Computer Science 101

1

It is the "learning of Alice" and not "the Alice program" that we are bootstrapping in this unit.

Bootstrapping is explained here and here.

Get acquainted with Alice.

Play with Alice.

Why is it called Alice? Alice is not an acronym: it isn't A.L.I.C.E. and it doesn't stand for anything. The team named the system "Alice" in honor of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), an English mathmatician and logician who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Carrol wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

The above explanation comes from the textbook by Wanda Dann, Stephen Cooper and Randy Pausch, Learning to Program With Alice (Pearson Education, Inc., Toronto, 2005), page 6.

For a great read, get The Annotated Alice, The Definitive Edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2000). This particular edition has the original illustrations by John Tenniel, and notes throughout by Martin Gardner who was the mathematical games editor for 25 years for the Scientific American Magazine.

IceSkaterWorld.a2w

Naptime.a2w

PenguinChorus.a2w

Space.a2w

1. Download & unzip the most recent verion of Alice. Note that a JRE (runtime version of Java) is downloaded and installed with Alice. No further "installation" of Java or Alice is needed. If system requirements are otherwise satisfactory, Alice.exe runs "right out of the box".

2. Install the Java 3D Runtime for the JRE in order to view Alice 2.0 worlds on the web.

3. Install the Java Media Framework in order to view Alice 2.0 worlds on the web.

4. Launch Alice. Do the following Online Tutorials.

5. Help --> Tutorial 1 --> Open --> OK
        Learn the basics of Alice.

6. Help --> Tutorial 2 --> Open --> OK
        Teach worlds & objects to do things.

7. Help --> Tutorial 3 --> Open --> OK
        Mouse clicks & key presses.

8. Help --> Tutorial 4 --> Open --> OK
        Create your own scenes.

2

Review class expectations.

Using Alice

• Start Alice
• Make a new world
• Open a saved world
• Play a world
• Stop a world
• Save a world
• Add objects to the world
• Delete objects from the world
• Using the web gallery
• Mouse controls in the scene editor
• Move subparts of objects
• Using quad view
• Moving the camera
• Arranging objects
• Using popup menus
• Using methods with object subparts
• Motion controls

DancingBee

FirstWorld

Movies are in Macromedia Flash format (go here: Flash player). Movies will open in a new window. If you have pop-up window prevention software you may not see the movie because of it.

View the movie which shows what Alice can do. Note that this video includes audio that narates the action.

View the movie to see how to bring an object into Alice from the gallery and move it around in the layout view.

Read and practice the lessons in the following appendix.

1. "Getting Started" Tutorial, Part 1
2. "Getting Started" Tutorial, Part 2

3

Objects in Alice

What is interactivity?

Movie Demo

Interactive Demo

Print the source code of the programs done for exercises 1-5 below. Click here to see how.

1. Introduction Exercise 1 - Island (p 18)
2. Introduction Exercise 2 - Winter (p 18)
3. Introduction Exercise 3 - Snowpeople Pile (p 18)
4. Introduction Exercise 4 - Teach Party (p 19)
5. Introduction Exercise 5 - Soldiers on Deck (p 19)

4

Creating your own animation (part 1)

Storyboards

1. (To be turned in): Create a scenario and a storyboard for the musical chairs example (as discussed in 2.2 (a) exercises on page 52):
2. Create both a visual storyboard sketched by hand with pencil and paper and a To Do List textual storyboard stating the same scenario in text.
3. Implement (ie: generate the source code) for this scenario.

5

Creating your own animation (part 2)

Initial Scene

Code generation

Snowman meets snow woman

Snowman meets snow woman (with comments)

1. Complete Section 2-2 exercise 4: CirclingFish (p 52)
2. Complete Section 2-2 exercise 2: TortoiseGetsCookie (P 53)

6

Instructions

Control structures

Questions

Expressions

Egyptian scene using a distance question

1. Complete exercise 3-1-1. Mummy to pyramid (p 74)
2. Complete exercise 3-1-3. Joey hop to top of crate (p 74)

7

Conditional execution

If/else

Nested Ifs

Relational operators

Egyptian scene with an If/else

1. Complete exercise 3-1-4. Volleyball jump (p 74)
2. Revise the Volleyball jump world. Use an If/Else statement to make the tallest person jump up 1/2 of their height and the shorter person jump up 1/4 of their height.

8

Repetition

Loop

Egyptian scene with mummy taking steps

Egyptian scene using a Loop

1. Complete exercise 3-2-5. Mummy's realistic walk (p 75)
2. Complete exercise 3-2-6. Blimp and dragon (p 75)

9

Creating your own methods

Snowman meets snow woman

1. Complete Section 4.1.1: Snowpeople flip hats

10

Creating your own methods

The bug band

The bug band (with lyrics instead of sound)

1. Exercise 4.2.5: Beetle Band Duet
2. Exercise 4.2.7: Magic Act
3. Alice Project 1

11

Class-level methods

Creating your own, more powerful classes

Inheritance

Initial Skater

Clever Skater Character

1. Alice Project 1

12

Class-level methods continued

Using object parameters with class-level methods

Modified Skater

1. Exercise 4.3.9, Enhanced Clever Skater
2. Exercise 4.3.11: Funky Chicken Dance

13

Events and event handlers

Biplane - Simple Flight Simulator

1. Exercise 5.1.1. Flight Simulator completion
2. Exercise 5.1.3. Robot Remote Control

14

More on interactivity

Passing parameters to event-handlers

Save the People

The Fire Truck

Zeus World

1. Exercise 5.2.14. Penguin Slide
2. Exercise 5.1.15. Hockey
3. Alice Project Assignment 2

15

Built-in questions

Creating your own questions

Ball Bouncing Over Tennis Net

Ball Rolling

1. Exercise 6.1.2. Rotating Tires
2. Exercise 6.1.3. Bee Scout
3. Alice Project Assignment 2

16

Decisions

Boolean expressions

If statements

Avoiding a Collision

1. Alice Project Assignment 2

17

More with If statements and decisions

Revisiting the Zeus World - 1

Revisiting the Zeus World - 2

Revisiting the Zeus World - 3

Revisiting the Zeus World - 4

1. Exercise 6.2.6. Modifications to the Zeus World
2. Exercise 6.2.12. Switch:
3. Alice Project Assignment 2

18

Student presentations for Assignment 2

Random Motion

1. Design for Assignment 2 due
2. Alice Project Assignment 2

19

Introduction to repetition

The counted loop

Nested loops

Bunny in Garden

Infinite Carousel

Ferris Wheel

Loop with a Question

1. Exercise 7.1.2. Square Bunny Hop
2. Exercise 7.1.3. Saloon Sign

20

Random Motion

Shark Chase

1. Exercise 7.2.5. Frog and Ladybug
2. Exercise 7.2.6. Bumper Cars

21

Introducing Recursion

Comparisons with While

Horse Race

1. Exercise 8.1.1. Modified Horse Race

22

Structural recursion

The Towers of Hanoi

Towers of Hanoi

1. Exercise 8.2.5. Towers of Hanoi
2. Exercise 8.2.6. Towers of Hanoi modified
3. Project 8.2. Skeleton Reversal
4. Alice, Assignment 3

23

Introduction to lists

Iterating through lists in order

Iterating through lists simultaneously

Rockettes in Order

Rockettes Together

1. Exercise 9-1-1. The wave
2. Exercise 9-1-3. Spring Flowers:
3. Alice, Assignment 3

24

Whack-a-mole example

Whack a Mole

1. Chapter 9 Project 1: Halloween Treasure Hunt

   Note that you should make each tombstone (in the list) invisible when it is visited. When all tombstones are invisible, ghostlee wins!

2. Student designs due for Assignment 3

25

Introduction to variables

Revisiting Inheritance

Student presentations for Assignment 3

Switch

26

Continued work with variables

Corvette

1. Exercise 10-1.1. Simple Switches
2. Exercise 10-1.4. Steerable car with rotating tires

27

Introducfing arrays

Creation and access

Array With Random Access

Array With Swap

Array With Turn In Loop

1. Exercise 10-2.7. All Possible Permutations
2. Project 10.2. A Horse Race Gam

28

Allowing variables to be watched

Work on last class's assignment

Corvette With Printing

Alice In Wonderland: An Interactive Adventure