Matthew Conway
ABSTRACT
We present lessons learned from developing Alice, a 3D graphics programming environment designed for undergraduates with no 3D graphics or programming experience. Alice is a Windows 95/NT tool for describing the time-based and interactive behavior of 3D objects, not a CAD tool for creating object geometry. Our observations and conclusions come from formal and informal observations of hundreds of users. Primary results include the use of LOGO-style egocentric coordinate systems, the use of arbitrary objects as lightweight coordinate systems, the launching of implicit threads of execution, extensive function overloading for a small set of commands, the careful choice of command names, and the ubiquitous use of animation and undo.
- 1.Card, S. K. Robertson, G., and Mackinlay, J. The Information Visualizer, an Information Workspace. A CM SIGCHI 91 Conference Proceedings, 1991, pp. 181-188. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- 2.Clarke, J. H. Hierarchical Geometric Models for Visible Surface Algorithms. Communications of the A CM, 19(10), October 1976, pp. 547-554. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 3.Clay, S. R., and Wilhelms, J. Put: Language-Based Interactive Manipulation of Objects. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, March 1996. Vol 16, Number 2, pp. 31-39. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 4.Fitts, P. M., and Jones, R. E. Pychological Aspects of Instrument Display: Analysis of 270 "Pilot Error" Experiences in Reading and Interpreting Aircraft Instrument. Memorandum Report TSEAA-694-12A, Aero Medical Labaroatory, Air Materiel Command, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, October 1, 1947, pp. 47.Google Scholar
- 5.Foley, J. D., van Dam, A., Feiner, S. K., and Hughes, J. F. Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphic, Addison-Wesley Reading, MA 1990. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 6.Goldberg, A., and Robson, D. SmalltalkSO: The Language, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 7.Gossweiler, R., Long, C., Koga, S., and Pausch, R. DIVER: A Distributed Virtual Environment Research Platform. IEEE Symposium on Research Frontiers in Virtual Reality, October 25-26, 1993, San Jose, CA, pp. 10-15.Google Scholar
- 8.Lasseter, J. Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation. SIGGRAPH 87 Conference Proceedings, pp. 35-44. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 9.Mackinlay, J. D., Card, S. K., and Robertson, G. G. Rapid Controlled Movement Through a 3D Virtual Workspace. ACM SIGGRAPH 1990, Conference Proceedings, pp 171-179. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 10.Martin, C., and Kent, j. Proposal for a VRML Script Node Authoring Interface, VRMLScript Reference, Silicon Graphics, Inc.October 6, 1996.Google Scholar
- 11.Najork, M. Obiq-3D Tutorial and Reference Manual. DEC SRC Research Report #129, December 1, 1994.Google Scholar
- 12.Nielsen, J. Usability Engineering, Academic Press, Boston, 1993. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 13.Nielsen, J., Frehr, i., and Nymand, H. O. The leamability of HyperCard as an object-oriented programming system. Behaviour & Information Technology 10, 2 (March-April), 111-120.Google Scholar
- 14.Pausch, R., Conway, M., and DeLine, R. Lessons Learned from SUIT, the Simple User interface Toolkit. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems October 1992, 10:4, pp. 320-344. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 15.Pausch, R., Shoddy, J., Taylor, R., Watson, S., and Haseltine, E. Disney's Aladdin: First Steps Toward Storytelling in Virtual Reality. ACM SIGGRAPH 96 Conference Proceedings, August 1996. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 16.Papert, S. MindStorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, Basic Books, New York, 1980. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 17.Robertson, G. G., Card, S. K., and Mackinlay, J. D. The Cognitive Coprocessor Architecture For Interactive User Interfaces. A CM Symposium on User interface Software and Technology, 1989, pp. 10-18. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 18.Sense8 Corporation: http://www.sense8.com.Google Scholar
- 19.Smith, R. B. The Alternate Reality Kit: An Animated Environment for the Creation of Interactive Simulations. Proceedings of the 1986 IEEE Computer Society Workshop on Visual Languages, 1986, 99-106.Google Scholar
- 20.Strauss, P. BAGS: The Brown Animation Generation System. Technical Report No. CS-88-22, Brown University, May 1988. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 21.Superscape: http://www.superscape.eom.Google Scholar
- 22.Ungar, D., and Smith, R. SELF: The Power of Simplicity. OOPSLA 87, Conference Proceedings, published as SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 22, Number 12, 1987, pp. 227-241. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 23.van Dam, A., et. al. PHIGS+ Functional Description Revision 3.0, Computer Graphics 22, 3, (July 1988), 124-218. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 24.van Rossum, G., and de Boer, J. Interactively Testing Remote Servers Using the Python Programming Language. CWI Quarterly, Volume 4, Issue 4 (December 1991), Amsterdam, pp 283-303. For more information on Python, see http ://www.python.org.Google Scholar
- 25.Zeltzer, D., Pieper, S., and Sturman, D. J. An Integrated Graphical Simulation Platform, Graphics Interface 89 Conference Proceedings, pp. 266-274.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Alice: lessons learned from building a 3D system for novices
Recommendations
Alice first: 3D interactive game programming
ITiCSE '09For introductory programming courses, we recommend teaching Alice as a precursor to teaching object-oriented languages such as Java. This presentation describes and demonstrates the approach of a newly published workbook that uses a highly motivating ...
Introduction to computer science using Alice 2.0: tutorial presentation
This tutorial will introduce Alice 2.0, an interactive programming course developed at Carnegie Mellon University. This program is an ideal introductory high school or college one-semester Computer Science course. This program is especially useful for ...
Comments