squeakland October 2007

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21 participants
27 discussions

squeak bump #4 ... how to load project files (revisited)
by Timothy Falconer 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

I'm probably missing something obvious, but I cannot figure out how to drag and drop project files to open them up, as others have suggested. When I drag and drop project files on the public Squeakland VM, it opens the image that's contained within that VM (the old squeakland one, not the olpc one). This really doesn't work. It doesn't let me drag and drop directly onto the new etoys image, or a shortcut of it. (That's like dropping a document onto a document) Is there any way to load a project in the new etoys image other than teaching people about cmd-shift-w? This is on a Macintosh, using the installation procedure outlined in my movie at: http://waveplace.com/movies Thanks, Tim

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"dramabotics": Questions about using Bots Inc for storytelling
by Offray Vladimir Luna Cardenas 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi All, This morning we talk in the etoys list about passing from etoys to Smalltalk using Bots Inc as a bridge and I proposed a project that I called "Dramabotics", the idea is to use Bots Inc for storytelling on local folklore. In this way, once the basic topics on etoys and Bots Inc were covered, we narrate some story where the actors are robots and etoys, making a bridge between programming and local folklore. At this moment my class and me are starting to explore the Bots Inc environment for this and we have two questions (I always ask myself if this is the proper place to ask, so point me another place if I'm wrong): * Can the loadImage and lookLike messages of BotsInc support graphics made in other graphical tools, like Inkscape, provided that they are in the proper format (jpeg, png, etc) ? * I have seen the method Pica-Bot>>Bot>>private morphic>>balloonFeedback and I'm trying to get different messages from the robot, for example: | probar | probar := Bot new. probar setBallonText: ('Rin Rin renacuajo...') withCRs. but this doesn't work, only if I change the message in the System Browser I get the desired behavior but I want a method for making the robots say different things. Thanks for your help. The more I use Squeak, the more I'm convinced of their powerful embedded ideas and its impact on education. Cheers, Offray -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.1 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHC2wOpzl8tTvDAE8RAjrkAKCrfqWcIARJ2ZIKDvMdPgVOjNPlOQCgi8ur BfxAxDJKxYg6NaOREvJny5I= =YQs+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[Q] How to create a hyperlink to a Web page
by Young-Jin Lee 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

Dear all, I am looking for a way to create a hyperlink to a Web page within a TextMorph text. I created some text (using a TextMorph) and wanted to convert some port of this text into a hypertext to a Web page. Is this possible? If so, can someone please explain how to do it? Thanks in advance. Young-Jin Lee

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squeak bump #3 .. mac file madness
by Timothy Falconer 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Hi all, My apologies if this has already been brought up, but I've been trying to figure out the file & directory scheme of the Squeakland installer for the mac. To know exactly how I set things up, see my install video at http://waveplace.com/movies. As far as I can see, the installer creates the following: 1. /Library/Internet Plug-ins/SqueakBrowserPlugin.plugin 2. ~/Library/Application Support/Squeakland/Squeak.keys 3. ~/Library/Preferences/Squeak/Internet/My Squeak/ (this is where the desktop shortcut goes) 4. ~/Applications/SqueakLand/Squeak/Internet/Squeakland (this is the VM) 5. ~/Applications/SqueakLand/Squeak/Internet/prefs/knownServers/Squeakland-Projects (for upload and download) 6. ~/Documents/Squeakland/Squeaklets/resourceCache.map 7. ~/Documents/Squeakland/Squeaklets/ (this is where projects are saved in the new image, along with dupes in the directory above) Saving and loading projects in the new image, it seems like the "My Squeak" desktop shortcut (and associated directory underneath Preferences) isn't used. Files get saved in #7, not #3. Also, I noticed that projects get saved twice in #7 ... in the Squeaklets directory and the directory above them. This of course begs the question ... which one should I use? A suggested layout: 1. /Library/Internet Plug-ins/SqueakBrowserPlugin.plugin 2. ~/Library/Application Support/Squeak/Squeak.keys 3. ~/Applications/Squeak/SqueakVM (this is the VM, without an image) 4. ~/Documents/Etoys/config/knownServers/Squeakland-Projects 5. ~/Documents/Etoys/config/resourceCache.map 6. ~/Documents/Etoys/etoys.image (the separate image) 7. ~/Documents/Etoys/ (this is where projects get saved) Config (#4 and #5) could go under /Applications/Squeak if it makes more sense. Anyway, I hope this helps simplify things. If I'm gonna be training people to drag and drop project files, the existing layout is a bit unwieldy under the hood. Tim

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squeaky tale #2
by Timothy Falconer 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Hi folks, Over the long weekend, I got some very positive feedback regarding my Squeaky Tales series. People seemed to like my movies, though my first attempts had some video compression snags which forced me to temporarily abandon Flash video in favor of Quicktime. The downside was that the movies took a long time to start, since they were essentially fully downloading before beginning. Today I worked out the kinks and encoded them back as Flash FLV movies. They should start up more quickly and should also be more compatible with different systems. FLV is the same format used on YouTube. I just posted Squeaky Tale #2, which introduces a new character in the plot besides Seymour the turtle. As before, let me know if you have any problems. Also, keep the kudos coming. It helps to know you're out there! To watch the movies, visit: http://waveplace.com/movies/ Thanks, Tim

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video tutorials on squeak etoys
by Timothy Falconer 06 Oct '07

06 Oct '07

I've just posted my first two screencast tutorials on Squeak Etoys: http://waveplace.com/movies The first movie discusses how to install Squeak Etoys and the latest OLPC Etoys image on your computer (particularly if you own a Mac). The next shows Etoys in action for about fifteen minutes. If you listen closely at the end, you may figure out why I ended the movie so abrubtly :) My next screencast will be on Tuesday. Let me know if you were able to view these movies. I used two different approaches to encoding the video, so I'm interested to see how others fare on different systems before I make new ones.

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Demo of combined use of Squeak et al. for a general educative application
by Hilaire Fernandes 06 Oct '07

06 Oct '07

Hi, Here is a video demonstration of the iStoa project I am working on http://download.gna.org/istoa/videos/console.ogg Some ideas may be useful for people working on educative applications and computer assisted learning project. This video demonstrates the combined use of several Squeak/Smalltalk application: - a standalone Morphic application for the learner interactive exercises - a Magma database use as a back-end to save all the learner actions in the Morphic application - a Seaside web application (console) for the teacher to review the learner achievements and to replay his action - a custom image plugin to replay in the console the learner action It is not polished as it is for now a proof of concept but the ideas are there. Some more examples can be found at http://home.gna.org/istoa/examples.fr.shtml Use the free media player VLC or MPLAYER if your usal media player cannot play the video. Hilaire -- http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]

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Re: [Squeakland] Is our fondness for Cuisenaire Rods just nostalgia?
by Alan Kay 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

Hi David -- I was using the actual Cuisenaire Rods as an analogy to the need for concrete manipulables for magnitude and sense. When we found them in early classrooms we painted arrows on them to turn them into vectors and got the kids to start thinking about concrete ideas of accumulation in dimensions 1, 2, and 3. The best thing to use today is an extension of the original Rods ideas that aims very strongly at geometric vector representations for arithmetic and many other branches of mathematics. A general comment about educational fluency is that most of the best ideas in education in powerful ideas for young minds go back more than 100 years -- and my opinion is that the best ideas of the last hundred years are enough to make great curricula for children today. This is not a conservative statement, but a radical one. (Almost none of the best ideas from the last 100 years are in most classrooms today.) Cheers, Alan 05:20 AM 10/3/2007, David Corking wrote: >Something that Alan Kay posted to the list made me wonder if rods have >gone out of fashion in some countries. > >I did some reading around and found other people saying the same thing. > >Then I started to wonder if the desire of some of us to see the next >generation taught with these lovely tactile tools was merely the >nostalgia of an older generation for our schooldays. We can't have >been that much more fluent in 'mathland' than the current generation, >can we? > >This article reinforced my nostalgia hypothesis: > >http://web.archive.org/web/20070208071928/http://parents.sociality.tv/about… > >See the phrase "According to the company that sells them, their customers are >people like myself, on whom they made a lasting impression, or >grandparents whose children used them successfully in the 60s >and 70s. " > >But this one made me wonder why my class 'grew out' of rods sometime >in the second grade: > >http://web.archive.org/web/20070208071928/http://parents.sociality.tv/about… > >How strong is the research that says that they work? > >I read that there is a plan to bring rods to Etoys, but I can't find >that plan, and I saw that another firm has created rod software first. > >http://www.numicon.com/pages/interactivewhiteboard.aspx > >Should OLPC be distributing teacher instruction cards, or pupil >activity guides based on rods, and encouraging local artisans to cut >and paint real physical rods (and baseboards, frames and boxes)? Or >even simulated Etoys rod objects? > >If there is still an Etoys rods project, please point me towards it. > >David > >_______________________________________________ >Squeakland mailing list >Squeakland(a)squeakland.org >http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland

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Re: [Etoys] squeak bump #2 ... where did my work go?!?
by Bert Freudenberg 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

On Oct 5, 2007, at 5:26 , Yoshiki Ohshima wrote: > Hi, Tim, > >> Okay, I understand the XO Journal thing better (though I might not >> personally agree with it :) > > Current implementation is missing some important features and hard > to use. The fundamental idea can be great, I think. (Alan mentioned > that Engelbert's NLS had the idea, too.) Hierarachical file system is > some implementation detail to be hidden and being able to keep all > versions (which is missing from current Journal) would be great. > >> This still begs the question ... how does the non-XO world open a >> project. Dragging and dropping from the file system means that >> people need to know how to find their files :) > >> Is it possible to show a "load" menu icon when the image is being run >> on a non-XO? > > Yes, this is the idea. on a non-XO environment, we will show > conventional file dialog. If you trace back the code for a few month, > you'll see that we used to show "conventional" (though redesigned) > file dialog. As I wrote previously, use the classic navigator outside OLPC. Press Alt-Shift-W to bring up the world menu (I really think we should not hide this as much). Pin it down using the top-right button for further use. Select "flaps..." - "destroy all shared flaps", then "install classic etoy flaps". - Bert -

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which mailing list to use?
by Timothy Falconer 05 Oct '07

05 Oct '07

Hi, Last question and I'll be quiet for a while :) Which mailing list is best to use for OLPC-Etoys stuff, the squeakland one or the etoys(a)laptop.org one? Yes, the question appears self-evident, but things are not always as they seem :) Is etoys(a)laptop.org the bleeding edge list and squeakland is for the older image? Tim

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squeakland October 2007