Alice 3 is now in public beta

Originally Posted by lanceA

This is cool!!!!

If you do not teach you may not be able to appreciate it. If you do not know Java programming it might be a steep learning curve, but it is definitely cool!!!!!!!!!! GREAT job!!!!!

(It doesn't add anything to being able to create new Objects or importing Objects as far as I can see..............but I just started playing with it today. ) Tomorrow I will try to use Java's reserved word new on an object.

But then again, it's supposed to be a Teaching Tool, right?

However this release appears to add an entirely new dimension to teaching and being able to switch between environments. ( I will definitely begin to explore this more tomorrow.)

Just my 2¢

Just for info, I created Dennis's chickenHop program in Alice 3.0. I then opened the project in NetBeans and successfully wrote the Java code to create (new) a second instance of the Chicken class and sucessfully had this second object perform some basic tasks.

[gabe]

Originally Posted by lanceA

Just for info, I created Dennis's chickenHop program in Alice 3.0. I then opened the project in NetBeans and successfully wrote the Java code to create (new) a second instance of the Chicken class and sucessfully had this second object perform some basic tasks.

Lance, the NetBeans plugin is something we haven't worked on as extensively as the rest of the system, but it is on our todo list. Definitely let us know your thoughts and what features you'd like to see in the plugin that aren't there now.

Originally Posted by gabe

Lance, the NetBeans plugin is something we haven't worked on as extensively as the rest of the system, but it is on our todo list. Definitely let us know your thoughts and what features you'd like to see in the plugin that aren't there now.

Thanks Gabe, will do. Just for info:

I opened the chickenHop project in NetBeans again but this time I wanted to see if I could create an instance of a new object that was never placed in the project. I now have two chicken objects and one cow object!! I created an instance of the Cow object entirely through code in NetBeans. This continues to be very interesting.

Kudos to the Alice team!

I can not figure out how to get my Alice file into NetBeans. I installed the Alice plugin from the Kenai page and the OpenGL download that was mentioned in an earlier posting. Now what do I do?

Originally Posted by scouprie

I can not figure out how to get my Alice file into NetBeans. I installed the Alice plugin from the Kenai page and the OpenGL download that was mentioned in an earlier posting. Now what do I do?

If you wish, post your email address in a prvt msg to me and I will send you a small write-up that I have done which describes the necessary steps to open Alice 3.0 files in NetBeans.

Is there a Wiki for Alice?

How do you guys feel about creating one?

We could create one that uses Semantic Web to keep everything nicely organized

Originally Posted by ttkrakus

Is there a Wiki for Alice?

There is a spot for one at the same Kenai site that is now being used for downloads:
http://kenai.com/projects/alice
At the moment, however, it seems to be empty.

Today I successfully created a project in Alice 3.0 (beta), modified it by creating some new instances of Alice Objects using NetBeans, created a .jar file and saved it to disk. I then got out of Alice and NetBeans and successfully ran the jar file as a standalone application!! Who needs to video their Alice creations anymore ?

Not sure what will happen once we have the ability to add sound files.

I'll send the writeup as soon as I've completed it, DrJim.

Nice job Alice 3.0 team!!

Originally Posted by gabe

...the NetBeans plugin is something we haven't worked on as extensively as the rest of the system ... let us know your thoughts.

For something you “… haven't worked on … extensively,” the plugin is really nice. Following LanceA’s notes (very quick summary – “read the installation instructions, stupid”) I managed to load NetBeans and the plugin and successfully do (relatively minor) edits on Alice 3 methods in less than three hours – something I thought would take me several days.

Still some issues, of course, and I really haven’t tried anything complex – but that’s really due to my lack of Java skill.

I noticed Dennis in his blog mentioned talking to the Greenfoot/BlueJ team at Java One about joint efforts. Since I was taking the dive into NetBeans anyway, I decided to also load the BlueJ plugin. Just that is nice. The BlueJ stuff is both more mature and less complex than Alice 3 – but the basic approaches for the plugins seem similar – and it was nice to have intermediate steps with tutorials available.

This continues to be interesting!

I have an icon on my Desktop which, when clicked, runs an Alice 3.0 program without requiring Alice. And yes, it takes some learning (I had to waste 3 hours today learning how to do it! ) but it is doable. Now I should be able to do it for other Alice projects in 2-3 mins.

(I use the term waste very loosely. It was a great learning experience!)