Syllabus

Introduction to Computer Programming with Ruby
Course Outline

Brookline Adult & Community Education
June 1, 2009 – July 20, 2009
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.


Week 1, June 1: What is Object-Oriented Programming?
Reading: RVQG, Chapters 1 and 2
Goals of this course
My background
What are two of the defining features of objects?
Brief background of Ruby
Installing Ruby v1.8.6
Interactive Ruby (IRB)
The course textbook: Ruby: Visual QuickStart Guide by Larry Ullman


Week 2, June 8: Strings, Numbers and Flow Control
Reading: RVQG, Chapters 3 and 5
Strings
Numbers
Conditionals
do loops
for loops
Iterators

Week 3, June 15: Collections
Reading: RVQG, Chapter 4
Arrays
Ranges
Hashes

Week 4, June 22: Methods
Reading: RVQG, Chapter 6
Return values of methods
Taking arguments
Object-dot notation
Duck typing
Blocks

Week 5, June 29: Classes
Reading: RVQG, Chapter 7
Classes as blueprints for objects
Classes as objects
Constructors
Instance variables
Making an object out of a class
Modifying existing classes
Creating custom classes
Encapsulation

Week 6, July 6: Inheritance
Reading: RVQG, Chapter 8
What is inheritance?
How is it useful?
Can it be overused?
Single inheritance

Week 7, July 13: Modules
Reading: RVQG, Chapter 9
Mixing functionality into a class
Extending the functionality of an object

Week 8, July 20: Review and Next Steps
Review
Next steps