 Alice and computer programming for everybody
started 1/11/2001; 8:50:09 AM - last post 1/13/2001; 4:50:16 AM
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Chris Rathman - Alice and computer programming for everybody 
1/11/2001; 8:50:09 AM (reads: 1141, responses: 5)
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| Alice and computer programming for everybody |
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There have been a number of programming languages where the design goal was to teach programming (Scheme and Pascal). There's also been a number of languages designed to allow the anyone to programm (Smalltalk, Python, and Logo). But other than Logo, most of them have eventually abandoned their goal of catering to non-programmers.
Although Alice is not a programming language per se, it does overlap with the effort to bring programming to the masses. The standard scripting engine is in Python but the emphasis is on 3-D rendering and the manipulation of that environment. There's also some effort in the Squeak community to integrate the Alice engine into the language tools.
Posted to "" by Chris Rathman on 1/11/01; 8:50:46 AM
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andrew cooke - Re: Alice and computer programming for everybody
1/11/2001; 12:45:30 PM (reads: 1178, responses: 0)
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Has anyone seen anything about security? The FAQ talks about using Python to open files. Does the plugin stop this from happening? I guess not, as the only way to run these things is with the plugin.
Anyone else worried? Maybe the scripting is only used to compile the animation? Reading the thesis, it seems not.
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Chris Rathman - Re: Alice and computer programming for everybody
1/11/2001; 1:38:46 PM (reads: 1184, responses: 0)
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I assume you are concerned with the issue having the full power of Python exposed to inexperienced users? I was more interested in the power it brought to the table, rather than the risks associated with such power. As such, I could only make a guess - and it likely would be wrong.
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andrew cooke - Re: Alice and computer programming for everybody
1/11/2001; 2:10:54 PM (reads: 1172, responses: 0)
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I'm worried someone will be annoyed with me when all their files are deleted by a malicious .ALI file. I posted a link to the near/far chicken demo (funnier than anything I've seen in Flash for a while now) to MetaFilter and then thought "Is it secure?" quickly followed by "What have I just pointed a load of people at?"...
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Chris Rathman - Re: Alice and computer programming for everybody
1/11/2001; 2:55:10 PM (reads: 1169, responses: 0)
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The site mentions that the plug-in runs in "restricted mode" on one of the bug fixes, but other than that it doesn't mention what those restrictions are. I can't find any reference, either pro or con, on the question.
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andrew cooke - Re: Alice and computer programming for everybody
1/13/2001; 4:50:16 AM (reads: 1146, responses: 0)
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I've just had a reply from the Alice people: the Python runs in restricted mode (they gave that URL, which turns out to be a Python module) and the C code is restricted to a hard-coded (within the plug-in) list of trusted routines.
So that's all right then... :-)
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