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Bill, that is an interesting question. When I teach with Alice, I barely use any variables at all. Method parameters and object properties are sufficient for most purposes. Whether these are references or values never seems to come up.
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<div>What difference does it make to Alice users whether a type is primitive or not?</div>
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<div>James<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage">
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<font face="Arial">—<br>
<b>James Vanderhyde<br>
</b>Associate Professor<br>
Computer Science<br>
Saint Xavier University<br>
3700 W. 103rd St.<br>
Chicago, IL 60655<br>
773-298-3454</font></div>
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<font face="Arial">vanderhyde@sxu.edu</font></div>
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<font face="Arial">sxu.edu</font></div>
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<div>Are there any primitive types in Alice (e.g., int or boolean in Java), or is everything an object type?</div>
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<div>Is there any different vocabulary when discussing object types that are initialized in code (e.g., WholeNumber or TextString) versus object types that are created in the Scene Mode (e.g., Bear or Eagle)?</div>
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<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Bill</div>
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