At 03:13 PM 12/13/99, Ali Chamas wrote:
>Also, i think a collection of model/shape
>auto-generators would be a good addition for Alice.
>Getting more towards creating geometry
>programmatically rather than via files. Star field
>generator, stairs, sphere, the usual primatives like
>spheres/cubes/pyramids/cylinders/cones, maybe even
>some fractal technique to do trees, land form mesh
>generators, fractal mountains, spirals, tornado. All
>with "point" or "solid" output. (I'll do these, once
>my Alice theory grows).

Squeak Alice does definitely need some computationally generated objects.
The example we always use is a torus: you can't just resize a torus between
you need to be able to specify the inner and outer radii separately.

The key in adding new things to Alice is that it's designed as a system for
novices.  So just figuring out how to do something isn't enough, you need
to figure out how to make it easy to understand and use.  That's a lot
harder to do than just building it: the lessons we've learned from Alice
have taken over 4 years to learn.  However, the fact that it's difficult
means that there are still lots of cool new things to integrate because
very few people bother tackling how to make things easy.

>My background includes 3D production work (Electric
>Image, 3DSM), and i'd be more than happy to work on
>any Alice projects. I couldn't even begin to
>understand the work load of a PHD, but i would be most
>glad to enhance these features - any help to learn the
>Alice structure would be great. Any tips? ;)

Wait two weeks: I'm in the process of writing the Squeak Alice chapter for
Mark's book, and I'll put it somewhere the Squeak community can read and
comment on it when the draft is ready.

Jeff