Learning to Program with Alice (w/ CD ROM)

Wanda Dann is the Director of the Alice Project and Associate Teaching Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research has encompassed program visualization and object-oriented and event-driven programming. She has published papers on the use of program visualization in computer science education for SIGCSE, the Computer Science Education Journal, and related publications. She has been co-PI for three NSF-funded projects. She is an active member of the ITiCSE Visualization Working Group, studying the effectiveness of visualization in computer science education. She has taken on a major leadership role in the international computer science education community, serving as SIGCSE 2004 Program co-Chair and SIGCSE 2005 Symposium co-Chair.Stephen Cooper is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and the Director for the Center for Visualization at Saint Joseph's University.¿He taught previously at Rivier College, serving as Computer Science program director. He has also worked at IBM as a systems programmer. Dr. Cooper's research interests lie in the semantics of programming languages as well as in program visualization. He is the author or co-author of a dozen articles, and has been the principal investigator for several National Science Foundation and private grants.¿Randy Pausch was a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction and Design at Carnegie Mellon, and co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center. He also served as the Director of Carnegie Mellon's Alice research group, where he oversaw the development of Alice. He was a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. In 1995, he spent a Sabbatical with the Walt Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio and consulted with Imagineering on interactive theme park attractions, particularly for the "DisneyQuest" virtual-reality based theme park. Dr. Pausch authored or co-authored five books and over 60 reviewed journal and conference proceedings articles, and his primary interests were human-computer interaction, entertainment technology and undergraduate education.

• Foreword xiPreface xiiiAcknowledgments xxiAbout the Authors xxiiiPart I: Introduction to Alice 11 Getting Started with Alice 31-1 Introduction to Alice 31-2 Alice Concepts 8Tips & Techniques 1: Special Effects: Text and 2D Graphic Images 15Summary 18Exercises 192 Program Design and Implementation 222-1 Scenarios and Storyboards 222-2 A First Program 29Tips & Techniques 2: Orientation and Movement Instructions 43Summary 57Exercises 593 Programming: Putting Together the Pieces 623-1 Built-in Functions and Expressions 633-2 Simple Control Structures 68Tips & Techniques 3: Camera and Animation Controls 76Summary 81Exercises 83Part II: Object-Oriented and Event-Driven ProgrammingConcepts 874 Classes, Objects, Methods and Parameters 894-1 World-Level Methods 914-2 Parameters 1004-3 Object-Level Methods and Inheritance 110Tips & Techniques 4: Visible and Invisible Objects 121Summary 127Exercises and Projects 1295 Interaction: Events and Event Handling 1405-1 Interactive Programming 1405-2 Parameters and Event Handling Methods 147Tips & Techniques 5: Creating Your Own People Models 156Summary 158Exercises and Projects 159Part III: Using Functions and Control Statements 1716 Functions and If/Else 1736-1 Functions 1736-2 Execution Control with If/Else and Boolean Functions 180Tips & Techniques 6: Random Numbers and Random Motion 196Summary 199Exercises and Projects 2017 Repetition: Definite and Conditional Loops 2137-1 Loops 2137-2 While—a Conditional Loop 219Tips & Techniques 7: Events and Repetition 225Summary 228Exercises and Projects 2298 Repetition: Recursion 2398-1 Introduction to Recursion 2398-2 Another Flavor of Recursion 244Tips & Techniques 8: Engineering Look and Feel 254Summary 257Exercises and Projects 258Part IV: Advanced Topics 2659 Lists and List Processing 2679-1 Lists 2679-2 List Search 273Tips & Techniques 9: Groups 277Summary 279Exercises and Projects 28010 Variables and Revisiting Inheritance 28910-1 Variables 28910-2 An Array Visualization Using an Index Variable 300Tips & Techniques 10: Debugging with Watch and Text Output 308Summary 312Exercises and Projects 31311 What’s Next? 32211-1 Transition to Java 32211-2 Alice 3 327Tips & Techniques 11: Poses 328Appendix A: Using Alice 331Part 1: Running Virtual Worlds in Alice 331Part 2: Using Popup Menus to Create an Initial Scene 345Appendix B: Managing the Alice Interface 350Index 363