Starting Out with Alice: A Visual Introduction to Programming [Paperback]

Tony Gaddis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0321475151 | ISBN-13: 978-0321475152

Starting Out with Alice: A Visual Introduction to Programming presents a fun and motivational way for novice programmers to learn the basic tenets of programming. Using Alice, an innovative and increasingly popular teaching tool, readers from a variety of backgrounds create virtual programming worlds of animations and computer games.

Introduction to Alice and Objects; Programming in Alice; Variables, Functions, Math, and Strings; Decision and Repetition Structures; Methods, Functions, and More about Variables; Events; Lists and Arrays; Recursion.

For all readers interested in programming using Alice.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tony Gaddis is the author of numerous textbooks, including Starting Out with C++, Starting Out with Java, Starting Out with Visual Basic.NET, and Starting Out with Visual Basic 6. He is a professor at Haywood Community College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley (February 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321475151
• ISBN-13: 978-0321475152
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful!, October 17, 2008

By 

A. Thompson "squeenoname" (Fortuna, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starting Out with Alice: A Visual Introduction to Programming (Paperback)

I would recommend this book for all beginners with not only programming itself, but also with Alice 2.0. The book is wonderfully detailed with definitions of terms used frequently, photographic examples of how each step is supposed to look as well as very simple-to-follow tutorials in every chapter. The text is very easy to read and understand as well, very rarely does it ever NOT simplify or provide examples/demonstrations for a concept. Even better, at the end of each chapter there are a set of multiple choice, short answer and exercise questions to help make all the information learned stick just a bit more in your head.

The only downsides to this textbook are that there is no glossary of terms (a feature that would have been very helpful when it comes to programming), and many of the tutorials are very simplistic--something which is good at first, but grows a little boring when you find yourself wanting something of a challenge. And finally, Alice itself tends to have a few glitches here and there (mainly only in that it can slow things down and even take a few minutes to load).

Overall, I'd say this book is worth the price. I give it four out of five stars.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for self-teaching, December 7, 2008

By 

starr photo momma (Kansas City, Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Starting Out with Alice: A Visual Introduction to Programming (Paperback)

If you do the exercises in the book you can learn this program pretty well without an instructor. Lots of good examples!

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Starter, July 5, 2011

By 

Stefanie Boros "Stef B" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Starting Out with Alice: A Visual Introduction to Programming (Paperback)

I bought this book for an intro to programming class. Although it didn't completely close the gap when I went to take Java, I did feel that I knew a lot of the terminology from this book and my mindset was where it needed to be. I think that those two elements are the most important, so this book definitely delivered there.

There is not actual coding, but it teaches you the structure and how different actions will affect other areas. I think that it would be a big help for those who want to ease themselves into programming and it would even be fun for older kids who want to learn.