How much does Alice help learn programming?

[MegaMonsterMike]

Hi-- obviously I'm new to programming and Alice :) I really have no idea what I'm doing at this point...

BUT I want to learn programming. I've bought a couple books and one of them, Objective-C for Absolute Beginners, uses Alice as a learning tool. I've gone through the chapters that use Alice, and I've completed the Alice tutorials, but I don't feel like I know programming :confused:

I CAN make things work at a minimal level, and I understand what an object is (I think) but does Alice go beyond the basics? Is it an extensive learning tool that if I spend a lot of time making animations in, I will have a better grasp of OOP?

I've looked at some of the other forum discussions and many seem to be based on files (ASE, MAX, etc.) and importing objects, and making things work in Alice, or basically things to make better animations, but I'm confused if everything is geared towards learning programming? OR is it just to make movies and animations in Alice?

I'm also learning Ruby through another book, and Python through another book. The books help me learn the concepts and really get a grasp of the terms and concepts that OOP is based on. I've read that understanding the basics of OOP is essential before learning a programming language. If I really dive into Alice and learn the program well, will I be better off learning programming or is it only an introductory tool?

Any advice is very appreciated and welcomed.

Also, if there was an OOP learning timeline, or linear model of learning, where would Alice fit in? and I need to learn advanced math?

I'm very confused :o but motivated to learn.

Thanks,
Mike

[MrMoke]

Alice 2.0 and 2.2 aren't considered OOP tools because they lack some necessary qualifiers. Alice 3.0 IS supposed to be more so, but is not near stable at this time.

Any tool such as Alice can, however, facilitate learning about techniques like:

Program Flow
Parallel and Sequential Threads
Timing issues
Variable usage
Lists
Arrays
Methods and Functions
Loops (both counted and switch controlled)
Events
Recursion

[Mortgage FL]

Alice is good learning tool and Alice 3.0 allow us to write programs in standard Java.keep up your learning in Alice and then you will get all the best things to your programming knowledge.