Last week we looked at challenges in which we overcame and what that meant to us. This week we will shift our focus to inspiration. As artists, game designers, developers, and interactive media artists, inspiration is all around us. Maybe it’s our environment, people, other artists, friends or family. We will continue our journey into code by looking at Alice. Some folks at Carnegie Mellon built this program as a way to in which we can learn to program in a visual way to create 3D worlds. I want to share this section that I found under their “About Us” section.
Why is it called Alice?
“This is one of my favorite questions. It always lets me know the question asker is thinking in the correct direction. After all, the ability to name something is a tremendous power, and in this case, there’s a terrific reason.
Alice pays homage to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Carroll was a mathematician, novelist, and photographer. Most important, he could do intellectually difficult things but also realized the most powerful thing was to be able to communicate clearly and in an entertaining way. This inspires our efforts to make something as complex as computer programming easy and fun.
The name is also a very practical choice. The artwork associated with the Alice books is now in the public domain; its copyright has lapsed. Also, the name “Alice” has several other advantages:
– It is easy to spell.
– It is easy to pronounce.
– It shows up near the top of alphabetical lists.”
Randy Pausch
Continue to find out more about Alice.