<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Bill,<div class="">Good question, one that we are starting to see more of. Alice was written in Java. This means that the Alice Classes are also descendants of the Java Object class.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">But the top-level class as far as Alice is concerned is the SThing class. You may see the a visual representation of the Alice Class Hierarchy when you try to create a variable or parameter in Alice and select <b class=""><i class="">Gallery Class..</i></b>. from the <b class="">value type</b> menu. (See attached screen shot <i class="">Select Gallery Class Type</i><span style="font-style: normal;" class="">).</span></div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class="">This will open the <b class="">Gallery Class</b> dialog box that has three panels. (See attached screenshot </span><i class="">Alice Class Hierarchy</i><span style="font-style: normal;" class="">). The left panel, </span><i style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Filtering</i><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""> will list all the objects currently in the Scene. The middle panel, </span><i style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Selection</i>, will display the entire Java Class Library, highlighting the tree or hierarchy from SThing to selected Class. (You do not have to select an object to see a path, you may directly click on any class in the <i style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Selection</i><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""> panel.)</span></div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class="">The right panel will display the </span><i style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Available Procedures, Functions, and Properties</i> for that class, showing which of these are available only to that class and those that have been inherited for parent classes in the hierarchy. A quasi-API as it were.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This design allows the user to decide the most appropriate type to select for that variable / parameter, based on the type of the object, the Class of objects, or the functionality needed.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">As users you are only able to write methods for the displayed Gallery classes (Biped, Quadruped, Slitherer, White Rabbit, madHatter, etc) within the Alice System</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">However, if the project had been exported to NetBeans, the entire Java Class Hierarchy is available, and you would be able to write procedures on any class at any level in the Alice Class Hierarchy.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Please let us know if you have any questions or would like more details.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">All the best,</div><div class="">Don Slater</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Alice Project</div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><img apple-inline="yes" id="14D03DD7-C651-4D35-8962-4FB46476A7AD" src="cid:0655C878-38AF-446B-B292-F8BA19F32F92" class=""><img apple-inline="yes" id="3D7BC6F5-7C25-427D-A96F-4C802860FFCC" src="cid:DB91A0C7-CBDA-4EA4-89DB-0B11921A576E" class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Dec 26, 2019, at 11:33 PM, Barnum, William <<a href="mailto:wbarnum@elmhurst205.org" class="">wbarnum@elmhurst205.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="">Hey all,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I'm working on a video lesson, and I'm trying to figure something out to make sure I communicate it correctly.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">There are seven "top-level" classes in Alice 3 (Biped, Flyer, Prop, Quadraped, Slitherer, Swimmer, and Transport)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In Java, every class is a subclass of the Java Object class, and every class inherits from the Object class. Is there something similar in Alice, or are the seven classes truly "top-level."</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks in advance,</div><div class="">Bill</div></div>
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