Which version to teach with?

MN-HomeschoolTeacher · **Which version to teach with? -** 06-08-2009, 11:58 AM

Last year I taught Alice to a group of homeschooled students and was very pleased with it (I'm was a programmer - both mainframe and PC in my pre-homeschooling life). I used version 2.0 for that class because one of the students had a Linux laptop.

I will be teaching Alice at a summer school course soon and am trying to decide what version to use. In this class, we are in a computer lab so everyone will have Windows computers. I'm trying to decide if I should use version 2.2 since it's much newer than 2.0. I'm concerned because I've seen posts in this community about performance issues with 2.2 (due to memory leaks) and I'm not sure if that has been fixed.

Also, I'm not clear, is 2.2 still considered a beta version?

I'll likely have more questions now that I finally registered for this forum. I've been using it as a guest for awhile and really appreciate all the knowledge shared by so many experts on this forum. I've also found the teacher resources available via www.aliceprogramming.net and the Prentice-Hall site helpful (I was able to get teacher access by vouching that I'm a teacher).

DrJim · **2.0 vs. 2.2 -** 06-09-2009, 09:39 AM

I've also noted a lot of different responses to 2.2. A couple of things are clear - if you want video, use 2.2 and if you need opacity or have relatively limited memory, stay with 2.0.

Otherwise I really haven't seen a lot of difference between the two, although I generally use 2.0 just because of the memory issue. The early bugs in 2.2 seem to be fixed (though I haven't tested that extensively) and the "memory leak" problem is only worse if you start making large video files (which is a challenge for anly program). Some postings have claimed that 2.2 is more stable than 2.0, which I suspect is true - but I also haven't done enough work with it personally to really be able to confirm or refute that.

If you do stay with 2.0, copy the "walking people" folder from 2.2 and put it in your 2.0 gallery. Those characters are a real nice addition to Alice's capabilities - and they work fine in 2.0.

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	(#1)
MN-HomeschoolTeacher Junior Member Status: Offline Posts: 1 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: MN	Which version to teach with? - 06-08-2009, 11:58 AM Last year I taught Alice to a group of homeschooled students and was very pleased with it (I'm was a programmer - both mainframe and PC in my pre-homeschooling life). I used version 2.0 for that class because one of the students had a Linux laptop. I will be teaching Alice at a summer school course soon and am trying to decide what version to use. In this class, we are in a computer lab so everyone will have Windows computers. I'm trying to decide if I should use version 2.2 since it's much newer than 2.0. I'm concerned because I've seen posts in this community about performance issues with 2.2 (due to memory leaks) and I'm not sure if that has been fixed. Also, I'm not clear, is 2.2 still considered a beta version? I'll likely have more questions now that I finally registered for this forum. I've been using it as a guest for awhile and really appreciate all the knowledge shared by so many experts on this forum. I've also found the teacher resources available via www.aliceprogramming.net and the Prentice-Hall site helpful (I was able to get teacher access by vouching that I'm a teacher).

	(#2)
DrJim Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 1,389 Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Allentown, PA (Melbourne, FL in the winter)	2.0 vs. 2.2 - 06-09-2009, 09:39 AM I've also noted a lot of different responses to 2.2. A couple of things are clear - if you want video, use 2.2 and if you need opacity or have relatively limited memory, stay with 2.0. Otherwise I really haven't seen a lot of difference between the two, although I generally use 2.0 just because of the memory issue. The early bugs in 2.2 seem to be fixed (though I haven't tested that extensively) and the "memory leak" problem is only worse if you start making large video files (which is a challenge for anly program). Some postings have claimed that 2.2 is more stable than 2.0, which I suspect is true - but I also haven't done enough work with it personally to really be able to confirm or refute that. If you do stay with 2.0, copy the "walking people" folder from 2.2 and put it in your 2.0 gallery. Those characters are a real nice addition to Alice's capabilities - and they work fine in 2.0. Beware the Jabberwock - Beware the Jujub Bird And SHUN the Frumious Bandersnatch!