Introduction To OO Software Execution Models

Introduction

These web pages provide access to teaching and learning materials that introduce some underlying concepts of object-oriented software execution models. The Microsoft .Net Framework and the C# programming language are used to exemplify these concepts, no previous knowledge of .Net or C# is required. These materials include PowerPoint presentations, practorial exercises and interactive software animations.

The material is divided into presentations and practorials, the former designed for 1 hour sessions and the latter for 2 hour sessions. This material is categorised under a number of headings that are self-contained to a certain extent and can be selectively delivered as required to meet specific prerequisites and course objectives.

The term practorial is used to describe a session that is expected to be presented partly through tutorial activities such as group discussions, and partly through individual or group practical work. The balance of such activities can vary from practorial to practorial and reflect the deliverer's teaching style.

Who Is This Material For?

This material expects learners to have previous knowledge of some object-oriented programming language; this might be Java, C++ or even Visual Basic. Learners should have some fairly extensive experience of practical programming in these languages in order to fully appreciate the significance of the concepts being presented.

No previous knowledge or experience of the Microsoft .Net Framework or the C# programming language is required.

The material can be used to introduce learners to

underlying OO programming concepts,
the support provided by OO run-time environments,
the Microsoft .Net Framework, and/or
the C# programming languagee.

HEA Project contributions.

The following components of the material were developed through the project supported by the HEA Innovative Teaching fund.

C# Classes Practorial and the supporting interactive straight-line animation software.
C# stack management practorial and its associated interactive software animations.
Heap memory presentation with allocation and garbage collection animations.
C# Heap memory practorial.
Presentation on class libraries.
Dynamic code presentation with animations.
Dynamic code practorial.
GDI+ image processing Practorial.

Acknowledgments.

Financial support for the development of the interactive software and case studies used in this material was provided by

Innovative Teaching Development fund of the Higher Education Academy (HEA),
Carnegie Trust for Universities in Scotland, and
School of Computing & Creative Technologies, University of Abertay.

Teaching material has been drawn from a number of sources and no explicit references are made at the point of inclusion. These sources are acknowledged in the references page.

Acknowledgement is also made to the commitement and expertise of Michael Idowu, Matthew Leonard and Eilidh McAdam who created the interactive software and contributed to the development of the case studies.