On Wed, Sep 01, 1999 at 07:15:01PM +0200, Truls Cronberg wrote:
> Well, the dynabook exists already. I read all papers I could find about
> Alan Kay's idea about dynabook.  It exists as a physical computer. The
> Powerbook is a perfect example. All features are there and people are using
> the computer in described ways. That part that is weakest on the Powerbook
> and dito machines are the dynamic software environment, but exist when
> Squeak is installed. All examples of Dynabook (and the other similar ideas
> from Alan Kay that I have found) all  have keyboard.

I would say that the high price of modern laptops also cuts into their
portability.  The Dynabook ideal (as I read it, anyway) is that you
can just keep one in your knapsack/briefcase and pull it out when
needed, and most of us can't afford to be that casual with a fragile
$3000 laptop.  I won't call anything a Dynabook until it's priced a
lot lower.

If we want every school child to have a notebook computer in his or
her knapsack, we have to make sure that every parent can afford to buy
that child another one every two or three years.  (And also that the
average notebook can survive drops, mud, sand, snowballs and being
sat on.)  Currently, notebooks seem to be marketted as a prestige
item, not a computer for the masses.

When I want to have a computer handy, I throw my old TRS-80 Model 100
(circa 1983) in my knapsack and use that.  It's cheap enough that I
don't care too much what happens to it.

(Unfortunately, it doesn't run Squeak.  Anyone want to try to port it?  ;-)



			   --Chris