The course syllabus can be found here.
Midterm exam: October 10 (normal class time)
Final exam: December 12, 4:30 - 7:15
A review sheet for the final exam is here.
You will be programming in Java. On what system is up to you. If you will be programming at home you will need some software.
You will need both the Java runtime and the Java compiler and tools on your system. They can be downloaded (for any system) from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. This includes the Java compiler javac.
Documentation for the classes in the Java library are at http://download.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/. Bookmark this site.
If you prefer to compile from the command line rather than use an IDE you will need an editor. Two excellent programmers' editors are Emacs and jEdit.
Emacs is a powerful programmer's editor which is available on virtually all Unix or Unix-like systems (e.g. Linux, Mac OS X). Learning Emacs is not particularly easy, but it is worth the effort. When you start Emacs typing ctrl-h t will start a lesson on how to use it. If you get frustrated you can get a session with a psychotherapist by typing alt-x doctor (or esc x doctor). Several tutorials on using Emacs are available on the web (Google "Emacs tutorial"). A Windows port can be downloaded from http://ntemacs.sourceforge.net.
jEdit is an editor whose operation is similar to a word processor. It is available from http://www.jedit.org/. It runs on all relevant systems. jEdit is easy to learn and complete documentation is available on the jEdit website.
If you have not yet learned to use a debugger now is the time. A half hour spent learning rudimentary use of a debugger now will save you hours of pain and suffering throughout the semester.
If you are using an IDE you have access to the included debugger. Consult the website for your IDE for for information
Another debugger is jSwat which can be downloaded from http://jswat.sourceforge.net/. A (very) short note on getting started with jSwat is included in the download or can be read here.