This course provides an in-depth introduction to the discipline of software design, with a focus on object-oriented design. Software design can easily be discounted as a secondary concern when solving small computing problems such as assignments and scripts. However, it assumes a critical role when attempting to build realistic and high-quality software applications. The course combines rigorous foundations (guiding principles, precise terminology, well-defined techniques) with extensive opportunities for the development of practical skills using state-of-the art tools and techniques based on the latest research and practice in software engineering.

• General Design Principles (separation of concerns, encapsulation, substitutablity, interface segregation, etc.);
• Design patterns and design smells;
• Design techniques such as Design by Contract and Refactoring;
• Effective use of programming language mechanisms (exception handling, serialization, concurrency and synchronization, reflection, etc.);
• Software development tools such as automatic testing tools, coverage analyzers, static checkers.

The official prerequisites are COMP 206 and COMP 250. However, this course targets students who have reached at least a working level of Java programming fluency. In practice, it is very difficult to learn software design when still getting familiar with basic programming idioms. This means that students registering to take COMP 303 should be able to, with a minimum of hesitation, write Java programs to solve small and well-defined problems, use a revision control system to organize their work, and use a debugger to trace through execution and inspect run-time values. This requirement cannot be neatly captured by any specific combination of courses, but students who feel they could use additional programming experience are encouraged to take COMP 302 before or during the term in which they take COMP 303.

After this course, you should be able to...

• Name, using the proper terminology: The important first principles, techniques, and tools of object-oriented software design;
• Describe and explain: The important principles, techniques, and tools of object-oriented software design;
• Apply: The important principles, techniques, and tools of object-oriented software design to provide effective solutions to realistic design problems;
• Evaluate: The quality of design solutions
• Write: well-designed, error-free, and easily understandable software.

• Recommended Textbook: Horstmann, Cay. Object-oriented Design and Patterns. A few copies are available at the Paragraph Bookstore.
• Complementary Resource: Martin, Robert. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftmanship. Prentice-Hall, 2008.. Available on-line from the McGill domain.
• Recommended Reference: A Java 8 Programming reference of your choice.
• Sample Project: Solitaire
• Diagramming Tool (and Sample Project): JetUML

This course is divided into ten main modules, each addressing a major topic in object-oriented software design. Modules are spread over two lectures and involve mandatory reading and practice exercises. To be able to follow the pace of the course, the reading must be done before the module lectures and the exercises must be completed within one week of the end of the second lecture of the module.

It's very hard to get good at anything without practice, and software design is no exception. Practice exercises are organized in terms of the module structure and are available on their individual pages. The exercises are designed to help you learn as effectively as possible: you can do them at your own pace, individually or in a group, repeat what's necessary, seek advice from anyone, and make mistakes and learn from them. For these and other reasons, they would be a poor choice for testing your knowledge of the material, so they are not graded. Instead, your practical skills will be evaluated through lab tests.

Software design is a naturally abstract topic that needs to be applied to make any sense. The recipe for success in COMP 303 is to regularly prepare for lectures by doing the required readings in advance, attending the lectures and participating in the design and coding walk-throughs, then completing the related exercises as soon as possible. If you do this you may be pleased to discover that the material will grow on you almost subconsciously. The recipe for failure is to await the midterms and final, then furiously attempt to memorize the book and lecture material. Please opt for success.

Important Notes:

• Midterm exams are normally worth 20%, but the grade of the lowest midterm can be replaced by 10% each of the final exam and other midterm. Missing one midterm automaticall selects this option.
• Missing both midterm exams results in a grade of 0% unless original, independently-verifiable documentation justifying the absence to both midterm exams can be provided. Valid causes are limited to unforseeable circumstances.
• All material covered in class and in the practice exercises is subject to examination.

General philosophy of the role of lectures, and related policies:

• Lectures complement the course material with demonstrations, examples, discussions, and class activities: they do not replace individual reading and practice.
• The reading should be done in advance to be able to follow the lecture. For example, I will not use the class time to read basic definitions of terms and go over the details of notation, because this is both boring and ineffective. However, coming to the lectures without having gone over the reading will be confusing, because terms will seem to come out of nowhere. Please do the reading in advance, and everything will be fine.
• The lectures will not be Power Pointless. I will occasionally use slides to provide visual support for the material, and post the slides after the lecture. The slides should not be expected to constitute a self-contained study document. I must emphatically warn anyone against attempting to pass the course by memorizing the slides.
• Although attendance is not monitored, I strongly recommend attending lectures. Lectures will feature walk-throughs of design and implementation tasks that will help you understand the reasoning behind certain design decisions as the decisions are being made. I will also go through multiple variants design solutions for various problems, which is extremely tedious to capture in writing (and read, for that matter).
• If you decide to attend lectures, you are asked to refrain from using your computing devices in a distracting or disruptive manner. This includes watching videos, playing games, etc.
• The lectures are not recorded. No audio or video recording of any kind is allowed in class, with the one exception that you can take pictures of the projection screen (only) if you can do so in a non-disruptive manner. Note, however, that practically all lecture material will be posted after class.

These policies are subject to revision at any point during the term.

An overview of the contents can be found on a separate page

TA office hours and labs are in TR 3120.

Unless otherwise noted, the content of this repository is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright Martin P. Robillard 2017