Week 4 [Fri, Jan 29th] - Topics

A model is a representation of something else.

A model provides a simpler view of a complex entity because a model captures only a selected aspect. This omission of some aspects implies models are abstractions.

Multiple models of the same entity may be needed to capture it fully.

In software development, models are useful in several ways:

a) To analyze a complex entity related to software development.

b) To communicate information among stakeholders. Models can be used as a visual aid in discussions and documentation.

c) As a blueprint for creating software. Models can be used as instructions for building software.

The following diagram uses the class diagram notation to show the different types of UML diagrams.

An OO solution is basically a network of objects interacting with each other. Therefore, it is useful to be able to model how the relevant objects are 'networked' together inside a software i.e. how the objects are connected together.

Note that these object structures within the same software can change over time.

However, object structures do not change at random; they change based on a set of rules, as was decided by the designer of that software. Those rules that object structures need to follow can be illustrated as a class structure i.e. a structure that exists among the relevant classes.

UML Object Diagrams are used to model object structures and UML Class Diagrams are used to model class structures of an OO solution.

Contents of the panels given below belong to a different chapter; they have been embedded here for convenience and are collapsed by default to avoid content duplication in the printed version.

Classes form the basis of class diagrams.

Associations are the main connections among the classes in a class diagram.

The most basic class diagram is a bunch of classes with some solid lines among them to represent associations, such as this one.

An example class diagram showing associations between classes.

In addition, associations can show additional decorations such as association labels, association roles, multiplicity and navigability to add more information to a class diagram.

Here is the same class diagram shown earlier but with some additional information included:

Object diagrams can be used to complement class diagrams. For example, you can use object diagrams to model different object structures that can result from a design represented by a given class diagram.

Compared to the notation for class diagrams, object diagrams differ in the following ways:

• Show objects instead of classes:
  • Instance name may be shown
  • There is a : before the class name
  • Instance and class names are underlined
• Methods are omitted
• Multiplicities are omitted

Furthermore, multiple object diagrams can correspond to a single class diagram.

Both object diagrams are derived from the same class diagram shown earlier. In other words, each of these object diagrams shows ‘an instance of’ the same class diagram.

UML notes can augment UML diagrams with additional information. These notes can be shown connected to a particular element in the diagram or can be shown without a connection. The diagram below shows examples of both.

Example:

An association can be shown as an attribute instead of a line.

Association multiplicities and the default value can be shown as part of the attribute using the following notation. Both are optional.

name: type [multiplicity] = default value

The diagram below depicts a multi-player Square Game being played on a board comprising of 100 squares. Each of the squares may be occupied with any number of pieces, each belonging to a certain player.

A Piece may or may not be on a Square. Note how that association can be replaced by an isOn attribute of the Piece class. The isOn attribute can either be null or hold a reference to a Square object, matching the 0..1 multiplicity of the association it replaces. The default value is null.

The association that a Board has 100 Squares can be shown in either of these two ways:

Show each association as either an attribute or a line but not both. A line is preferred as it is easier to spot.

A class diagram can also show different types of relationships between classes: inheritance, compositions, aggregations, dependencies.

A class diagram can also show different types of class-like entities:

An association class represents additional information about an association. It is a normal class but plays a special role from a design point of view.

Implementing association classes

There is no special way to implement an association class. It can be implemented as a normal class that has variables to represent the endpoint of the association it represents.

class Transaction {
    
    //all fields are compulsory
    Person seller;
    Person buyer;
    Date date;
    String receiptNumber;
    
    Transaction(Person seller, Person buyer, Date date, String receiptNumber) {
        //set fields
    }
}

JavaFX is a technology for building Java-based GUIs. Previously it was a part Java itself, but has become a third-party dependency since then. It is now being maintained by OpenJDK.

Refer to the JavaFX tutorial @SE-EDU/guides to learn how to get started with JavaFX.

Variable Arguments (Varargs) is a syntactic sugar type feature that allows writing a method that can take a variable number of arguments.

public static void search(String ... keywords){
   // method body
}

Resources:

• Java Varargs feature (from Oracle.com)
• Java Varargs tutorial (for javaTpoint.com)

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.

Static analysis of code can find useful information such as unused variables, unhandled exceptions, style errors, and statistics. Most modern IDEs come with some inbuilt static analysis capabilities. For example, an IDE can highlight unused variables as you type the code into the editor.

The term static in static analysis refers to the fact that the code is analyzed without executing the code. In contrast, dynamic analysis requires the code to be executed to gather additional information about the code e.g., performance characteristics.

Higher-end static analysis tools (static analyzers) can perform more complex analysis such as locating potential bugs, memory leaks, inefficient code structures, etc.

Linters are a subset of static analyzers that specifically aim to locate areas where the code can be made 'cleaner'.

Code review is the systematic examination of code with the intention of finding where the code can be improved.

Reviews can be done in various forms. Some examples below:

• Pull Request reviews

  • Project Management Platforms such as GitHub and BitBucket allow the new code to be proposed as Pull Requests and provide the ability for others to review the code in the PR.

• In pair programming

  • As pair programming involves two programmers working on the same code at the same time, there is an implicit review of the code by the other member of the pair.

• Formal inspections

  • Inspections involve a group of people systematically examining project artifacts to discover defects. Members of the inspection team play various roles during the process, such as:

    • the author - the creator of the artifact
    • the moderator - the planner and executor of the inspection meeting
    • the secretary - the recorder of the findings of the inspection
    • the inspector/reviewer - the one who inspects/reviews the artifact

Advantages of code review over testing:

• It can detect functionality defects as well as other problems such as coding standard violations.
• It can verify non-code artifacts and incomplete code.
• It does not require test drivers or stubs.

Disadvantages:

• It is a manual process and therefore, error prone.

The PR review stage is a dialog between the PR author and members of the repo that received the PR, in order to refine and eventually merge the PR.

Given below are some steps you can follow when reviewing a PR.

1. Locate the PR:

1. Go to the GitHub page of the repo.
2. Click on the Pull requests tab.
3. Click on the PR you want to review.

2. Read the PR description. It might contain information relevant to reviewing the PR.

3. Click on the Files changed tab to see the diff view.

4. Add review comments:

1. Hover over the line you want to comment on and click on the icon that appears on the left margin. That should create a text box for you to enter your comment.
   To mark multiple lines, click-and-drag the icon.
2. Enter your comment.
   This page @SE-EDU/guides has some best practices PR reviewers can follow.
3. After typing in the comment, click on the Start a review button (not the Add single comment button. This way, your comment is saved but not visible to others yet. It will be visible to others only when you have finished the entire review.
   

4. Repeat the above steps to add more comments.

5. Submit the review:

1. When there are no more comments to add, click on the Review changes button (on the top right of the diff page).
2. Type in an overall comment about the PR, if any. e.g.,

   Overall, I found your code easy to read for the most part except a few places
   where the nesting was too deep. I noted a few minor coding standard violations
   too. Some of the classes are getting quite long. Consider splitting into
   smaller classes if that makes sense.
   

   LGTM is often used in such overall comments, to indicate Looks good to merge.
   nit is another such term, used to indicate minor flaws e.g., LGTM, almost. Just a few nits to fix..
3. Choose Approve, Comment, or Request changes option as appropriate and click on the Submit review button.

Combining parts of a software product to form a whole is called integration. It is also one of the most troublesome tasks and it rarely goes smoothly.

Build automation tools automate the steps of the build process, usually by means of build scripts.

In a non-trivial project, building a product from its source code can be a complex multi-step process. For example, it can include steps such as: pull code from the revision control system, compile, link, run automated tests, automatically update release documents (e.g. build number), package into a distributable, push to repo, deploy to a server, delete temporary files created during building/testing, email developers of the new build, and so on. Furthermore, this build process can be done ‘on demand’, it can be scheduled (e.g. every day at midnight) or it can be triggered by various events (e.g. triggered by a code push to the revision control system).

Some of these build steps such as compiling, linking and packaging, are already automated in most modern IDEs. For example, several steps happen automatically when the ‘build’ button of the IDE is clicked. Some IDEs even allow customization of this build process to some extent.

However, most big projects use specialized build tools to automate complex build processes.

Some build tools also serve as dependency management tools. Modern software projects often depend on third party libraries that evolve constantly. That means developers need to download the correct version of the required libraries and update them regularly. Therefore, dependency management is an important part of build automation. Dependency management tools can automate that aspect of a project.

An extreme application of build automation is called continuous integration (CI) in which integration, building, and testing happens automatically after each code change.

A natural extension of CI is Continuous Deployment (CD) where the changes are not only integrated continuously, but also deployed to end-users at the same time.