Hans-Martin Mosner wrote:
> 
> Alan Kay wrote:
> 
> > It would be great for someone to do Elastolab in Squeak!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Alan
> 
> True - but on the other hand I wish that David's work is an economic success,
> too. Smalltalk needs to be a commercially viable platform, not just a great
> toolbox and environment for thinkers and tinkerers. I and many others who
> don't want to succumb to the dark side (I won't mention that dreaded J-word
> here) depend on Smalltalk jobs which pay. And there are quite some who don't
> have such jobs, sadly. That should not discourage anyone from trying to do
> physics simulation stuff in Squeak to provide such a framework for free -
> however just copying ElastoLab does not smell right to me.
> 
> As far as Windows-only is concerned, VisualWorks comes from the same breed as
> Squeak, and is binary portable to platforms such as Linux and Mac, too. I
> don't know how deeply integrated with Windows ElastoLab actually is, but it
> should be possible to make a Mac or Linux port with a reasonable amount of
> effort. Doing Windows first is a reasonable economic decision (most kids with
> computers will have Wintel stuff on their desks), but following up with Mac
> and Linux would clearly demonstrate that Smalltalk is the "true" write once,
> run everywhere language :-)
> 
I agree on much here, and wish David the best. 
I also think some day a etoy project with some degree of physics simulation,
maybe based on Ned's ConnectorMorphs,
will appear and not to compete with Elastolab but to teach kids bout physics.
I hope both versions will benefit from this,
and help them gain attention and hopefully more users.

Karl