I started today by modifying the template I had created so that the library functions to darken and restore worlds would take a duration parameter. I figure that this paramter will be sufficient for most people, and those who also seek to change things like style would be able to figure out how to do it in the library function itself.
As I was fairly well-started on my documentation for how to put things in the required folder, I realized that I didn't know how to open the required folder on Mac, since it is under the Alice.app package. I am currrently trying to figure out how to get at it.
Apparently, you just right-click and say "show package contents." This gives a view that enables you to copy files into the App.
In the afternoon, after our meeting, I worked with Jeff to test out new images with the template worlds instilled with the elixir of pre-dummy camera, when I discovered something disorienting that I had not realized when I was tinkering in the past week.
It appears that any changes made to the Alice required folder (including my addition of superground) causes Alice to lose its sense of hierarchy within the object tree. That is, where Alice usually would display Dummy Objects --> Dummy, it now displays Dummy as a world level object, without the folder, and does this with all user-created folders as well. I believe it is a configuration (Alice self-defense against tampering with the Required folder) issue, and I am investigating it. It seemed like a small issue, but it could get to be big if the teachers are making big projects, and trying to use my superground template only to discover that Alice misbehaves when they stick my superground into it. Also, the tutorials would be inconsistent.
While I was looking at this, I also found an interesting exe file called "IfAliceFailsTryThis.exe" under the required folder. Apparently, this way of launching Alice allows one to launch multiple instances of Alice at once.
I stayed until about 6:30 trying to figure out what was going on, using Alice inside my virtual machine as well. I found that the bug comes up irregularly with fresh Alice installs. Once I have it working, I will ask Jeff to push the images.
And no, I haven't forgoteen I'm supposed to be writing up my superground and converting those HTML files to handouts.
This morning, I tested the bug on Deborah and Ruthie's computers, and discovered that what I had thought to be a bug was a "feature" in Alice. Apparently, if there is not a minimum quota (9) of total objects, Alice will throw out the object hierarchy, sometimes even showing subparts of objects in its menu, such as with the Park Fountain in the web gallery. Again, I think this could only be an issue if it causes our tutorials to be inconsistent with the expected behavior of Alice. Meanwhile, I am working on converting my HTML tutorials to PDF-able handouts. I think I will probably use MS Word to handle formatting. I have converted three tutorials using MS Word to PDF. I have converted that they are readable when printed 2-per-page. These are the Camera Control Tutorial, the Constructing Expressions Tutorial, and the Events tutorial. I am working on converting the "Halting Continuous Action" tutorial.
I worked on converting my Halting continuous action tutorial. As I worked on this, I realized that some of my screenshots did not match with my statements (the names of certain objects. I am pulling it off the web, and fixing it up in MS word. I have fixed up the Word tutorial and decided to return to working on my superground documentation, since you have not yet had a chance to look at what I've done with the previous three tutorials in Word/Acrobat. At the end of the day, I finished my superground documentation. It is available here.
I started this morning by working on convertingt the superground to Word. Then, I visited in your office to discuss the Alice folder hierarchy issue, and get feedback on my superground. Afterwards, we had the meeting to discuss what we were going to do the next week with the student's camp. In the afternoon, I tried to do some work to fix up my ground tutorial, as well as teaching Jenna and Ruthie how to FTP stuff up to the repository. I also gave Deborah the basics of using VI. Finally, I helped Ruthie upload several worlds and tutorials.