The second Objects lab, from the BlueJ book's second chapter.
Look for the Chapter 2 file you need in the doc folder. There is 35 pages of reading and exercises in the chapter.
Work through all these exercises. You edit this file with your answers for these exercises.
- Create a TicketMachine object on the object bench.
- Upon viewing its methods,
getBalance,getPrice,insertMoney,printTicket. - Use
getPricemethod to view the value of the price of the tickets that was set when this object was created. - Use
insertMoneymethod to simulate inserting an amount of money into the machine. - Use
getBalanceto check that the machine has a record of the amount inserted.- You can insert several separate amounts of money into the machine, just like you might insert multiple coins or notes into a real machine. Try inserting the exact amount required for a ticket. As this is a simple machine, a ticket will not be issued automatically, so once you have inserted enough money, call the
printTicketmethod. A facsimile ticket should be printed in the BlueJ terminal window.
- You can insert several separate amounts of money into the machine, just like you might insert multiple coins or notes into a real machine. Try inserting the exact amount required for a ticket. As this is a simple machine, a ticket will not be issued automatically, so once you have inserted enough money, call the
- What value is returned if you check the machine’s balance after it has printed a ticket? A: $0
- Experiment with inserting different amounts of money before printing tickets.
- Do you notice anything strange about the machine’s behavior?
- What happens if you insert too much money into the machine – do you receive any refund?
- What happens if you do not insert enough and then try to print a ticket? A: Machine behavior - takes all values, even negative numbers; increments ticket number each time you call print ticket, regardless if the amounts in balance is not enough for a ticket. A: Not enough money - will still print ticket, regardless of getBalance A: Too much money - prints ticket, balance goes to 0 and no refund given
- Try to obtain a good understanding of a ticket machine’s behavior by interacting with it on the object bench before we start looking at how the
TicketMachineclass is implemented in the next section.
- Create another ticket machine for tickets of a different price.
- Buy a ticket from that machine.
- Does the printed ticket look different? A: The ticket in general looks the same but the ticket price is different and the total shows the balance, even if it is > or < the ticket price.
- Write out what you think the outer wrappers of the
StudentandLabClassclasses might look like – do not worry about the inner part. A: public class Student; public class LabClass
Does it matter whether we write
public class TicketMachine
or
class public TicketMachine
in the outer wrapper of a class?
A: Yes. The first names Ticketmachine as the class and the second names 'public' as the class and can't be used b/c it is a reserved word.
- Edit the source of the
TicketMachineclass to make the change and then close the editor window.- Do you notice a change in the class diagram?
- What error message do you get when you now press the compile button?
- Do you think this message clearly explains what is wrong? A: Yes - it becomes an object and the methods disappear. A: expected. A: Yes - the class needs a clearly defined (available) name.
- Check whether or not it is possible to leave out the word
publicfrom the outer wrapper of theTicketMachineclass. A: Yes - by removing 'public' completely, it becomes an object again and the methods become available.
- From your earlier experimentation with the ticket machine objects within BlueJ you can probably remember the names of some of the methods –
printTicket, for instance.- Look at the class definition in Code 2.1 and use this knowledge, along with the additional information about ordering we have given you, to try to make a list of the names of the fields, constructors, and methods in the
TicketMachineclass. - Hint: There is only one constructor in the class. A: Fields = price, balance, automatically A: Constructor = TicketMachine(int ticketCost) A: Methods = getPrice(), getBalance(), insertMoney(), printTicket()
- Look at the class definition in Code 2.1 and use this knowledge, along with the additional information about ordering we have given you, to try to make a list of the names of the fields, constructors, and methods in the
- Do you notice any features of the constructor that make it significantly different from the other methods of the class? A: It has parameters
- What do you think is the type of each of the following fields? A: int, Student, Server
private int count;
private Student representative;
private Server host;A: alive, tutor, game
- What are the names of the following fields? A:
private boolean alive;
private Person tutor;
private Game game;In the following field declaration from the TicketMachine class
private int price;does it matter which order the three words appear in?
- Edit the
TicketMachineclass to try different orderings. After each change, close the editor.- Does the appearance of the class diagram after each change give you a clue as to whether or not other orderings are possible?
- Check by pressing the compile button to see if there is an error message.
- Make sure that you reinstantiate the original version after your experiments! A: Yes - order is critical; received 'illegal start of type' error.
- Is it always necessary to have a semicolon at the end of a field declaration?
- Once again, experiment via the editor.
- The rule you will learn here is an important one, so be sure to remember it.
A: Yes - doesn't compile; gives '; expected' error.
- Write in full the declaration for a field of type
intwhose name isstatus. A: private int status;
- To what class does the following constructor belong?
public Student(String name)
A: Student.
- How many parameters does the following constructor have and what are their types?
public Book(String title, double price)
A: 2 parameters - one of type double and one of type String.
- Can you guess what types some of the
Bookclass’s fields might be? - Can you assume anything about the names of its fields? A: You can assume the fields would also be of the double and String types; A: Realistically, no; however, it makes sense to name fields for what they are which would infer type (numbers could have some variation) READ upto and INCLUDING section 2.15 of this chapter.