Customer Reviews

Learning to Program with Alice, Brief Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a way, this is a tricky book for me to review. I learnt programming with Fortran on punch cards [remember them?]. Then later gravitated to other languages like Pascal, C and Java. But it was only in the 90s that languages started coming out with graphics built in. Prior to that, it was mostly text and binary Input/Output. That was our User Interface, shocking as it might seen to some of you. So there were always abstractions in learning a language, from the very start.

The authors of this book are spot on in saying that there has been little or no change in the teaching of programming to beginners, in the last 30 years. The languages being taught may have changed. Some are now object oriented, and have graphics libraries. But the basic pedagogy has remained constant all this time. So for example the classic "Pascal: User Manual and Report" from 1980 and a current book on Java have this in common.

The innovation offered by Alice is a stark contrast indeed. Alice lets you learn [or teach] a special programming language that manipulates objects in a three dimensional world. The emphasis is on the object-oriented nature of Alice. While other languages use the metaphor of OO mapping to and from real world objects, Alice gives a literal visual mapping that students can readily comprehend. Alice removes the middleman metaphor.

Interestingly, the authors suggest that Alice shifts some of the mental effort from the student's cognition to her perceptual [visual] system. Her visual incoming bandwidth is so large that visual changes can be readily understood.

The authors cite studies that show a faster uptake by students using Alice, compared to students without Alice. And more girls seem to go further with their programming. One could wonder if this ties into other studies suggesting that boys have [slightly] better abstract spatial understanding. By reducing this need, does Alice make programming more accessible to girls?

Alice has several niceties that aid in its usage. Especially useful is the lack of syntax issues. The essentially menu or icon driven implementation means that a student does not have to type in syntax. Hence avoiding a common source of errors. For students with a limited attention span, this removes a big source of frustration.

To be sure, Alice is just meant as a teaching language. Students are expected to graduate onto more realistic languages. But Alice can help those delicate cases of newcomers to programming retain some knowledge, and possibly even take more advanced courses. Here, the authors point out that an important special usage is for a course aimed at students who will not be programmers. That will be their first and only programming course. The teaching of such a course is important, and Alice might help.

If this book is well received, then a companion book would be helpful. The current book is meant for an instructor, though some students could certainly use it. What is needed is a simpler book, aimed perhaps at the primary school level, for the student reader. Maybe Dann et al are already working on that?

"One of Alice's real strengths is that it has been able to make abstract concepts concrete in the eyes of first- time programmers. " - Forward to the book.

I used this book as a textbook in a one-semester introduction to programming course in my high school. I intend to use it again next year. Here is why:

Each chapter begins with a motivational overview of the chapter's topic and end with exercises and projects. Storyboards are used to provide an algorithmic step-by-step description of the example animation. Screenshots of code and visual setting allowed students to recreate and closely follow the covered topic.

Student had their copies of the book open next to their workstations. Throughout the course, they were focused, on task and having fun. This made my experience teaching the course very rewarding. Answers to end of chapter exercises, projects and instructional support material are available to instructors on [..]

With no hesitation I give it 5 stars.
M. Kadri (High School Teacher, New York, NY USA)

If you're already teaching or taking a course in Alice, you'll at least need access to this book. Being by the developers and also first to market - it is the standard text. As a text, it's also very good - but also focused on teaching programming principles, not doing animations.

If you've never heard of Alice or just have a general interest in it's capabilities, I'd suggest you download the program from the web first (it's free from CMU) and see what you think of it. If it interests you and seems to fit your needs (note you can't output standard video files such as .mov and/or .avi and the .html output is buggy), then invest in one of the texts.

I used this book as a textbook in a 'Programming with Multimedia Projects' college class. I thought it was very easy to understand, and I liked the way the material is presented: Using the Alice program (included on a CD-ROM with the book), each chapter walks you through each new topic in a few different 'lab exercises'. You are then able to apply what you have learned to 'project questions' at the end of each chapter. The only problem would be that if you are not part of a class when you are going through this book, questions would remain unanswered as there are no solutions in the back of the book (such as all odd-numbered questions, etc.). I believe it would be difficult for some to use this book as a stand-alone learning tool.

Since I first saw Alice demonstrated at a small college computer conference, I have remained convinced how innovative it is. Using the pre-existing objects a novice needs only a bit of direction in order to create functioning programs that generate animation. When I obtained a copy of this book I immediately started reading it and working through the programs. The Alice environment is very easy to use, there were very few times when I had to ponder my next move or consult the help.
I am also convinced that Alice is the way in which young people; especially females can be lured into computer science. There is the misperception that computer science is only for math nerds, yet a large number of people use their computer expertise to generate artificial worlds (movies) like those created in Alice.
The Alice development environment is free and is on the CD included with the book. If you want to see the future of computer science and what will lure the next generation into a career in computers, then get this book and experience of power of Alice. It will truly take you to the world of wonderland.

The textbook arrived quickly and was in good condition. The book included the CD. The book is easy to read and it appears to be written by people with passion.

received before expected, great condition and exactly as described, could not ask for a better product. Definitely will purchase items this way again in the future as well as referring others to this site.

This bok was highly recommended for students learning to program with Alice. The Alice program is supposed to be adaptable for all ages but I would have to really adapt the info in this book to pass it along to my middle schoolers.I am finding it somewhat useful for mysel but I found it a bit tedious at the beginning and would like to see somewhere a more concise, better diagramed version.

I really like this book. It's easy to understand with explanation and colorful pictures. Programming is FUN =)

If you are not new to programming, this book is useless. Otherwise, it's semi-useful. I say semi because Alice is simple, and the software comes with built-in tutorials, which is easier to follow than the book. The book does have more details though.