded, you need to do a merge. A pull is a shortcut that does both those steps in one go.

Given below is a scenario you can try in order to learn how to push commits to a remote repo hosted on GitHub:

You can push new commits in one repo to another repo which will copy the new commits onto the destination repo. Note that pushing to a repo requires you to have write-access to it. Furthermore, you can push between repos only if those repos have a shared history among them (i.e., one was created by copying the other at some point in the past).

1. Fork an existing GitHub repo (e.g., samplerepo-things) to your GitHub account.

2. Clone the fork (not the original) to your computer.

3. Commit some changes in your local repo.

4. Push the new commits to your fork on GitHub

Click the Push button on the main menu, ensure the settings are as follows in the next dialog, and click the Push button on the dialog.

Tags are not included in a normal push. Remember to tick Push all tags when pushing to the remote repo if you want them to be pushed to the repo.

Use the command git push origin master. Enter your Github username and password when prompted.

Tags are not included in a normal push. To push a tag, use this command: git push origin <tag_name> e.g. git push origin v1.0

You can push to repos other than the one you cloned from, as long as the target repo and your repo have a shared history.

1. Add the GitHub repo URL as a remote, if you haven't done so already.
2. Push to the target repo.

You can even push an entire local repository to GitHub, to form an entirely new remote repository. For example, you created a local repo and worked with it for a while but now you want to upload it onto GitHub (as a backup or to share it with others). The steps are given below.

1. Create an empty remote repo on GitHub.

1. Login to your GitHub account and choose to create a new Repo.
   

2. In the next screen, provide a name for your repo but keep the Initialize this repo ... tick box unchecked.
   

3. Note the URL of the repo. It will be of the form https://github.com/{your_user_name}/{repo_name}.git.
   e.g., https://github.com/johndoe/foobar.git (note the .git at the end)
   

2. Add the GitHub repo URL as a remote of the local repo. You can give it the name origin (or any other name).

3. Push the repo to the remote.

Push each branch to the new remote the usual way but use the -u flag to inform Git that you wish to i.e., remember which branch in the remote repo corresponds to which branch in the local repotrack the branch.
e.g., git push -u origin master