Product Description

This six-chapter supplementary text uses Alice, a three-dimensional virtual reality authoring system, to make programming easy and fun for the novice programmer. Alice was developed to help teach introductory programming techniques in a less syntax-intensive environment, and addresses some of the barriers that currently prevent many users from successfully learning to program. By introducing core programming topics such as objects, methods, and variables within the context of the Alice environment, users will be motivated to continue their studies in programming.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #233064 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781418837716
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Joel Adams is Professor of Computer Science at Calvin College, and has been teaching undergraduate computer science since 1984. He spends each July directing the Imaginary Worlds Camp, teaching middle school students how to program using Alice. He spent the Fall 2005 semester at Carnegie Mellon as a member of the Alice team.

Customer Reviews

Opened the Door!
I am an attorney/geek that has toyed on and off with various programming languages for a number of years. However, there were always certain concepts that eluded me. Prof Adams book, combined with the free software generously provided by Carnegie Mellon (just google Alice and Programming to download), really "opened the window" for me!

The combination of copying and pasting code (thus eliminating typo errors)and then "seeing" the results of ones efforts via an animated graphic, is a really good idea! The overarching metaphor is that object oriented programming is similar to producing a modern movie, you've got to work through the book to really get it, but imho it works! And usually drives home the all important underlying programming concept/s. It keeps one engaged! The graphics (though apparently designed for middle school students work well), and are not overly "cheesey" when viewed by adult eyes (if you have a bit of imagination (-:

Prof Adams prose is relaxed, and fun (which helps when learning). The book is very well organized beginning with object oriented program design, moving through functions, methods, properties, etc, and ending with an appendix chapter on Recursion. Copyright is 2007, so this book is very relevant.

There are other books out there written to be used with this program, but I'm glad I found this one, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in really "getting" the all important elementary concepts of OOP (object oriented programming).

Computer Book
This book was exactly what I needed for this class. The delivery time was good and it was in great condition.

alice
Alice is a very interesting programming tool. I'm looking forward to see the projects of my students.