Alice 2.2

[Jordan]

Feb 12, 2011 13:30:20 GMT -8 Etc. said:

Feb 12, 2011 13:00:48 GMT -8 Jordan said:

They are referring to Visual Studio which allows you to drag and drop GUI items (like buttons, input fields, labels etc.). It basically generates the code that creates and positions all the elements, and then creates empty callback functions that you have to code yourself. It's a lot different than Alice, and the visual creator is good enough to where there's no need to code it yourself unless you need to make an advanced application. It would still be good to learn the GUI API to see how it works, though. It's really not too bad.

That said, I do agree with you about the drag and drop. It's not a good way to learn because you can't drag and drop complex algorithms or data structures which is at the heart of computer science.

Yeah we were creating advanced programs in that class. Granted it wasn't real world level, more that of a enthusiast level.

It's funny out of all of the IDE's/text editors I have used (Eclipse, JGrasp, JEdit, BlueJ, NetBeansetc.) I've managed to avoid using Visual Studio. They're all more or less the same, it just a matter of preference and the level of work needed. BlueJ can help create Java skeleton code, and help illustrate who the classes work together, but it doesn't help much with more advanced programming.

As for Alice, I remember watching one of my colleagues play around with it for his AI class. I thought it was a little basic for a 3000 level course, and hearing that it is meant as a teaching tool for beginners makes more sense.

Yeah, it's all about your preferences, but it's good to learn the big ones like Eclipse or Netbeans since that's what you'll most likely be using in the industry. I vaguely remember BlueJ from high school, and it was a fairly simple application.

By the way, Visual Studio isn't used for Java, it's mainly for C++, C# and Visual Basic. C# is basically Microsoft's version of Java. It gets compiled into a form of bytecode just like Java, and the syntax and features it has are very similar to Java. It can also be ported to other operating systems, but it's mainly used for Windows applications.

[Etc.]

Feb 12, 2011 14:41:47 GMT -8 Jordan said:

Feb 12, 2011 13:30:20 GMT -8 Etc. said:

Yeah we were creating advanced programs in that class. Granted it wasn't real world level, more that of a enthusiast level.

It's funny out of all of the IDE's/text editors I have used (Eclipse, JGrasp, JEdit, BlueJ, NetBeansetc.) I've managed to avoid using Visual Studio. They're all more or less the same, it just a matter of preference and the level of work needed. BlueJ can help create Java skeleton code, and help illustrate who the classes work together, but it doesn't help much with more advanced programming.

As for Alice, I remember watching one of my colleagues play around with it for his AI class. I thought it was a little basic for a 3000 level course, and hearing that it is meant as a teaching tool for beginners makes more sense.

Yeah, it's all about your preferences, but it's good to learn the big ones like Eclipse or Netbeans since that's what you'll most likely be using in the industry. I vaguely remember BlueJ from high school, and it was a fairly simple application.

By the way, Visual Studio isn't used for Java, it's mainly for C++, C# and Visual Basic. C# is basically Microsoft's version of Java. It gets compiled into a form of bytecode just like Java, and the syntax and features it has are very similar to Java. It can also be ported to other operating systems, but it's mainly used for Windows applications.

Yeah where I work now they use both NetBeans and Eclipse (at least for our group).
The part I liked best about BlueJ as watching the diagram as it compiled each class, other than that it didn't offer anything that Eclipse already did.
That's probably why I avoided Visual Basic so easily (not intentionally). By the time I got to classes I would more likely use it, it was up to the students to pick their IDE (and sometimes language to use). I think I might have used the express edition for C# while group writing a Tetris-clone bomber game. In our version, the pieces went up and with a 4-line clear you got a single piece which acted as a bomb (BTW making the pieces go up in the game triggered motion sickness for our team. Lots of fun debugging that)

[Jordan]

Feb 12, 2011 15:11:41 GMT -8 Etc. said:

Feb 12, 2011 14:41:47 GMT -8 Jordan said:

Yeah, it's all about your preferences, but it's good to learn the big ones like Eclipse or Netbeans since that's what you'll most likely be using in the industry. I vaguely remember BlueJ from high school, and it was a fairly simple application.

By the way, Visual Studio isn't used for Java, it's mainly for C++, C# and Visual Basic. C# is basically Microsoft's version of Java. It gets compiled into a form of bytecode just like Java, and the syntax and features it has are very similar to Java. It can also be ported to other operating systems, but it's mainly used for Windows applications.

Yeah where I work now they use both NetBeans and Eclipse (at least for our group).
The part I liked best about BlueJ as watching the diagram as it compiled each class, other than that it didn't offer anything that Eclipse already did.
That's probably why I avoided Visual Basic so easily (not intentionally). By the time I got to classes I would more likely use it, it was up to the students to pick their IDE (and sometimes language to use). I think I might have used the express edition for C# while group writing a Tetris-clone bomber game. In our version, the pieces went up and with a 4-line clear you got a single piece which acted as a bomb (BTW making the pieces go up in the game triggered motion sickness for our team. Lots of fun debugging that)

I'm using Eclipse, but I don't work with Java all that much. It's more than what I need, and I've heard a lot of good things about NetBeans.

I've only used the express editions as well, but I try to avoid using Visual Studio since it's so big and I'd rather use a simpler IDE like CodeBlocks.

And I'm a little confused as to how your team mates got motion sickness from a computer game which are always fun to debug because they have an endless supply of bugs for you. ;P

[Etc.]

Feb 12, 2011 17:39:00 GMT -8 Jordan said:

Feb 12, 2011 15:11:41 GMT -8 Etc. said:

Yeah where I work now they use both NetBeans and Eclipse (at least for our group).
The part I liked best about BlueJ as watching the diagram as it compiled each class, other than that it didn't offer anything that Eclipse already did.
That's probably why I avoided Visual Basic so easily (not intentionally). By the time I got to classes I would more likely use it, it was up to the students to pick their IDE (and sometimes language to use). I think I might have used the express edition for C# while group writing a Tetris-clone bomber game. In our version, the pieces went up and with a 4-line clear you got a single piece which acted as a bomb (BTW making the pieces go up in the game triggered motion sickness for our team. Lots of fun debugging that)

I'm using Eclipse, but I don't work with Java all that much. It's more than what I need, and I've heard a lot of good things about NetBeans.

I've only used the express editions as well, but I try to avoid using Visual Studio since it's so big and I'd rather use a simpler IDE like CodeBlocks.

And I'm a little confused as to how your team mates got motion sickness from a computer game which are always fun to debug because they have an endless supply of bugs for you. ;P

While I was helping teach intro to comp sci 1 we used JGrasp, but they have since switched to code blocks (I just forgot what it was called).

I was using "fun" as sarcasm for interesting. After a couple of weeks we got used to the pieces going up. They didn't really test the program as much as I did. They just tested a couple of times to see if their change worked. I kept going until I tried every scenario I could think of (or responsibly make happen).

I was responsible for the bomb itself so I was testing the bonds on the side of the play screen and making sure that the correct boxes were cleared without out of bounds errors getting thrown.

[Jordan]

Feb 12, 2011 18:00:51 GMT -8 Etc. said:

Feb 12, 2011 17:39:00 GMT -8 Jordan said:

I'm using Eclipse, but I don't work with Java all that much. It's more than what I need, and I've heard a lot of good things about NetBeans.

I've only used the express editions as well, but I try to avoid using Visual Studio since it's so big and I'd rather use a simpler IDE like CodeBlocks.

And I'm a little confused as to how your team mates got motion sickness from a computer game which are always fun to debug because they have an endless supply of bugs for you. ;P

While I was helping teach intro to comp sci 1 we used JGrasp, but they have since switched to code blocks (I just forgot what it was called).

I was using "fun" as sarcasm for interesting. After a couple of weeks we got used to the pieces going up. They didn't really test the program as much as I did. They just tested a couple of times to see if their change worked. I kept going until I tried every scenario I could think of (or responsibly make happen).

I was responsible for the bomb itself so I was testing the bonds on the side of the play screen and making sure that the correct boxes were cleared without out of bounds errors getting thrown.

I was being sarcastic too. I wrote Tetris in high school (no bombs though), and it had a lot of bugs at first.

And it seems like you did most of the work on that project. ;p By the way, do you still have the game? I'd love to try it out.

[Etc.]

Feb 12, 2011 18:25:52 GMT -8 Jordan said:

Feb 12, 2011 18:00:51 GMT -8 Etc. said:

While I was helping teach intro to comp sci 1 we used JGrasp, but they have since switched to code blocks (I just forgot what it was called).

I was using "fun" as sarcasm for interesting. After a couple of weeks we got used to the pieces going up. They didn't really test the program as much as I did. They just tested a couple of times to see if their change worked. I kept going until I tried every scenario I could think of (or responsibly make happen).

I was responsible for the bomb itself so I was testing the bonds on the side of the play screen and making sure that the correct boxes were cleared without out of bounds errors getting thrown.

I was being sarcastic too. I wrote Tetris in high school (no bombs though), and it had a lot of bugs at first.

And it seems like you did most of the work on that project. ;p By the way, do you still have the game? I'd love to try it out.

for sarcasm

The hardest part of writing Tetris was first getting used to C# (it was a first for all of us) and getting anything to appear. After that it was figuring out the way the code processed when making the blocks appear and fall at first. The bomb wasn't that big of a deal. I mimicked how the other blocks were set up, added it to the enum, and checked the bounds while rising.

I also helped with the two piece preview with random selector for which of the two pieces came next (Thus why the enum portion wasn't that difficult when adding the bomb to the list), and fixing a bug where the bottom line of pieces were never cleared away properly (although some how that fix didn't make it the presentation even though the fix was done.)

One of the bugs that I liked best was in how we detected a line needed to be cleared. It caused the lines to "runaway" as the piece almost reached the bottom. That was amusing, although we had to get rid of it because it messed up the 4 line clear score, and bomb trigger.

I don't think I have the code anymore. If I did it would be on my ancient laptop which I don't really use anymore.

[Jordan]

Feb 12, 2011 18:45:58 GMT -8 Etc. said:

Feb 12, 2011 18:25:52 GMT -8 Jordan said:

I was being sarcastic too. I wrote Tetris in high school (no bombs though), and it had a lot of bugs at first.

And it seems like you did most of the work on that project. ;p By the way, do you still have the game? I'd love to try it out.

for sarcasm

The hardest part of writing Tetris was first getting used to C# (it was a first for all of us) and getting anything to appear. After that it was figuring out the way the code processed when making the blocks appear and fall at first. The bomb wasn't that big of a deal. I mimicked how the other blocks were set up, added it to the enum, and checked the bounds while rising.

I also helped with the two piece preview with random selector for which of the two pieces came next (Thus why the enum portion wasn't that difficult when adding the bomb to the list), and fixing a bug where the bottom line of pieces were never cleared away properly (although some how that fix didn't make it the presentation even though the fix was done.)

One of the bugs that I liked best was in how we detected a line needed to be cleared. It caused the lines to "runaway" as the piece almost reached the bottom. That was amusing, although we had to get rid of it because it messed up the 4 line clear score, and bomb trigger.

I don't think I have the code anymore. If I did it would be on my ancient laptop which I don't really use anymore.

I had the same problem with a bug that was fixed being put into the presentation...That had to be frustrating. ;P Sounds like a cool game, though. Games really make you a lot better at programming because they are complex, and you have to really know what you are doing when you debug.

[Etc.]

Feb 13, 2011 10:30:37 GMT -8 Jordan said:

Feb 12, 2011 18:45:58 GMT -8 Etc. said:

for sarcasm

The hardest part of writing Tetris was first getting used to C# (it was a first for all of us) and getting anything to appear. After that it was figuring out the way the code processed when making the blocks appear and fall at first. The bomb wasn't that big of a deal. I mimicked how the other blocks were set up, added it to the enum, and checked the bounds while rising.

I also helped with the two piece preview with random selector for which of the two pieces came next (Thus why the enum portion wasn't that difficult when adding the bomb to the list), and fixing a bug where the bottom line of pieces were never cleared away properly (although some how that fix didn't make it the presentation even though the fix was done.)

One of the bugs that I liked best was in how we detected a line needed to be cleared. It caused the lines to "runaway" as the piece almost reached the bottom. That was amusing, although we had to get rid of it because it messed up the 4 line clear score, and bomb trigger.

I don't think I have the code anymore. If I did it would be on my ancient laptop which I don't really use anymore.

I had the same problem with a bug that was fixed being put into the presentation...That had to be frustrating. ;P Sounds like a cool game, though. Games really make you a lot better at programming because they are complex, and you have to really know what you are doing when you debug.

It was frustrating considering I (mildly) reminded the leader of the group that I had a fix.

If you're talking about more complex games, sure they're harder to program. The blackjack game (no GUI) I wrote a while back wasn't complicated. But it was probably the most fun to debug. I enlisted my mom to help play it until a bug popped up (the problem was getting her to stop playing when a bug showed up).

What games have you written?

[Jordan]

Feb 13, 2011 10:40:48 GMT -8 Etc. said:

It was frustrating considering I (mildly) reminded the leader of the group that I had a fix.

If you're talking about more complex games, sure they're harder to program. The blackjack game (no GUI) I wrote a while back wasn't complicated. But it was probably the most fun to debug. I enlisted my mom to help play it until a bug popped up (the problem was getting her to stop playing when a bug showed up).

What games have you written?

Ah, that sucks.

I just meant games in general since there's a lot of logic and design involved. And, I bet your mom started playing blackjack online after you had her play your game.

I've made two decent games which are Tetris and Centipede. The others are things like easy mazes (in C++/HTML5 canvas), Hangman, Tic Tac Toe with an AI, and a simple command prompt shooting game which aren't worth showing to people.

[Etc.]

Feb 13, 2011 12:04:06 GMT -8 Jordan said:

Feb 13, 2011 10:40:48 GMT -8 Etc. said:

It was frustrating considering I (mildly) reminded the leader of the group that I had a fix.

If you're talking about more complex games, sure they're harder to program. The blackjack game (no GUI) I wrote a while back wasn't complicated. But it was probably the most fun to debug. I enlisted my mom to help play it until a bug popped up (the problem was getting her to stop playing when a bug showed up).

What games have you written?

Ah, that sucks.

I just meant games in general since there's a lot of logic and design involved. And, I bet your mom started playing blackjack online after you had her play your game.

I've made two decent games which are Tetris and Centipede. The others are things like easy mazes (in C++/HTML5 canvas), Hangman, Tic Tac Toe with an AI, and a simple command prompt shooting game which aren't worth showing to people.

She barely knows how to use the computer and she doesn't like online communities so no, she doesn't play online lol

Nice games. So Tic tac toe with AI plays itself or just comp player?

[Jordan]

Thanks. The AI just plays a human player, and it can also play on boards greater than 3x3.

[cristinab]

Can anyone help me solve a problem I'm having with the Alice 2.2 Program?
When I create a small video that is longer than 10 sec, there tends to be a problem that when the "Character say" or "Character Think" bubbles pop-up (At least that's what I believe causes it.) it make the background flash to a darkly lit setting. It only lasts as long as the bubble is programed to appear.
It doesn't happen all the time, only once in a while during the video.
If you can help me find a solution or tell me that Carnegie Mellon is trying to fix it that would be great!
Please and thank you. ;D

[Todge]

Hi cristinab,

You may get a better/faster response if you start a new thread with your problem. People are more inclined to read a new thread rather than a bumped 18 month old one.