alice-teacher Alice and Catalina (Mac OS 10.15)

[Donald Slater]

Leland,
Yes, Alice 2 has some problems in Catalina.

There is trouble importing billboards and custom models because there is virtually no access to the file system of your computer using Alice’s regular menu? That is what I am finding on my machine. In fact I cannot open any saved worlds from directly within Alice and its file system, but instead, I must double-click on the saved project file, and then it will open in Alice. Fortunately, I am able to save new projects created in Alice.

There are settings in System Preferences Security that are supposed to provide apps with different levels of access, but I have yet to find the correct settings for Alice 2.

I have found one solution, but I am not sure that it will work in your classroom environment.

It turns out that Alice is actually launched by a small app called JavaAppLauncher.

A lot of the following may depend on the administrative privileges you do or do not have on your machine. I have full privileges on my machine, and I am not able to test it on a machine that may be more locked down.

On your Mac, find the Alice 2.5 app and right click on it
	1) Select “Show Package Contents”
	2) Open the “Contents” folder
	3) Open the MacOS folder

You will see “JavaAppLauncher”. If you were to click on this, it will Launch (1) first a Terminal Window, and then (2) Alice 2. You may be asked if you wish to grant Alice permission to access your Desktop and Documents. Grant the permission. You should now be able to import a model, images from a billboard, and open save project files using the Alice  access to the computer’s file system.

If this works for you, right-click on “JavaAppLauncher”, and select ‘Make Alias” from the menu. You can then move this alias to the Desktop. Double-clicking on this launcher will then launch Alice (and the terminal).

In fact, I have attached my copy of this alias for you to test on your machine. It may work, if you have Alice installed in the default location on your machine, in the Applications folder.

Another teacher who tried this says it does work, but it took Alice 5 minutes to launch.

I will be curious as to your results..

We recognize that is not a satisfactory solution and are working on a better solution.

Any feedback you can provide us will be helpful.

In answer to your question about the future of Alice 2, it is probably safe to say that the clock is ticking. (Of course, as with any piece of software, as soon as it is released, the clock starts ticking.) As a small team, we will not be able to continue to support Alice 2 through every and all future releases. We will try to make the necessary tweaks for future software releases as long as possible, but Catalina may be the first shot across the bow.

I hope that we get this issue figured out, and that Alice 2 remains with us for some time.But preparing for a transition is not a bad idea.

Steve Cooper and Susan Rodger have prepared a course in Coursera, designed for teach Alice 3 along the lines of an Alice 2 course. I believe it is scheduled to be released in January. I have been a beta tester for the course, and I believe that it is worth checking out.

Thank you for all you do to help support the Alice Community.

All the best,
Don Slater

Alice Project



	


> On Dec 3, 2019, at 4:37 PM, Leland Beck <beck at sdsu.edu> wrote:
> 
> Don,
> 
> I'm scheduled to teach a course this Spring using Alice 2, so I wanted to check back with you about this.  Do you know of any issues that would make it difficult to use Alice 2 with OS X Catalina?
> 
> More generally, I was hoping to learn what you're thinking about the future of Alice 2.  I've been using it for several years, along with the Dann, Cooper, and Pausch textbook.  These seem to be a good fit for my course and my students, so I'd like to continue.  Are you planning to update Alice 2 as needed so it will work with future OS upgrades?  Or should I start preparing for the day that it might stop working and I'll need to migrate to Alice 3?
> 
> Thanks,
> Leland
> 
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 11:48 AM Don Slater <dslater at andrew.cmu.edu <mailto:dslater at andrew.cmu.edu>> wrote:
> Everyone,
> I have tested Alice 2 And Alice 3 and Catalina and this is what I found.
> 
> Alice 3 seems to run without any problems.
> 
> The first time I ran Alice 2 it hung up. But after I restarted the machine, Alice 2 was able to run. But I found on my machine that the File Open directory no longer allowed me to navigate through my computer’s file system to locate and open Alice projects. 
> 
> I believe that this has to do with Catalina’s increased security measures, and that there is a preference setting that will eventually correct this. We are still tracking down exactly what that setting will be.
> 
> I found double-clicking on any Alice 2 project file from the Finder of the computer will open the project in Alice 2. If this does not work the first time, you may have to right-click (Control-click) the project and select the Open With option. After you identify Alice 2 as the app associated with the file, the system should remember that .a2w files are opened with Alice 2.
> 
> We will be interested in hearing what anyone else havs found, or of any other issues you have identified.
> 
> We will keep you posted.
> 
> Thank you, and all the best,
> Don Slater
> 
> Alice Project
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