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
getPrice
method to view the value of the price of the tickets that was set when this object was created. - Use
insertMoney
method to simulate inserting an amount of money into the machine. - Use
getBalance
to 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
printTicket
method. 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? Answer: The balance will be 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? Answer: The machine will keep the money if too much money is inserted. There will be no refund Answer:
- What happens if you do not insert enough and then try to print a ticket? Answer: The tickets will still be printed
- 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
TicketMachine
class 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? Answer: No, the only difference would only be the price of the ticket. Tickets are still being printed regardless of how much money is being inserted.
- Write out what you think the outer wrappers of the
Student
andLabClass
classes might look like – do not worry about the inner part.
Does it matter whether we write
public class TicketMachine
or
class public TicketMachine
in the outer wrapper of a class?
Answer: Yes, only the latter works.
- Edit the source of the
TicketMachine
class to make the change and then close the editor window.- Do you notice a change in the class diagram? Answer; You can no longer create an object out of the class diagram
- What error message do you get when you now press the compile button? Answer: "Error(s) found in class. Press Command K or click link on right to go to next error."
- Do you think this message clearly explains what is wrong? Answer: Yes
- Check whether or not it is possible to leave out the word
public
from the outer wrapper of theTicketMachine
class.
- 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
TicketMachine
class. - Hint: There is only one constructor in the class. Answer: Fields: Price, Balance, and Total constructor: Ticket machine Methods: getPrice, getTicketNumber, getBalance,
- 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? Answer: Constructors is the only method with a parameter, responsible for assigning the values of price, balance, total, and ticketNumber. Also the constructor does not return any types of values
- What do you think is the type of each of the following fields?
private int count;
private Student representative;
private Server host;
Answer = int, Student, Server
- What are the names of the following fields?
private boolean alive;
private Person tutor;
private Game game;
Answer = alive, tutor, game
In the following field declaration from the TicketMachine class
private int price;
does it matter which order the three words appear in? Answer: Yes
- Edit the
TicketMachine
class 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? Yes
- 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!
- Is it always necessary to have a semicolon at the end of a field declaration? Answer: Yes, as semicolon tells you the end of your declaration.
- Once again, experiment via the editor.
- The rule you will learn here is an important one, so be sure to remember it.
- Write in full the declaration for a field of type
int
whose name isstatus
. Answer: private int status
- To what class does the following constructor belong?
public Student(String name)
Answer: Student
- How many parameters does the following constructor have and what are their types?
public Book(String title, double price)
Answer: 2 parameters
- Can you guess what types some of the
Book
class’s fields might be? - Can you assume anything about the names of its fields?
Answer: Some of the names that can be included in the fields would be Genre, Price, and Title
READ upto and INCLUDING section 2.15 of this chapter.