squeakland September 2005

squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org

13 participants
12 discussions

Squeak Etoys and preschoolers
by Leonel Morgado 26 Apr '06

26 Apr '06

Hi, I'm interested on computer programming experiences with children aged 3, 4 and 5. I was unable to find documented cases of Etoys use in this age group, but expect that there should be at least a few user stories. If anyone has reports, photos, or even just recollections of such cases, I would love to hear about them! Inté, Leonel Morgado

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Re: [Squeakland] Fwd: misc: elementNumber, obj id
by Scott Wallace 06 Oct '05

06 Oct '05

Hi, Randy. Yes, the elementNumber of an object in a container will change as the order of objects in the container changes, and the order depends on the order in which the objects were added to the container... and when you "pick up" an object and then drop it back into a container, that counts as being freshly added to the container, so the last object "touched" will be the one with the largest elementNumber. So, in short, you can't count on elementNumber to stay the same unless you're not "touching" the objects. So what to do instead? I'd recommend that you maintain your *own* "idNumber" variable in the objects in question, and give each of the objects its own unique value for an idNumber... and use *those* in your reckonings instead of "elementNumber." Since this is a variable that you have created and assigned values to yourself, its value is not going to change unless you proactively change it, so you should be able to use it to distinguish reliably among siblings. Cheers, -- Scott PS: If the above isn't clear, please send a concrete example and we can work it through together. >>From: "Randy Heiland" <heiland(a)indiana.edu> >>To: <squeakland(a)squeakland.org> >>Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 11:16:28 -0500 >> >>Can someone tell me a bit more about this tile in the miscellaneous >>category? Its balloon help says "my index in my container". I'm simply >>experimenting with some siblings in a playfield, seeing if I can have >>sibling-dependent behavior based on each sibling's identifier/elementNumber. >>It seems that whenever I grab one of the siblings and move it, its >>elementNumber changes. I'd like some fixed identifier assoc'd with each >>sibling. >> >>--Randy

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mantis bug 993: rotating morph changes z-order. ???
by Nicholas Bennett 30 Sep '05

30 Sep '05

all, I noticed this problem (for example overlap 2 sketches and use a script to rotate the 'under' one, as the heading crosses 0 it pops to the front) and then found it in mantis. It says its 'published to SqueakAlpha as update 0414FlexFix-sw' on 6 april 05. Can anyone tell me what 'SqueakAlpha' is and how the information in the bug relates to 'versions' of squeak where I should expect to find the issue fixed? My squeakland plugin install says its 3.2.4913 latest update #227 - it thinks it has no pending updates. How can I tell from the squeakland site (or elsewhere) if it's mistaken or if I do have the most up to date squeakland plugin? regards, nicholas

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misc: elementNumber, obj id
by Randy Heiland 28 Sep '05

28 Sep '05

Can someone tell me a bit more about this tile in the miscellaneous category? Its balloon help says "my index in my container". I'm simply experimenting with some siblings in a playfield, seeing if I can have sibling-dependent behavior based on each sibling's identifier/elementNumber. It seems that whenever I grab one of the siblings and move it, its elementNumber changes. I'd like some fixed identifier assoc'd with each sibling. --Randy

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A HTTP plugin Problem
by Milan Zimmermann 23 Sep '05

23 Sep '05

Hi, I am wondering if anyone experiences this problem: From the squeakland download page, I downloaded and installed the latest Squeak plugin on Windows 2000 (I normally run an old version on Linux but I needed to send some Squeak info to a teacher, and wanted to try to describe how to run projects directly). Having downloaded it, I browse to a Squeak project on squeakland.org (e.g. projects under "high school") and click on it. I get a message: "There are updates available, do you want to install them now?" If I answer "Yes", the plugin does NOT open the project just sits there, I tried several times and waited for 5 minutes plus. (Answering "No" does go ahead and opens the project correctly.) Has anyone notice the same behaviour? (Or perhaps there i some download hapenning which is exteremely slow?) Thanks Milan

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Repercussions of power outage
by Kim Rose 15 Sep '05

15 Sep '05

Hello, Squeaklanders - I am sorry to report that we're experiencing some repercussions from Monday's power outage in Los Angeles that seem to have affected our squeakland.org server and website. You may experience some diifficulty in loading Squeak projects hosted by this site. We are troubleshooting this to solve as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause and thank you for your understanding. -- Kim

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Using chat badges
by Bob Irving 14 Sep '05

14 Sep '05

Hi all, I need some tutorial help in using the text chat feature. I've googled and really found nothing, so I thought I would try you guys. FYI -- we're on a Novell environment behind a firewall and are trying to communicate with each other. Using WinXP. TIA, Bob Irving Bob Irving Middle School Technology Facilitator Lancaster Country Day School Lancaster, PA Blog: www.e-lcds.org/wordpress/ "It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." W. Edward Deming

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[ANN] Videos BotsInc available
by stéphane ducasse 13 Sep '05

13 Sep '05

Hi all, I just wanted to inform you that the videos I did for the BotsInc environment are now available at: http://smallwiki.unibe.ch/botsinc/videos/ and that I got an award for the book by PCPlusMagazine :) Stef

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Image location?
by Blake 09 Sep '05

09 Sep '05

I just downloaded the Squeakland plug-in. I've downloaded it before, but I can't find the image now, nor any instruction on where to get it. Also, are there any limitations on what the plug-in can do? Is it a full-blown VM?

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musings
by Mark Kesling 06 Sep '05

06 Sep '05

I just finished my first week with our entire first grade (60 children) and have the following reflections to offer: 1. Alan and the team, Squeak works intuitively (not news to you) and I heard lots of "awesome" "cool" "bad". 2. A one-button mouse is by far easier with this age group. 10 out of the 12 macs have the normal one-button mac mouse and the others a three button one and they click accidentally and activate the halos which are confusing. This issue may only be of concern for really newbees because I am guessing they may want the functionality later as both their intellectual and fine motor skills develop. 3. Have you considered adapting to an easier icon-based navigation system for younger students? 4. The halo icons are too small for this group to hit easily. 5. I started by just letting them explore the drawing tools and they discovered really cool things to do with them. They got excited many times by doing something that some teachers might say was wrong from a following the rules perspective. These getting lost experiences always turned into exploration experiences and increased learning. As programmers you might think how this can be planned for and used to tall our advantage. 6. I will now move on to teaching them to move an object and to have more than one object on the screen. 7. Have you considered that Squeak helps with basic reading and language acquisition literacy with young children? Enough for now. I'll post again after next week's adventures. Mark

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squeakland September 2005