Starting Out with Alice

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. In the successful style of Tony Gaddis’ texts, useful examples and detail-oriented explanations allow students to become comfortable with fundamental concepts of programming without dealing with frustrating syntax errors and complex design techniques. With the knowledge acquired using Alice, students gain confidence in their skills to transition into Java or other programming languages.

Tony Gaddis is the principal author of the Starting Out with series of textbooks. He has nearly two decades of experience teaching computer science courses, primarily at Haywood Community College. Tony is a highly acclaimed instructor who was previously selected as the North Carolina Community College Teacher of the Year, and has received the Teaching Excellence award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. Tony, Haywood Community College 1981 Business Administration and 1985 Electronic Data Processing graduate, was selected as Outstanding Alumni Recipient for 2012 for the college. His series includes introductory textbooks covering Programming Logic and Design, Alice, C++, Java, Microsoft Visual Basic, and Python.

Brief Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction to Alice and Objects

Chapter 2 Programming in Alice

Chapter 3 Variables, Functions, Math, and Strings

Chapter 4 Decision Structures

Chapter 5 Repetition Structures

Chapter 6 Methods, Functions, and More about Variables

Chapter 7 Events

Chapter 8 Lists and Arrays

Chapter 9 Recursion

Appendix A Installing Alice

Appendix B Answers to Checkpoints

Index

Table of Contents

Preface

 

Chapter 1 Introduction to Alice and Objects

1.1 What Is a Computer Program?

1.2 Algorithms and Programming Languages

1.3 Learning to Program with Alice

TUTORIAL 1-1: Opening and playing an Alice world

1.4 Objects

1.5 Classes and the Alice Galleries

TUTORIAL 1-2: Creating a world and adding objects

1.6 3D Objects and the Camera

TUTORIAL 1-3: Moving the camera in 3D space

TUTORIAL 1-4: Manipulating objects in 3D space

TUTORIAL 1-5: Manipulating subpart objects

Review Questions

 

Chapter 2 Programming in Alice

2.1 Writing Methods

TUTORIAL 2-1: Adding instructions to an Alice world

TUTORIAL 2-2: Exploring additional primitive methods

2.2 Naming Conventions

2.3 Designing a Program

TUTORIAL 2-3: Using the program design cycle

2.4 Comments

TUTORIAL 2-4: Inserting comments

2.5 Tips for Setting Up an Initial Scene

2.6 Executing Instructions Simultaneously

TUTORIAL 2-5: Creating simultaneously executed instructions

2.7 Exporting Your Code for Printing

2.8 Exporting an Alice World to Video

Review Questions

 

Chapter 3 Variables, Functions, Math, and Strings

3.1 Variables

TUTORIAL 3-1: Creating and using a variable

TUTORIAL 3-2: Creating a set instruction for a variable

3.2 Using Functions

TUTORIAL 3-3: Calling an ask user function

TUTORIAL 3-4: Using a proximity function

3.3 Creating Math Expressions

TUTORIAL 3-5: Using math to avoid collisions

3.4 Working with Strings and Text

TUTORIAL 3-6: Converting a Number variable to a string

Review Questions

 

Chapter 4 Decision Structures

4.1 Boolean Values

4.2 The If/Else Decision Structure

TUTORIAL 4-1: Creating an If/Else instruction

TUTORIAL 4-2: Creating a Single-Alternative Decision Structure

4.3 Nested If/Else Decision Structures

TUTORIAL 4-3: Creating Nested If/Else Instructions

4.4 Relational Comparisons and Logical Operators

TUTORIAL 4-3: Using a relational operator

TUTORIAL 4-4: Testing an object’s color property

Review Questions

 

Chapter 5 Repetition Structures

5.1 The Loop Instruction

TUTORIAL 5-1: Using the Loop instruction

TUTORIAL 5-2: Creating a User-Controlled Loop

5.2 The While Instruction

TUTORIAL 5-3: Using a While instruction to make an object vanish

TUTORIAL 5-4: Using a While instruction to make an object smaller

TUTORIAL 5-5: Using the While instruction to move an object

5.3 Nested Loops

Review Questions

 

Chapter 6 Methods, Functions, and More about Variables

6.1 Writing Custom Class-Level Methods

TUTORIAL 6-1: Creating a class-level method

6.2 Saving an Object to a New Class

TUTORIAL 6-2: Saving an object to a class

6.3 Stepwise Refinement

TUTORIAL 6-3: Completing the WorkOut world

6.4 Passing Arguments

TUTORIAL 6-4: Passing arguments to a method

6.5 Using Class-Level Variables as Properties

TUTORIAL 6-5: Adding a property to an object

6.6 Writing Class-Level Functions

TUTORIAL 6-6: Writing a class-level function

TUTORIAL 6-7: Writing a class-level function

6.7 World-Level Methods and Variables

6.8 Using Clipboards

6.9 Tips for Visual Effects and Animation

Review Questions

 

Chapter 7 Events

7.1 Responding to Events

7.2 Handling Key Press and Mouse Events

TUTORIAL 7-1: Handling key press events

TUTORIAL 7-2: Handling the while a key is pressed event

TUTORIAL 7-3: Handling a mouse click event

7.3 Using Events in Simulations and Games

7.4 Tips for Games and Simulations

Review Questions

 

Chapter 8 Lists and Arrays

8.1 Lists

TUTORIAL 8-1: Creating a list and using the For all in order

and For all together instructions

TUTORIAL 8-2: More complex list processing

TUTORIAL 8-3: Using the Let the mouse move event

8.2 Arrays

TUTORIAL 8-4: Creating an array and a loop that steps through it

TUTORIAL 8-5: Randomly selecting an array element

Review Questions

 

Chapter 9 Recursion

9.1 Introduction to Recursion

TUTORIAL 9-1: Creating a recursive method

9.2 Problem Solving with Recursion

TUTORIAL 9-2: Recursive problem solving in animation

TUTORIAL 9-3: Writing a recursive mathematical function

Review Questions

 

Appendix A Installing Alice

Appendix B Answers to Checkpoints

Index