1. 37C00450 Programming II
Introduction to the Course - October 31th, 2017
Venkata Marella (Ven)

2. Content
1. Practicalities 2. Getting started 3. Troubleshooting 4. Getting help

3. 1. Practicalities

4. Course overview This is an online self-paced course
– That means no lectures and no weekly deadlines
– It doesn’t mean that you can pass without effort
• By the end of the course, you will know:
– HashMap data structure
– Interface, Exceptions Handling
– Inheritance
– User Interfaces, Regular Expressions, etc.

5. Exercises 6 weeks’ worth of exercises – 50 individual tasks
– each broken up into smaller parts: 169 total
• There is (1) deadline; you can work at your own pace
• Each week’s exercises unlock only after completing 80% of the
previous week’s exercises
• Exercises must be completed before the first exam date
(December 14, 2017)
– even if you plan to take the second exam
– else, you get only the points you have on that date

6. Exam
Written exam
– You will have 3 hours for the exam, closed book, hand-written exam
• Exam consists of 2 sections:
– theory: some definitions of core concepts
– programming part: coding skills used in the exercises
• There are only two chances to take the exam
– Friday, December 15, :00–12:00)
– Friday, February 02, )

7. Course workload

8. Grade composition
You must obtain at least 50% of the points in each in order to pass the course.

9. Grade Scale
No rounding, no exceptions;

10. Grade distribution (2016)

11. 2. Getting Started

12. Step 1: Register in TMC Register a new user account by going to–
Click the signup button.
(Warning: Please, don’t register your account at Go to the above link)
• Use your Student ID number as a username
– if you use anything else, your exercises will not be counted

13. No… just no

14. Step 1: Register in TMC
• Register a new user account by going to – • Use your Student ID number as a username – if you use anything else, your exercises will not be counted • You will need the following software in the course: – Java development kit (JDK) – NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE) – Test My Code plug-in (TMC) • The next slides will show you how to obtain them

15. Step 2: Install Java & NetBeans
1. Download the most recent version of JDK from
html
– unpack and follow the installation procedure
■ if you already have a version of JDK installed, you can skip this step
■ if you’re not sure, do this step anyway
2. Download NetBeans
■ scroll down the page until you see the links for your OS
– JDK must already be installed (!)

16. Step 2: OR Install IntelliJ
Download IntelliJ
■ scroll down the page until you see the links for your OS
– JDK must already be installed (!)
TMC Plugin for IntelliJ
To install the plugin, go to File -> Settings -> Plugins And click Browse repositories at the bottom. Then search for tmc, and you'll find TMC Plugin for IntelliJ. Click Install, wait a bit while it downloads and installs it, and restart the IDE by pressing the Restart IntelliJ IDEA button.

17. Step 3: Log in to the course
When you start tmcbeans/netbeans for the first time, you will see the window on the next slide
– it can also be accessed via: Menubar ➤ TMC ➤ Settings…
1. Use the Username and Password chosen during TMC registration
2. Change Server address:
3. Click “Refresh list”
4. Select aalto-biz-2017-prog-2 from the list

18. Step 4: Log in to the course
/aalto-bz
aalto-biz-2017-prog-2
Local Folder where you to save the code
Preferred Language

19. Step 5: Setup the environment variables
If you are using java for the first-time on your laptop
For Windows
Right click “My Computer” and select “Properties”
On the Advanced tab, select Environment Variables, and then select System Variables and then edit (or create a new variables) JAVA_HOME to point to where the JDK software is located( C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_02 ) and make sure that “Bin” folder exists in the location. But, don’t include bin folder in the file path.

20. Step 6: Get started All course material can be found via this link 􂀑︎–
– a week’s lectures are available at once
• The link below has other instructions on how to register and get
started provided by the University of Helsinki –
– WARNING: the examples and video there contain WRONG COURSE NAMES and OUTDATED INFORMATION; read at your own risk!

21. Step 7: Get started (quickly)
• Useful tips and tricks, FAQs can be found here – • Helpful information for Mac OS X users – • Keyboard shortcuts worth learning – – these will save you a lot of time while doing the exercises • Way to get rid of the OutOfMemory error on Mac OS X –

22. Step 8: Complete the exercises
Open tmcbeans
• In the sidebar on the left…
– expand the exercise package
■ Exercise ➤ Source Packages ➤ <default package> ➤ Exercise.java
– double-click the .java file to open the exercise template
In the main window…
– fill in the exercise template with your answers
– run the program to make sure it works
– submit the exercise to the server to be checked (see next slide)
• “Rinse and repeat” 182 more times…

23. Step 9: Submit the exercises
Exercise Templates
Run Code Locally
Run test cases Locally
Submit to Server

24. General tips Keep the code as clean as you can
– use proper indentation
– use descriptive names for variables, methods, classes, everything
– keep all methods short, including main
– write methods that only do one thing
– remove all copy-paste code by refactoring (or don’t copy and
paste code in the first place!)
– replace “bad” and unclear code with clean, easy to read code

25. Some friendly advice (especially relevant for the exam)

26. 3. Troubleshooting

27. Frequent errors Use correct capitalization
– if your code gives an error, check that commands are correctly capitalized
• Remember the semicolon “;”
– most common source of errors is a missing semicolon
• Remember to close parentheses and brackets
– second most common source of errors

28. In case of problems & questions
1. Check the FAQs here: – 2. Use the General discussion forum in MyCourses – 3. Use Google groups to discuss the issue with your peers: – 4. Use IRC chat to contact course administrators at the University of Helsinki: –

29. If all else fails, seek professional help… or come to the help sessions
Teacher: Venkata Marella
– administrative matters, one-to-one communication, feedback –
■ use the subject Programming 2
■ always provide relevant screenshots
■ please write to me in English

30. Main takeaways
• Please make sure to register in the TMC system with your student ID number. • Make sure you register to the correct course workspace • If you’re not from Aalto BIZ, please contact your study coordinator to make sure the course can be counted in your study program.