Squeak Foundation

Ricardo L. A. Bánffy rbanffy at utopia.com.br
Fri Jun 7 23:24:01 UTC 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jecel Assumpcao Jr" <jecel at merlintec.com>
To: <squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 8:25 PM
Subject: Re: Squeak Foundation

> That is a feature, not a bug! Making it look the same on the outside
> will result in it being ignored by those who are longing for something
> different on the inside and at the same time it will eventually
> disappoint those who were attracted to it hoping for something familiar.

There should be some way to display native (or at least native-like) windows
and dialogs from within our code. Making our end users used to a new set of
windows controls is hard. BTW, when they see a familiar GUI they instantly
identify it and think "It runs on my computer" rather than "What the hell
are they running".

> > Please remember that the levels of dumbness among
> > end-users can reach very high levels.
>
> I don't agree with this at all.

Your users may be smarter than mine ;-)

> I bet most of those technical folks laughing
> behind the user's backs would do even worse if placed in an unfamiliar
> environment (in front of an old fashioned sewing machine, for example).

Point taken. I wouldn't figure out even a brand new GUI driven sewing
machine. ;-)

It took weeks before I mastered the basic functions a copier at one place I
worked had. I am sure it could also make coffee, but cannot confirm that.

> The most likely killer application will be scripting+wonderlands. See
> the fish bowl demo. It is still a bit too rough, though.

> Check out ESUG's efforts:
>
>     http://www.esug.org/sponsoring/promotionProgram.html

Will do.

> > - To encourage a consistent look and feel for Squeak apps. It helps
> > when you see a screenshot of something and you can say "Gee. it seems
> > done in Squeak"
>
> But you said you didn't like lots of bright colors ;-)

Color must always be used to convey information. Too much color makes for a
confusing environment (at least for newcomers like me - I came straight out
of the 1 bit per pixel Smalltalk world). All my Squeaks use the "pastel"
scheme.

> > - To find out how to induce IBM to invest a billion dollars in Squeak
> > ;-)
>
> You might have to get it to drop its own Smalltalk first, and that
> would not be a good thing.

Sure? They are doing some terrific work endorsing Linux (I just covered an
event they organized here in São Paulo). If they ever endorse something like
Squeak like they invest in Java, computer science may actually move forward
instead of backwards ;-)

A friend of mine, when comparing Python to Java (the comparison works then
you compare Smalltalk and Java) says half jokingly that Python is an older
language, but seems much newer.




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