From Jannone at brooklyn.cuny.edu Sat Nov 28 13:38:56 2020 From: Jannone at brooklyn.cuny.edu (John Jannone) Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2020 18:38:56 +0000 Subject: alice-teacher Instancing in Alice, dynamic list creation, repository of 3rd party material Message-ID: <1116AE30-F9BC-43C1-9A6B-43A9CA1C78DD@brooklyn.cuny.edu> Dear Alice Educators, I?m wondering if new objects can somehow be instantiated a scene - e.g. every time the wizard says a spell, a new instance of "crystal ball" appears at the location of her right hand; or at startup generate a forest of 30 randomly placed trees (without having to create all 30 and add them to a list)? I can?t seem to find this in documentation nor by poking around Alice?s functions, but it seems an obvious kind of functionality. As a related secondary question, can lists be generated from existing objects, e.g. for each object of type tree, and an entry to list allTrees? These are maybe custom Java functions that someone has already created - is there a library or repository of 3rd party material somewhere? Thanks! John John J.A. Jannone Director, Camp Ballibay for the Fine & Performing Arts http://campBallibay.com @campBallibay [X] ballibay Associate Professor, Sound & Emerging Media, Brooklyn College Founder, M.F.A. program in Performance & Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) Producer, Small Time feature film http://smallTimeFilm.com @small_time_film Producer, Person Woman Man Camera TV feature film @personwomanmancameratvthemovie Artist, Composer, Animator http://jann.one @johnjannone [X] johnjannone -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From djslater107 at mac.com Sun Nov 29 14:22:35 2020 From: djslater107 at mac.com (Donald Slater) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2020 14:22:35 -0500 Subject: alice-teacher Instancing in Alice, dynamic list creation, repository of 3rd party material In-Reply-To: <1116AE30-F9BC-43C1-9A6B-43A9CA1C78DD@brooklyn.cuny.edu> References: <1116AE30-F9BC-43C1-9A6B-43A9CA1C78DD@brooklyn.cuny.edu> Message-ID: <3E99337D-B6B1-4C21-8DCD-6A4A88B7483A@mac.com> John, Unfortunately, there is not a way to instantiate objects in a Scene. You have to do what you describe, add them to the Scene and to the list before hand in Scene setup, particularly if you are adding them. To become part of the Scene. It is an obvious functionality, one that I have wished for myself, but the design of Alice, the design of the Gallery (suppose you wanted to instantiate a Sim person - how do you easily set all the different values for age, gender, skin tone, body shape, hair style, clothing). Or making sure the object when instantiated is placed properly in the 3D virtual word so that it is guaranteed to be in camera view?) It felt in our design meetings that this would be pushing students into more advanced concepts for an introductory programming tool (and reasonable minds can choose to differ on the decision). If you export your Alice 3 project into the NetBeans version, where you have access to the entire Java Class Library, you are able to instantiate new objects as needed. If you are working with Alice in NetBeans, then your students are probably ready to explore this topic. For the same ready that you cannot dynamically instantiate objects, you are not able to dynamically instantiate links. But perhaps I misunderstand your question. We are in the process of creating a GiHub repository for Alice, and we are hopeful that the type of material you describe will appear there. But that work is in process, and I am not sure where the development team is in the work. Thank you for your interest in Alice. All the best, Don Slater Alice Project > On Nov 28, 2020, at 1:38 PM, John Jannone wro > Dear Alice Educators, > > I?m wondering if new objects can somehow be instantiated a scene - e.g. every time the wizard says a spell, a new instance of "crystal ball" appears at the location of her right hand; or at startup generate a forest of 30 randomly placed trees (without having to create all 30 and add them to a list)? I can?t seem to find this in documentation nor by poking around Alice?s functions, but it seems an obvious kind of functionality. > > As a related secondary question, can lists be generated from existing objects, e.g. for each object of type tree, and an entry to list allTrees? > > These are maybe custom Java functions that someone has already created - is there a library or repository of 3rd party material somewhere? > > Thanks! > > John > > John J.A. Jannone > Director, Camp Ballibay for the Fine & Performing Arts ?http://campBallibay.com? @campBallibay? ballibay > Associate Professor, Sound & Emerging Media, Brooklyn College > Founder, M.F.A. program in Performance & Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) > Producer, Small Time feature film http://smallTimeFilm.com? ?@small_time_film? > Producer, Person Woman Man Camera TV feature film ?@personwomanmancameratvthemovie > Artist, Composer, Animator ?http://jann.one? @johnjannone? johnjannone > _______________________________________________ > alice-teachers mailing list > alice-teachers at lists.andrew.cmu.edu > To change settings or unsubscribe visit: > https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/alice-teachers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Jannone at brooklyn.cuny.edu Sun Nov 29 14:51:39 2020 From: Jannone at brooklyn.cuny.edu (John Jannone) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2020 19:51:39 +0000 Subject: alice-teacher Instancing in Alice, dynamic list creation, repository of 3rd party material In-Reply-To: <3E99337D-B6B1-4C21-8DCD-6A4A88B7483A@mac.com> References: <1116AE30-F9BC-43C1-9A6B-43A9CA1C78DD@brooklyn.cuny.edu> <3E99337D-B6B1-4C21-8DCD-6A4A88B7483A@mac.com> Message-ID: Thanks so much for your detailed response Don. It felt in our design meetings that this would be pushing students into more advanced concepts for an introductory programming tool My two cents on this would be to err on the side of including as much functionality as possible in the graphical environment, for a few reasons: 1. Many students will never make the transition to code, and it?s great to have an approachable tool that offers the possibility of a deep introduction the kind of procedural thinking and problem solving that coding requires and trains, without the code. 2. I've seen a lot of students hit a conceptual wall when moving from node to code, particularly neurologically unique students and other different thinkers. 3. Relatedly, I think it?s nice in general to not set too low a ?barrier? to advancing into more advanced concepts, i.e. ?yes, you can do that, but you'd need to learn Java/Javascript/Lua/etc?? (however I can see another side to this coin as well?) I teach primarily in Max/MSP these days in part because of point 3: unlike many of the great graphical tools out there, there is never a need to script; while scripting is available, the environment is complete as a graphical tool, allowing the motivated student to go very deep. I?ve always loved the concept of Alice, and I look forward to new developments in the project. Best regards, John On Nov 29, 2020, at 2:22 PM, Donald Slater via alice-teachers > wrote: CAUTION: This email is from outside BC, so examine it closely before opening attachments or clicking on links John, Unfortunately, there is not a way to instantiate objects in a Scene. You have to do what you describe, add them to the Scene and to the list before hand in Scene setup, particularly if you are adding them. To become part of the Scene. It is an obvious functionality, one that I have wished for myself, but the design of Alice, the design of the Gallery (suppose you wanted to instantiate a Sim person - how do you easily set all the different values for age, gender, skin tone, body shape, hair style, clothing). Or making sure the object when instantiated is placed properly in the 3D virtual word so that it is guaranteed to be in camera view?) It felt in our design meetings that this would be pushing students into more advanced concepts for an introductory programming tool (and reasonable minds can choose to differ on the decision). If you export your Alice 3 project into the NetBeans version, where you have access to the entire Java Class Library, you are able to instantiate new objects as needed. If you are working with Alice in NetBeans, then your students are probably ready to explore this topic. For the same ready that you cannot dynamically instantiate objects, you are not able to dynamically instantiate links. But perhaps I misunderstand your question. We are in the process of creating a GiHub repository for Alice, and we are hopeful that the type of material you describe will appear there. But that work is in process, and I am not sure where the development team is in the work. Thank you for your interest in Alice. All the best, Don Slater Alice Project On Nov 28, 2020, at 1:38 PM, John Jannone > wro Dear Alice Educators, I?m wondering if new objects can somehow be instantiated a scene - e.g. every time the wizard says a spell, a new instance of "crystal ball" appears at the location of her right hand; or at startup generate a forest of 30 randomly placed trees (without having to create all 30 and add them to a list)? I can?t seem to find this in documentation nor by poking around Alice?s functions, but it seems an obvious kind of functionality. As a related secondary question, can lists be generated from existing objects, e.g. for each object of type tree, and an entry to list allTrees? These are maybe custom Java functions that someone has already created - is there a library or repository of 3rd party material somewhere? Thanks! John John J.A. Jannone Director, Camp Ballibay for the Fine & Performing Arts http://campBallibay.com @campBallibay [X] ballibay Associate Professor, Sound & Emerging Media, Brooklyn College Founder, M.F.A. program in Performance & Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) Producer, Small Time feature film http://smallTimeFilm.com @small_time_film Producer, Person Woman Man Camera TV feature film @personwomanmancameratvthemovie Artist, Composer, Animator http://jann.one @johnjannone [X] johnjannone _______________________________________________ alice-teachers mailing list alice-teachers at lists.andrew.cmu.edu To change settings or unsubscribe visit: https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/alice-teachers _______________________________________________ alice-teachers mailing list alice-teachers at lists.andrew.cmu.edu To change settings or unsubscribe visit: https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/alice-teachers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From djslater107 at mac.com Mon Nov 30 09:05:49 2020 From: djslater107 at mac.com (Donald Slater) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2020 09:05:49 -0500 Subject: alice-teacher Instancing in Alice, dynamic list creation, repository of 3rd party material In-Reply-To: References: <1116AE30-F9BC-43C1-9A6B-43A9CA1C78DD@brooklyn.cuny.edu> <3E99337D-B6B1-4C21-8DCD-6A4A88B7483A@mac.com> Message-ID: <1CAD2102-D39B-47A2-AEC9-20841AD0E289@mac.com> John, Thank you for your thoughtful comments. They are much appreciated. In regards to your second comment, the transition from node to code is one that we were very cognizant of in the design of Alice 3. One of the features you will find in Alice 3, in Preferences, is the Java Code on the Side setting (see attached screen shot), which displays the Java code for the Alice statements in a side panel. It is dynamic, in that changes made to the Alice code will be updated in the Java display. It would have been great if it was a two-way path, in which students could type the Java code and see the resulting Alice code updated, but the complexity of adding a compiler / interpreter to handle mistyped or illegal statements, plus the ability to handle the entire Java Class Library was more than we could tackle. But this feature was part of our strategy of transitioning students to Java, start with Alice, expose the underlying Java, and then export the Alice project to NetBeans so that all of features of Java would be available. All the best, Don Slater Alice Project > On Nov 29, 2020, at 2:51 PM, John Jannone wrote: > > Thanks so much for your detailed response Don. > >> It felt in our design meetings that this would be pushing students into more advanced concepts for an introductory programming tool > > My two cents on this would be to err on the side of including as much functionality as possible in the graphical environment, for a few reasons: > > 1. Many students will never make the transition to code, and it?s great to have an approachable tool that offers the possibility of a deep introduction the kind of procedural thinking and problem solving that coding requires and trains, without the code. > > 2. I've seen a lot of students hit a conceptual wall when moving from node to code, particularly neurologically unique students and other different thinkers. > > 3. Relatedly, I think it?s nice in general to not set too low a ?barrier? to advancing into more advanced concepts, i.e. ?yes, you can do that, but you'd need to learn Java/Javascript/Lua/etc?? (however I can see another side to this coin as well?) > > I teach primarily in Max/MSP these days in part because of point 3: unlike many of the great graphical tools out there, there is never a need to script; while scripting is available, the environment is complete as a graphical tool, allowing the motivated student to go very deep. > > I?ve always loved the concept of Alice, and I look forward to new developments in the project. > > Best regards, > > John > >> On Nov 29, 2020, at 2:22 PM, Donald Slater via alice-teachers > wrote: >> >> CAUTION: This email is from outside BC, so examine it closely before opening attachments or clicking on links >> >> John, >> Unfortunately, there is not a way to instantiate objects in a Scene. You have to do what you describe, add them to the Scene and to the list before hand in Scene setup, particularly if you are adding them. To become part of the Scene. It is an obvious functionality, one that I have wished for myself, but the design of Alice, the design of the Gallery (suppose you wanted to instantiate a Sim person - how do you easily set all the different values for age, gender, skin tone, body shape, hair style, clothing). Or making sure the object when instantiated is placed properly in the 3D virtual word so that it is guaranteed to be in camera view?) >> >> It felt in our design meetings that this would be pushing students into more advanced concepts for an introductory programming tool (and reasonable minds can choose to differ on the decision). If you export your Alice 3 project into the NetBeans version, where you have access to the entire Java Class Library, you are able to instantiate new objects as needed. If you are working with Alice in NetBeans, then your students are probably ready to explore this topic. >> >> For the same ready that you cannot dynamically instantiate objects, you are not able to dynamically instantiate links. But perhaps I misunderstand your question. >> >> We are in the process of creating a GiHub repository for Alice, and we are hopeful that the type of material you describe will appear there. But that work is in process, and I am not sure where the development team is in the work. >> >> Thank you for your interest in Alice. >> >> All the best, >> Don Slater >> >> Alice Project >> >>> On Nov 28, 2020, at 1:38 PM, John Jannone > wro >>> Dear Alice Educators, >>> >>> I?m wondering if new objects can somehow be instantiated a scene - e.g. every time the wizard says a spell, a new instance of "crystal ball" appears at the location of her right hand; or at startup generate a forest of 30 randomly placed trees (without having to create all 30 and add them to a list)? I can?t seem to find this in documentation nor by poking around Alice?s functions, but it seems an obvious kind of functionality. >>> >>> As a related secondary question, can lists be generated from existing objects, e.g. for each object of type tree, and an entry to list allTrees? >>> >>> These are maybe custom Java functions that someone has already created - is there a library or repository of 3rd party material somewhere? >>> >>> Thanks! >>> >>> John >>> >>> John J.A. Jannone >>> Director, Camp Ballibay for the Fine & Performing Arts ?http://campBallibay.com? @campBallibay? ballibay >>> Associate Professor, Sound & Emerging Media, Brooklyn College >>> Founder, M.F.A. program in Performance & Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) >>> Producer, Small Time feature film http://smallTimeFilm.com? ?@small_time_film? >>> Producer, Person Woman Man Camera TV feature film ?@personwomanmancameratvthemovie >>> Artist, Composer, Animator ?http://jann.one? @johnjannone? johnjannone >>> _______________________________________________ >>> alice-teachers mailing list >>> alice-teachers at lists.andrew.cmu.edu >>> To change settings or unsubscribe visit: >>> https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/alice-teachers >> _______________________________________________ >> alice-teachers mailing list >> alice-teachers at lists.andrew.cmu.edu >> To change settings or unsubscribe visit: >> https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/alice-teachers > _______________________________________________ > alice-teachers mailing list > alice-teachers at lists.andrew.cmu.edu > To change settings or unsubscribe visit: > https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/alice-teachers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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