I
really like the idea of a separate thread as you suggest
. However you or someone else who is actually going to the meeting should probably start it.
Re your questions:
1. There has been a new book by Dann, et al announced (
http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=2387) that almost certainly will have to use Alice 3.0. What is a bit confusing is that I have also seen some material which implies that the recommended approach is to also continue to use Alice 2.0/2.2 for the more basic courses.
2. Just a comment - if backward compatibility is a "requirement" in the business world, somebody should tell Microsoft and Apple. Several of my favorite programs will no longer run under Vista
and, while I'm not a Mac person, I understand OSX is fundamentally incompatible in some ways with OS9.
3. I hope you do get a answer to this question and the response is that Alice 3.0 is not tied into a specific IDE. Any other situation would certainly limit the programs usefulness - especially if the single IDE was NetBeans, which is
NOT a tool for beginners.
On the other hand, I suspect that since Alice 3.0 seems to be being developed using NetBeans and with Sun's help - Net Beans will probably also be the tool of choice for "experts." (Of course, with the talk of IBM buying Sun - that situation may also change. My open suggestion - if they do merge - is to also merge Eclipse and NetBeans and call it "Big Blue Beans."
)