Software Architecture

Required class for CS majors at the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg. — Pflichtmodul im Bachelorstudiengang Informatik an der Technischen Hochschule Nürnberg.

Class Schedule

Lecture: Montays at 11.30a in HQ.007, starting Oct 2 (!): Class, mostly live coding (interaction appreciated :-).

Tutorials: We’ll work on the assignment based on the preceding week’s lecture, so bring your laptop! Tutorials start Oct 19 (!).

• Mondays at 9.45a in HQ.406, starting Oct 19.
• Thursdays at 9.45 in HW.209, starting Oct 23. (canceled)

Announcements and Discussions: Teams, enrollment key: nvvy2wx

Note: Materials will be in English, the lectures/tutorials will be taught in German; the written exam will be German (you may answer in English).

Class and Credits (Leistungsnachweis)

Lectures: Not your classic lecture— we’ll work together on concrete problems and their solution. The class will be taught in German, the materials are mostly in English.

Tutorials and assignments: Pairprogramming preferred, BYOD strongly recommended; nota bene: assignments typically take longer than 90’ to prepare!

Credits: written exam (90’) at the end of the semester.

Recommended Textbooks

• Bloch: Effective Java
• Oaks: Java Performance
• Gamma et al.: Design Patterns
• Subramaniam: Functional Programming in Java
• Siedersleben: Moderne Softwarearchitektur

Additional Materials

See General Channel on Teams > Files.

Syllabus

1. Introduction (Oct 2/pt1, slides, assignments)

   We talk about software architecture, abstraction, decomposition and good software design. We also review the tools and ressources that you’ll need for this class.

2. Classes and Interfaces revisited (Oct 2/pt2, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

   We look at different types of classes (inner, anonymous, local, static), when to use them, and which visibility for which purpose. Also: @FunctionalInterface and lambda expressions.

No classes Monday Oct 9 (Berufungsverfahren 540 Wirtschaftsinformatik)

No classes Monday Oct 16 (Berufungsverfahren 506 IT Security)

1. Inheritance revisited (Oct 23, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

   We talk about abstract and final classes, (pure) virtual functions and defaults. Also, when (and how) to use abstract base classes, and how the Decorator pattern can be used to add functionality to existing classes.

2. Mixins, pt. 1; Generics, pt. 1 (Oct 30, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

   After a short digression to Mixins, we dig into the details of how generics work in Java, and how to apply them to data structures and algorithms.

3. Mixins, pt. 2; Generics, pt. 2 (Nov 6, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

   We’ll review Mixins and see how to use generics to make them stateful. Generics and inheritance need special attention, and will lead us to bounds and wildcards.

4. Reflection and Annotations (Nov 13, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

   Learn how reflection works in Java, and how they enable annotations by using examples of testing (JUnit5), serialization (gson) and networking (retrofit).

5. Design patterns, pt. 1 (Nov 20, slides, lecture notes, assignments: JavaFX (recommended) or Android (advanced))

   We begin with a few basic patterns: composite, iterator and observer, and use that to dive into Android and MVC/MVVC.

6. Design patterns, pt. 2 (Nov 27, slides, lecture notes, assignments: JavaFX or Android)

   We look at more every-day-patterns: singleton, factory, strategy and command.

7. Design patterns, pt. 3 (Dec 4, slides, lecture notes, assignments: JavaFX, Android)

   We round up a few more useful patterns: proxy and adapter to make other peoples’ modules fit your needs, and flyweight to save on precious memory in (mostly) graphical apps.

8. Parallel processing (Dec 11, slides, lecture notes, assignments: JavaFX, Android)

   Because sometimes, you need to work on more than one thing at a time! We’ll look at threads and how to control and synchronize them.

9. Asynchronous programming (Dec 18, slides, lecture notes, assignments: CLI, Android)

   User interfaces often require us to work not only in parallel, but to do so in an asynchronous way. Learn about a better Future for asynchronous or concurrent workloads, and what promise chaining can do for you.

10. Introduction to functional programming (Jan 8, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

    Leave your imperative and objected oriented programming comfort zone and follow me down the rabbit hole of functional programming. After some theory, we’ll do some basic exercises, including filter, map and forEach.

11. Functional programming in Java (Jan 15, slides, lecture notes, assignments)

    We’ll talk about the specifics (and limits) of functional programming in Java. Learn about the classes and interfaces used for Java’s functional parts, and the more sophisticated stream reduction using reduce and collect.

12. Patterns of modern software architecture (Jan 22, slides)

    We’re wrapping up the semester by talking about patterns of modern software architecture, such as dependency injection or microservices.

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