mmille10 at comcast.net writes:
> As I looked over how Alan Kay had described the Dynabook in 1972 (in
> "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages") the thought that was
> forming in my head was "Hmm... This sounds like my PDA", at least in
> terms of the hardware configuration (though the PDA is smaller), and
> the way the owner would interact with the hardware. The "tablet"
> computers of today (sans physical keyboard) would fit the
> description more accurately. The only part missing would be the
> software. When I think about the software characteristics, I think
> Squeak/eToys matches pretty well with the educational qualities that
> he described for it. In terms of business and other personal uses, I
> think that part would need to be developed more to match what he
> described.

Agreed.  Today's PDA's and laptops are pretty much dynabooks.  The
only thing different is the touch screens.  Touch screens have
developed and are fairly inexpesnive, but for whatever reason they are
not ubiquitous on portables.

The main piece that's really missing is to figure out the software.
The idea processing part of dynabooks, where a person whips up an
orbital gravity simulation just for kicks, remains out of reach for
most computer users.

Lex