Once a software application has been implemented and released, that is by no means the end of development. There are all kinds of causes requiring software to be changed, from users reporting bugs, through changes in third-party software, to updates for improved performance. A critical skill of software developers is the ability to understand and update a program's algorithm. For this Assignment, you will update an existing Java program using the NetBeans IDE.

You will use the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment to make changes to an existing NetBeans Java Project. This existing program correctly sorts the data without using threads and contains a method (threadedSort) that you will update to sort the data using threads. To prepare: Read this week's Resources. Download and Install NetBeans:

Visit the NetBeans download page from this week's Resources. Download the Java SE bundle. (Note: Select the most recent release version, not a Beta version.) Run the downloaded package to install it. Choose the default options for installation. Unzip and open the Unthreaded Program: Download and unzip the file Week2_Project.zip. This will create a folder containing a NetBeans Project with the non-threaded java program. Note the location of this folder. Launch the NetBeans IDE. Click the Open Project... button NetBeans Open Project... icon (Or click the File drop-down menu and select Open Project...). Navigate to the project folder, select it, and click Open Project. The Java Project contains three class files: MergeSort.java, Sort.java, and SortTest.java. Double-click each file in the Project section (at the left of the NetBeans IDE window) to display the file's contents. Each of the Java class files contains comments explaining the purpose of the class and the purpose of the class' methods.

By Day 7, modify the Java program by adding threads, and analyze the performance of both the threaded and non-threaded versions. Modify the Program: Improve the performance of the Java program by adding threads to the Sort.java file. Implement the threadedSort() method within the Sort class. Reuse any of the existing methods by calling them as necessary from your threadedSort method. You may add additional methods to the Sort class, if necessary. Analyze the Program: When running the provided SortTest program, the output presents data to support analyzing the performance of the threaded and non-threaded sort methods.

Analyze your threaded implementation by comparing its performance to the original non-threaded implementation and explain the measured behavior. Document your analysis as a short paper (1-3 pages), using APA format. Be sure to discuss the relative performance improvement you expect for your threaded implementation and how the expected performance compares to the measured performance.