Question about Compatibility in Alice 3.0

I was wondering if all the worlds and old saved files from Alice 2.0 will be compatible and working in Alice 3.0. Also, is there a beta of Alice 3.0 available. I am just wondering how different it will be and will it require curriculum changes etc. i.e. Will it just be a graphical change, or will the entire or some of the architecture change as well.

Originally Posted by MattM

I was wondering if all the worlds and old saved files from Alice 2.0 will be compatible and working in Alice 3.0. Also, is there a beta of Alice 3.0 available. I am just wondering how different it will be and will it require curriculum changes etc. i.e. Will it just be a graphical change, or will the entire or some of the architecture change as well.

No,
Don't think so,
Very different,
Yes,
No,
Yes

Just kidding

Seriously though, I believe that the answers to each of your questions plus the answers to many additional question have already been provided by CMU personnel in the archives for this forum.

Perhaps the most significant statement that I have read from the folks at CMU regarding 3.0 is that if you can do it with Java, you can also do it with Alice 3.0, but not all Java capabilities will be supported in the drag-and-drop programming mode. Some Java capabilities will require the programmer to go into typing mode. Those two statements alone say that 3.0 will be significantly different from 2.0, resulting in the last four answers given above.

Regarding old worlds and files from 2.0, CMU folks have indicated that we should not expect any backward compatibility.

Regarding availability of a Beta version, many of us are on pins and needles awaiting availability of a Beta version, but I haven't seen any indication that it is available at this time.

Dick Baldwin

Okay, thanks for the response. I was hoping for something like this. I haven't really done all my research yet. I just started looking at Alice this week and haven't gotten very far. Although, it looks like I will be waiting more towards the 3.0 version as Java implementation would be very helpful.