/**
 * {@code MyTimer} manages time.<br>
 * <b>Collaborations:</b><br>
 * <i>none</i>
 */
public class MyTimer extends JLabel implements ActionListener {
   // ...
}

public class StatusBar {
   private JTextField status;

   public void setStatus (String status) {
      this.status.setText(status);
   }
   public void clearStatus () {
      this.status.setText("");
   }
   public JTextField getStatus () {
      return this.status;
   }
}

Sorry, but we had not much time this week, so our implementation is more or less garbage.

I’m not really sure, if I should look into the sourcecode at all or just take their own assessment…

Addition:

I should have taken their remark for real…they actually did nothing except extracting anonymous classes into explicit ones…

“Were we supposed to use the observer pattern in this exercise?”

I replied with the question how he managed to use MVC pattern without it and he said that his solution works. Well, yes. It works. But there is no way of adding a second, third, … view. And again I ask myself why they do not understand the most basic things…

public String getLineAtPosition (int index) {
    FileInputStream dataFile = new FileInputStream(this.fileName);
    byte[] buffer = new byte[1];
    String data = "";

    while ((dataFile.available() != 0) && (index != 0)) {
        dataFile.read(buffer);
        data += (char) buffer[0];
        if (lineBreak(data)) {
            index--;
            data = "";
        }
    }
    if (dataFile.available() == 0) {
        return "Insufficient data.";
    }
    while (dataFile.available() != 0) {
        dataFile.read(buffer);
        data += (char) buffer[0];
        if (lineBreak(data)) {
            data = noLineBreak(data);
            break;
        }
    }
    return data;
}

/**
 * not in use
 */
public boolean hasNext() {
    return false;
}

// invariant: we don't guarantee anything