[Squeakland] Squeak 'non-starter' in U.K. schools?

Wed Jul 9 12:07:28 PDT 2003

Hi Ned,

Thanks for your interest.

I have been contemplating Squeak as a "programming system for
non-experts" for the past year for use in after-school Computer
Clubhouse or classroom environments. (I don't know what Andreas has done
with "Tweak" in this direction or what the "Scratch" project is doing.)

It strikes me that an eToy or Fabrik tile-based approach can be
substantially improved by superimposing on it a spreadsheet-like
framework, something like an editable grid where the columns are not
fixed. The spreadsheet framework represents in the interface itself the
Smalltalk principle of "everything visible, searchable, and reference by
its name" to the non-expert while simultaneously presenting an order,
and an assumption of multiple views off a common data store. 

My suggestion draws from the cognitive psychology principles found in
Jef Raskin's "The Humane Interface" and my experience as an undergrad
conducting experiments exploring the linear thinking that most people
exhibit vs. network systems thinking (based on Piaget's psychological
models). Considering the difference in an programming environment can
help the non-expert grow from liner thinking into network thinking using
the GUI framework as a crutch. 

Cells are known to have properties just as classes. The cell/class
properties can be pivoted into view when the non-expert needs them and
are otherwise collapsed from the view when not needed. This also implies
the importance of the Outliner as a view of the same data.

Just as the natural Smalltalk data structure for collecting data the
collection class hierarchy of list classes, the natural display
structure of the spreadsheet is the list. This also shows how lists help
preview the debugging with Unit Tests. 

HttpUnit http://httpunit.sourceforge.net/doc/cookbook.html 
Cactus http://jakarta.apache.org/cactus/index.html

The visual grid for data entry can allow the non-expert to create a
visual list of content before assigning the list to a specific class
thereby delaying until ready the inheriting of the methods to work on
the list.

A spreadsheet can syntactically parse and highlight source code just
like Squeak's "tile" view in the System Browser. Each tile now being a
cell in the spreadsheet. Notice how Squeak's "tile" view in the System
Browser preserves the hierarchical nature of the data. The grid format
would need to preserve the same.

I suggest that users of PC GUI's functionality suggest three distinct
modes or planes of display use. An ideal user interface could have two
or more full screen planes to represent the difference between
text-only-plane information and the exploring/feedback-graphical-plane
(similar to how Squeak projects are each a full screen plane). I'd allow
the two plane to interact with each other, including having a whole in
one plane to reveal specific content in the other, alpha blending, and
sharing links to the same content. The insertion point would be unique
to either one plane or the other while command keys apply to both. One
can have pre-defined templates that reveal part of a text plane grid
superimposed over the graphical plane such as how game developers make a
heads-up-display (HUD) superimposed over the 2D or 3D graphical scene.
They would share the same keyboard input. This takes advantage of TeX
type functionality.

Text doesn't shrink very well on an CRT, and even worse on LCD, for
rapid visual recognition due to fixed pixel size. Also bright colors and
complex patterns have a detrimental effect. Therefore, almost all text
should be kept on the plane displayed on the surface of the display.
This should have no z-buffer. Use grid placement such as web pages to
separate and group content. Since the keyboard is the quickest content
creation device, this first, display-surface plane would mostly function
for searching, grouping, prioritizing, content creation and some
establishing relationships between content. 

The second plane would make use of all the graphic manipulation that
Morphic provides.

This could be extended by adding a third 3D plane for simulations and
storytelling about a process.

I'd abandon the common row/column ($AC$12) naming convention of
spreadsheets for a new one similar to Excel's named cell ranges which
can address specific cells based on offset addressing.

The advantages such a grid format has over the window layers that
Morphic provides is 
* the reduction of occlusion
* the sense that whatever one needs to find is either above or below the
current focus
* less distraction of one's attention to manage the windows/icons in the
interface
* one doesn't need to bother about where a value appears and what it
looks like if that degree of fiddling is not needed, it's in the grid
_somewhere_ and can always be found by searching
* outlining and indention can easily be added to the grid model
* like outlines, grids can be collapsed to only show a row with just the
view's name or collection's name or other summary representation,
Morphs are more sensitive to where the minimized title bar can be found
and what will be covered when brought into view
* as more fields are created rows can be added or filters applied by
"filling in the blank" or inserting a column/row; contrasting the
exponentially increasing time to adjust
eToy-tiles/connected-graphs/connectors or add more pages to make more
white space 
* tool bar buttons can just be cells in the grid too

Graphics are always aligned by a grid of Cartesian coordinates as well.
Hiding links of grid to remove "bars of a jail" feeling.
Music scales on grid. How would one represent music theory?
Midi composition & Video editing is done on grids.
New rows below appended below all prior content build on and easily link
to and reference back up to prior content cells above.
Goals of the environment should be included as a part of the
environment.

Cheers,
Darius

-----Original Message-----
From: Ned Konz [mailto:ned at bike-nomad.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 08:03 AM
To: Darius Clarke; Alan Kay; Squeakland; Jim Ford
Cc: Kim Rose
Subject: Re: [Squeakland] Squeak 'non-starter' in U.K. schools?

On Wednesday 09 July 2003 12:57 am, Darius Clarke wrote:

> I believe that Squeak/eToys UI severely underutilize lists and
> outlines as essential tools for Watching

[snip]

> But this could be easily rectified. ( I just need a little more 
time.)

This is an interesting topic to me. I've written a (text) outliner 
that I use all the time <http://bike-nomad.com/vim/vimoutliner.html> 
and have found it really useful.

And I'm also working with the Tablet PC and Squeak, in conjunction 
with my Connectors framework for Squeak.

One of the "sample apps" I'm doing is a quick 
brainstorming/concept-mapping tool using ink (and/or recognized or 
keyboarded text) and Connectors.

Once you have a bunch of items and can indicate some structure between 
them (with Connectors, we draw lines between the items), you can 
present that structure in different ways.

For instance, it can be turned into an outline (though of course a 
typical outline (without aliases) is a tree structure rather than a 
general graph like you can draw.

And an outline can be turned back into a shapes-and-lines graph 
representation easily.

I'm curious as to what you think we could (or should) do with outlines 
(and connected graphs, and ink, and gestures) in Squeak.

Thanks,
-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE

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