Description
Program Description:
This program tests your understanding of static methods and println statements. Write a Java class called
Song in a file named Song.java. (Use exactly this file name, including identical capitalization.)
A cumulative song is one where each verse builds upon previous verses. Examples of cumulative songs are
“The House That Jack Built” and “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.” For this assignment, you
will write a program that outputs the following cumulative song, a variation of a classic holiday song:
The first six verses printed by your program
must exactly reproduce the output at left.
This includes identical wording, spelling,
spacing, punctuation, and capitalization.
However, to encourage creativity, the last
verse of your song (the final bold part in
<< >> ) may print any text you like. Creative
verses submitted may be shown in class
anonymously at a later date. The only restrictions on your custom verse are the following:
• The verse must not be identical to another verse or consist entirely of text
from earlier in the song.
• The number of total lines in the verse
should be at least three (3) but no more
than fifty (50).
• The text of the verse should not include
hateful, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate speech.
• The code to produce the verse is still
subject to the style guidelines on the
next page.
One way to write this program would be to simply write a series of println statements that output each line of
the song in order. But such a solution would not receive full credit. Part of the challenge of this assignment lies
in recognizing the structure and redundancy of the song and improving the code using static methods.
(continued on back)
On the 1st day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
a partridge in a pear tree.
On the 2nd day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
two turtle doves, and
a partridge in a pear tree.
On the 3rd day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
three French hens,
two turtle doves, and
a partridge in a pear tree.
On the 4th day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
four calling birds,
three French hens,
two turtle doves, and
a partridge in a pear tree.
On the 5th day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
five golden rings,
four calling birds,
three French hens,
two turtle doves, and
a partridge in a pear tree.
On the 6th day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
six geese a-laying,
five golden rings,
four calling birds,
three French hens,
two turtle doves, and
a partridge in a pear tree.
<< your custom 7th verse goes here >>
2 of 2
Style Guidelines:
You should not place any println statements in your main method. (It is okay for main to have empty
println statements to print blank lines.) Instead of printing in main, use static methods for two reasons:
1. Structure
You should write static methods to capture the structure of the song. You should, for example, have a method
for each of the verses of the song (including your custom verse) to print that verse’s entire contents.
2. Eliminating redundancy
You should use only one println statement for each distinct line of the song (other than blank lines). For example, the following line appears several times in the output, but you should have only one println statement
in your program that prints that line of the song:
a partridge in a pear tree.
But a method that prints just one line is not good style. Instead, identify groups of lines that appear in multiple
places in the song and create methods to represent those groups. There is a general cumulative structural redundancy to the song that you should eliminate with your methods. Recall that methods can call other methods
if necessary (which can themselves call other methods, and so on). The key question to ask is whether you have
repeated lines or groups of lines of code that could be eliminated if you structured your methods differently.
This includes sequences of println statements and also repeated sequences of method calls.
You do not have to eliminate redundancy in lines that are similar but not identical, such as these:
On the 1st day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
On the 2nd day of “Xmas”, my true love gave to me
Include a comment at the beginning of your program with some basic information and a description of the program in your own words. For example:
// Suzy Student, CSE 142, Autumn 2049, Section XX
// Programming Assignment #1, 06/07/49
//
// This program’s behavior is …
For this assignment, you should limit yourself to the Java features covered in Chapter 1 of the textbook.
Though we will cover Chapter 2 while you work on this assignment, please do not use Chapter 2 features on
this program, such as mathematical expressions, print statements (as opposed to println), or for loops.
As a point of reference, our solution to this program has 14 methods other than main and is around 90 lines long
including comments and blank lines. This is just a rough guideline; you do not have to match this exactly.
Submission and Grading:
Turn in your Java source code file electronically from the Homework link on the course web site.
Part of your program’s score will come from its “external correctness.” External correctness measures whether
the output matches exactly what is expected. (We are very picky about the output matching exactly. Every
character and space must match.) Programs that do not compile will receive no external correctness points.
The rest of your program’s score will come from its “internal correctness.” Internal correctness measures
whether your source code follows the stylistic guidelines specified in this document. This includes having an
adequate comment header and capturing the structure and redundancy of the song as specified previously. You
should also limit the lengths of all lines in your program to fewer than 100 characters.
