squeakland February 2004

squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org

29 participants
36 discussions

pause in Speaker man say:
by mike re-v 19 Feb '04

19 Feb '04

I'd like to put a pause in the following Speaker man say: ' Hello how are you, what's for lunch?' thanks in advance mike re-v __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools

1 0

Displaying a calculation in a text box
by Phil Firsenbaum 18 Feb '04

18 Feb '04

I'm working on a project which will generate the area of a given geometric figure. There are a number of approaches I'm considering, however, I'm stuck when it comes to displaying a given calculation. For example, if I use variables for length and width, I want to be able to display the results of lengthXwidth. Thanks, Phil

3 2

how to put a pause in TTS-Speech(Speaker-man-say:)?
by mike re-v 18 Feb '04

18 Feb '04

I like to put a pause in Speaker man say: ' hello, how are you?' thanka in advance mike re-v __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools

1 0

RE: [Squeakland] Suggestions for pedagogical examples in Squeak?
by RATZEL, MARSHA 17 Feb '04

17 Feb '04

I have no idea if what I'm doing with my class is an answer to your question but I will offer it....we used it because it seemed like the next step and not all of our students (especially our girls wanted to do things like girls wanted to stay in the realm of cars). Additionally Kansas has been buried under snow recently and our students have had many days off of school with snow days. So my teacher partner and I chose the topic of WinterWonder Land. In it, students had to construct a WinterWonderLand where there was a sledder, a shivering snowman, the blowing trees and other things that they had observed outside during their days off. This was their first project in Squeak after the tutorials on the Squeakland site. And it was quite challenging for them. We had to keep emphasizing that it wasn't an art project, although it was OK to make things look as nice as possible. And as always, I found myself in way over my head in terms of needing to know more about "how to make" objects take on characteristics than I knew how to do. So the kids and I plugged away...just experimenting and sharing with each other during what I call carpet chats. Everyday I open class with these carpet chats where we tell each other what we'd discovered the previous day because we sort of feel like lost explorers---the one for all and all for one like of thing, you know. I've been accused over and over again in my district for doing Squeak that it is too difficult for teachers. Not kids mind you. But teachers. My district administration is not supportive because they think it's too much to ask teachers to be lost and admit it to the kids and show our ignorance of being lost on a daily basis. I don't know how much longer they'll let me keep teaching it to my 7th graders, but I'm going to continue for as long as possible. I'm now working with the head of the math department on the sligh to create a summer workshop....it just seems to me that I understand enough that I could help them do some neat things when they teach the "Moving Straight Ahead" module of the Connected Math Program module. This seems like a perfect language and integrated piece of technology for helping kids to "get" linear equations. They could experiment and see the what "if"s of all that. (I taught math and science before becomeing the computer teacher). I think the real testimony is that almost a quarter of my 7th grade students of both genders have downloaded Squeak for use at home. They come flying into my class and tell me something they'v learned at HOME. I wish there was more documentation that I could understand or that was organized. But bit by bit, I discover it and then furiously try and teach it to myself through the generiosity of the people on this list and elsewhere. Thank you everyone and I hope my WinterWonder Land project might help you. I can send examples if you'd like of student work, with their permission of course. marsha -----Original Message----- From: Richard Borge [mailto:richared@ifi.uio.no] Sent: Mon 2/16/2004 2:21 AM To: squeakland(a)squeakland.org Cc: Subject: [Squeakland] Suggestions for pedagogical examples in Squeak? Hello all. If any of you have any helpfull information about my questions below, I will be very gratefull. I recently finished my Masters thesis - called "Learning OOP using Graphical Programming environments - An Experimental study" - at the University of Oslo. I now work as a researcher in the COOL (Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning) project here in Oslo. Information about the COOL project can be found on http://www.intermedia.uio.no/cool/ In this project we are trying to explore different methods for teaching OOP by looking at what others have done and experimenting ourselves. My job is conducting experiments and gathering as much data as possible. We are currently trying to set up new experiments and one of them will be attempted on children of 11-12 years old. The reason for selecting this age group is because of having to use an english tool. We are aiming a three days experiment where we will try to teach the children basic Object Oriented concepts. We have decided not to focus on code as we feel there is a risk this can get boring. Instead we are focusing on general OO understanding and the use of a graphical tool therefore seems like the way to go. Right now we are considering Squeak and Alice. I finally come to the reason I write this post: I am looking for some good examples off activities in Squeak to present to our group of subjects. Something that is educational and fun. The hard part will be finding activities that will be fun and interesting. I have been looking at the Internet for some examples and I have found a few good ones. I really liked the Race car example as it captures good points about OO: That there are multiple ojects in one system that have certain characteristics and that one object (the steering wheel) can affect the other object (the car). If we in addition make a race track and race conditions and get the students to race their cars, we are really talking fun and educational at the same time! But I would like more examples than just this one, something that can appeal to people who don't like cars and also examples that illustrate other aspects of OO. Here are a few suggestions to points we feel the pupils should be introduced to. There may be too many here and I may have forgotten some and a couple may not be very good, but here goes: 1. A computer program consists of many objects. 2. An object is an "independent" chunk of information. 3. Objects can affect each other and change each others behavior. 4. We have different types of objects. 5. We can program the objects to a certain behavior. 6. Simple pseudo code. 7. Not all objects need to contain all sort of information, It is important to find relevant information to go into an object (A steering wheel, doesn't need the color of the car, for instance). 8. How to make a model of a larger computer system. To make drawings of what we need. If any of you know of any good examples on the Net where it is possible to get some inspiration, I would be very gratefull. Or if you have examples you have used in your classes, that would also be great. I am not asking for complete examples, but suggestions of topics and such. I have been tossing a few ideas around but more input would be very helpfull. Thank you for your time, it was a long post. Best regards, Richard Borge. Cand.scient. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo _______________________________________________ Squeakland mailing list Squeakland(a)squeakland.org http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland

1 0

Suggestions for pedagogical examples in Squeak?
by Richard Borge 16 Feb '04

16 Feb '04

Hello all. If any of you have any helpfull information about my questions below, I will be very gratefull. I recently finished my Masters thesis - called "Learning OOP using Graphical Programming environments - An Experimental study" - at the University of Oslo. I now work as a researcher in the COOL (Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning) project here in Oslo. Information about the COOL project can be found on http://www.intermedia.uio.no/cool/ In this project we are trying to explore different methods for teaching OOP by looking at what others have done and experimenting ourselves. My job is conducting experiments and gathering as much data as possible. We are currently trying to set up new experiments and one of them will be attempted on children of 11-12 years old. The reason for selecting this age group is because of having to use an english tool. We are aiming a three days experiment where we will try to teach the children basic Object Oriented concepts. We have decided not to focus on code as we feel there is a risk this can get boring. Instead we are focusing on general OO understanding and the use of a graphical tool therefore seems like the way to go. Right now we are considering Squeak and Alice. I finally come to the reason I write this post: I am looking for some good examples off activities in Squeak to present to our group of subjects. Something that is educational and fun. The hard part will be finding activities that will be fun and interesting. I have been looking at the Internet for some examples and I have found a few good ones. I really liked the Race car example as it captures good points about OO: That there are multiple ojects in one system that have certain characteristics and that one object (the steering wheel) can affect the other object (the car). If we in addition make a race track and race conditions and get the students to race their cars, we are really talking fun and educational at the same time! But I would like more examples than just this one, something that can appeal to people who don't like cars and also examples that illustrate other aspects of OO. Here are a few suggestions to points we feel the pupils should be introduced to. There may be too many here and I may have forgotten some and a couple may not be very good, but here goes: 1. A computer program consists of many objects. 2. An object is an "independent" chunk of information. 3. Objects can affect each other and change each others behavior. 4. We have different types of objects. 5. We can program the objects to a certain behavior. 6. Simple pseudo code. 7. Not all objects need to contain all sort of information, It is important to find relevant information to go into an object (A steering wheel, doesn't need the color of the car, for instance). 8. How to make a model of a larger computer system. To make drawings of what we need. If any of you know of any good examples on the Net where it is possible to get some inspiration, I would be very gratefull. Or if you have examples you have used in your classes, that would also be great. I am not asking for complete examples, but suggestions of topics and such. I have been tossing a few ideas around but more input would be very helpfull. Thank you for your time, it was a long post. Best regards, Richard Borge. Cand.scient. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo

1 0

Installing Squeak on Stand alone macs
by Bunker, Stephen R. 15 Feb '04

15 Feb '04

I realize that this isn't as much a Squeak question as it is an OS question but it is squeak related. I have been tinkering with squeak on my iBook. I've arrived at the point where I want to install it on some older macs (OS 8) so my students can begin using squeak. The macs are 6250 series PowerMacs that are running system 8 but they are not connected to the internet. They have CD rom drives and floppy drives. I've tried burnig the squeak stuff onto a CD but when I place the CD in the older macs they don't even read the CD. I have checked to make sure the info is on the CD by checking it on my iBook and in some Windows machines. The Squeak stuff is there. Would anyone know what I need to do so I can burn a CD on a OS X machine so a PowerMac running OS 8 can read it? If you can think of another work around I'm interested as well. I'm ready to get my students involved in Squeak but need to overcome this hurdle. sb

2 1

Sharing, most sadly
by Kim Rose 13 Feb '04

13 Feb '04

Dear friends and colleagues, I am deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Professor Yahiko Kambayashi. Many of you are aware of Squeak activities in Japan; Kambayashi-san was the driving force behind the effort and programs there. Please read and see more here: http://www.squeakland.org/images/news/news.htm Many of us will strive to carry on his plans and programs not only in Japan, but around the world. -- Kim

1 0

[Squeakland] Beginner's question: I can't get Squeakland plugin to work
by Rudy Zalesak 07 Feb '04

07 Feb '04

I am a squeak beginner ( a parent who wants to try the system out for my kids). I have tried to run the projects on the Squeakland site, but all I get is a walkback window that says: message not understood: useTempChangeSet I have tried it with both the Mozilla browser and IE6 with the same result. What's wrong? Rudy Zalesak

2 1

RE: [Squeakland] Help in saving projects
by Dreyfuss Pierre-Andre (EDU) 07 Feb '04

07 Feb '04

Hi everybody A solution for the question: > I want my > students to be able to save the projects in their network folders. > But no where can I find a way to browse to them. Is to make a text file with the desired directory using this template and put it in the directoy knownServers. For windows it is : C:\Program Files\Squeak\Plugin\prefs\knownServers For Mac os 9 you have to look for system/preference/squeak and seardch from there, I don't remamber exactly where it is. For other system you have to search where squeak is installed. name: 7emesinfo directory: g:\cours\7emes info type: file This one is for windows, the path is different acording to your system. The name will appear in the blue window when you are loading or saving projects. >From this directory you can browse the chlidren directories if any. This way you can choose where your students have to save there projects. Best regards -----Message d'origine----- De: squeakland-bounces(a)squeakland.org A: squeakland(a)squeakland.org Date: 03.02.04 00:44 Objet: Re: [Squeakland] Help in saving projects Hi Marsha, > But, believe it or not, I can get launched because I can't figure out > how to save projects. I know I figured it out last semester, but now > I can't remember how I did it. I click on Publish It. And I want my > students to be able to save the projects in their network folders. > But no where can I find a way to browse to them. I must confess that setting up Squeak for a classroom is still somewhat tricky and a few people are working on getting better solutions to work. Please send some more information about your setup offline (Are you using Windows, Mac OS 9 /X, how do your network folders appear to the kids (drive or volume name). Please make sure to have the newest version of the plugin (just go to squeakland and point to "get updates"). After wondering why your are having such a hard time it occurred to me, that you simply forgot about the "click and hold" oin the navigation bar? When you clikc on the publish or find button, but hold the mouse button down then a menu will appear after a short moment. This menu has entries for e.g. publish as, find (more places) etc. Even if this solves your problem, please still send the extra information so I can help you with finding a better setup. Cheers Michael _______________________________________________ Squeakland mailing list Squeakland(a)squeakland.org http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland

1 0

RE: [Squeakland] [Q]Some questions about scripting an eToy player
by Darius Clarke 06 Feb '04

06 Feb '04

Scott, Andreas, Thank you. That helped. I'll play with it some more. Cheers, Darius -----Original Message----- From: Scott Wallace [mailto:scott.wallace@squeakland.org] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 8:34 PM To: Darius Clarke Cc: squeakland(a)squeakland.org; Andreas Raab Subject: RE: [Squeakland] Re: [Q]Some questions about scripting an eToy player Hi, Darius, I don't have the perfect answer to your query (perhaps Andreas will) but here are some observations that may be useful: (1) An easy way to achieve the effect you want, I think, would be to capture your gradient-graced sphere as a SketchMorph. The reason is that there is a special feature available only to SketchMorphs that allows you to specify that their appearance not change as they rotate. To do this: * First create your object as an EllipseMorph with gradient fill, as before. * Then obtain a SketchMorph from it using one of the new morph... grab... commands from the desktop menu. * Remove the transparent pixels surrounding the resulting SketchMorph by using painting... erase pixels of color.. from its halo menu. * The result is a SketchMorph of exactly the same size and shape and appearance as your original. * Go to the SketchMorph's halo menu, choose painting... set rotation style... don't rotate. Now you have a ball whose appearance will not change as you change its heading from a Viewer or from running code. (2) The intent of the rotation code is to take the *complete* appearance of the object when facing in its "forward direction" and to rotate it rigidly by the required number of degrees. That "complete" appearance includes drop-shadow, gradient direction, etc. What you are asking for is directly at odds with that. If you don't want to use the SketchMorph trick outlined above, then the best alternative I can think of is for you to give the object a ticking textual script that serves to counteract the effect of the rotation on the gradient direction. Though I couldn't immediately and without careful thought write down a script that accomplished this, obviously it must be possible, though perhaps strenuous. The script would presumably have code of the form "Sphere costume fillStyle direction: foo" or something similar. (3) A further thought is: if you want the appearance to be unchanged, perhaps you shouldn't be changing the heading in the first place. An alternative is to forego the built-in heading-changing feature such as "turn-by" and to do all your motion-related computations more directly instead. Though this obviously has its price, and the resulting scripts might be too obscure. Hope these observations help, or at least don't hurt ;-) Cheers, -- Scott *********************************************************************************** This transmission contains information which may be legally privileged, proprietary in nature, or otherwise protected by law from disclosure, and is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the addressee, or the person responsible for delivering this to the addressee(s), you are hereby notified that reading, copying, or distributing this transmission is prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please telephone us immediately at 818-407-1400 and mail the transmission back to us at the above address. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. ***********************************************************************************

1 0

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

squeakland February 2004