squeakland February 2008

squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org

23 participants
21 discussions

duplicate (not sibling) - garbage collection?
by Mark Nelson 01 Apr '08

01 Apr '08

Hi Scott, Recently you gave me a useful tip for creating duplicates (not siblings) from a textual script using "costume duplicate player". This has been working great except for one problem. As students are developing their scripts, their project files keep growing rapidly in size. We start off with a 'template' project that is about 300 kB. Each round of program development and debugging usually involves creating and destroying multiple 'duplicates' using the above method. Before long, the project files are many MB in size, even after all players have been cleared from the playfield and the trashcan has been emptied. Loading and saving project files gets slower and slower. I've discovered this happens even if the duplicates are created using the halo icon, rather than the textual script. Each duplicate that is ever created seems to leave a 'ghost' that take up about 130 kB of storage. In the process of debugging their scripts, students typically create and destroy dozens of 'duplicates', leading to multi-MB file sizes. This growth in file size seems to happen only with 'duplicates', not with 'siblings'. Is there some way to do garbage collection to get rid of these 'ghosts' so we can keep the file sizes manageable? Thanks, --Mark

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Squeak International Live Video Conference
by SeaGate Institute of Technology 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

Enclosed kindly find the news of Squeak International Live Video Conference held yesterday. It was a great success. Regards, Madhur

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Nitpicker wants Seaside-on-Squeak talk online
by Richard Karpinski 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Will you make the talk or your slides available here or in a wiki? Were the wiki set up early with a rough transcript or even just notes, you might gather some reader questions, especially if you asked for them, before you get to FISL. I promise to nitpick (or not) if you ask. Dick Richard Karpinski, Nitpicker dick(a)cfcl.com 148 Sequoia Circle, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Home +1 707-546-6760 Cell +1 707-228-9716 http://nitpicker.pbwiki.com ps Put (or leave) "nitpicker" in the subject line to get past my spam filters. On 2008, Feb 28, , at 12:00, squeakland-request(a)squeakland.org wrote: > I'm presenting Seaside-on-Squeak at FISL 08 as an invited speaker > in a few months.

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SqueakFest and other events
by Kim Rose 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Dear Squeaklanders, Several people have sent us email asking about plans for SqueakFest 2008, so I thought it would be helpful to share the current thinking with the community. You saw a few months ago that our most gracious host of past years, Columbia College, has decided to take a hiatus from hosting SqueakFest and allow for change and evolution of the event. There has been interest from a few institutions to host future gatherings, including The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools which we find exciting (and we do love Chicago). In addition, MIT will host their first large-scale Scratch gathering -- "Scratch@MIT" in July. Please see http://scratch.mit.edu/ conference/ for more. Given the overlap in community and interests, we've decided to skip a summer SqueakFest this year helping those who wish to attend the Scratch event to do so without conflict. Several of us from Viewpoints Research plan to attend; so it may prove a great venue to gather, reconnect or meet new colleagues, etc., etc. Additionally, I am excited to share that initial plans are underway for SqueakFest 2009 -- and in '09 plans are afoot to hold this event outside the U.S. -- in Brazil (!). Now, and even more so in 2009, Squeak Etoys will be in use by hundreds of thousands of children and their teachers, etc. around the world. Brazil is currently a forerunner in pilot programs and collaborations between K-12 schools and Universities, in after school community centers, etc., etc. We are exploring combining SqueakFest with a very well known and popular "Ed Tech" Conference to provide even more leverage, exposure and overlap of communities. A small organizing committee has already been established to plan SqueakFest '09. If you are interested in participating please let us know. We will soon begin fundraising to enable presenter stipends for travel. Please let me know if you have ideas or contacts to help with this fundraising effort, or if you work for a company that might like to be a sponsor of the event, etc., etc. We feel planning early will help ensure the most successful event possible. Please share this information with colleagues who may be interested and might not subscribe to this mailing list. thanks and cheers, Kim

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A new experimental version of OLPC image for non-XO environments
by Yoshiki Ohshima 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Hello, While ago, we made an experimental version of Etoys image based on the OLPC code base but for non-XO environments. We made another iteration of it and upload it to: http://tinlizzie.org/olpc/OLPC-Etoys080211.zip The image is based on the latest Etoys image, the suggestions from Subbu about fonts and README wordings are incorporated, and OggPlugin is included. We may still change the initial screen (what do you think if we should start with a screen with clouds or a blank screen?) but the code should be almost in good shape. Hopefully, this will be the basis for the new version of Squeakland. For non-English version, the translation need to catch up as we have been changing code in the image, but we can't wait for translations too long. The current plan is that the packages for other languages are made gradually, and in one way or another (replace the file on the squeakland.org or make a web server dedicated for different language community and put the package for it on the server) they will be accessible to the user. -- Yoshiki

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Upcoming Squeakland release
by Kim Rose 21 Feb '08

21 Feb '08

Dear Squeaklanders, You've seen from Yoshiki's message that we are preparing an updated version of "Squeakland" Etoys. We still need to fix a few things, add a "Read Me" to describe the major changes, and then create the installers for the Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. Once this work is done, we will announce the release formally, and make it available on Squeakland.org. The new Squeakland release will be based on the "XO" version of Etoys (for the "XO" computer, also known as the One Laptop Per Child computer, or, for short, "olpc"), which we have been actively working on for the past 18 months. It will feature many enhancements, along with bug fixes and performance improvements, and etoy projects created on the XO will be freely loadable on non-XO machines, and vice-versa. Also, projects made using the "classic" etoys system will be freely loadable into the new Squeakland system. The *experimental* version of the new Squeakland system, which we announced this week is a preliminary version, intended only for brave- at-heart "early adopters." Thanks for your interest and patience, Kim

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Re: [Seaside] Re: More Election nominations please!
by merlyn＠stonehenge.com 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

>>>>> "tim" == tim Rowledge <tim(a)rowledge.org> writes: tim> I'll second that. We need to see more *serious* interest in running this tim> community or it will fade into moribundity. I'd be happy to throw my hat into the ring, but I'm afraid of being laughed at for not having much more to contribute than 25 years of smalltalk experience and having followed squeak as an interested user since its first announcement. I also have a lot of experience promoting and supporting Perl, and I imagine that this might be useful to a Squeak board. So, would people consider my contributions useful? -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 <merlyn(a)stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/> Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!

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International Squeak Live Video Conference in Nepal and Japan
by SeaGate Institute of Technology 16 Feb '08

16 Feb '08

Hi Squeakers, Enclosed kindly find the information about International Squeak Live Video Conference in Nepal and Japan. If you are interested to contribute or participate, you are most welcome. Best regards, Yogesh Shrestha

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RE: Squeakland Digest, Vol 58, Issue 9
by SeaGate Institute of Technology 16 Feb '08

16 Feb '08

Hi, We are teaching Squeak to school children of 8 to 12 years of age for since 2005. We are also organizing International Squeak Live Video Conference between Japanese and Nepalese students on Feb 28, 2008. We held on on Feb 10, 2007. If we can be of help, kindly let me know. Best regards, Yogesh Shrestha -----Original Message----- From: squeakland-bounces(a)squeakland.org [mailto:squeakland-bounces@squeakland.org] On Behalf Of squeakland-request(a)squeakland.org Sent: None To: squeakland(a)squeakland.org Subject: Squeakland Digest, Vol 58, Issue 9 Send Squeakland mailing list submissions to squeakland(a)squeakland.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to squeakland-request(a)squeakland.org You can reach the person managing the list at squeakland-owner(a)squeakland.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Squeakland digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (Tony Forster) 2. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (Luke Gorrie) 3. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (Harish Pillay 9v1hp) 4. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (kathleen harness) 5. Re: An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore (Harish Pillay 9v1hp) 6. Squeak in Singapore (Kim Rose) 7. duplicate (not sibling) - garbage collection? (Mark Nelson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:24:25 +1100 From: "Tony Forster" <forster(a)ozonline.com.au> Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore To: <squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Message-ID: <002f01c86f47$97908090$0701010a@forsterce3ea89> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original > b) suggestions on what kinds of contest we can run? This would include > topics and problems to solve within a reasonable (3-4 hour) session > especially > after the participants have been given some training. Look at http://www.acmi.net.au/screenit.htm and http://www.acmi.net.au/screen_it.htm which had game programming categories in Game Maker and Flash for primary and secondary students ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:12:18 +0545 From: "Luke Gorrie" <luke(a)member.fsf.org> Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore To: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <h.pillay(a)ieee.org> Cc: squeakland <squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Message-ID: <1d0fb8fc0802142127l432e1549w379a3197d897bfce(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hi Harish, We've done two 3-4 hour Squeak-for-beginner sessions in Kathmandu recently. There've been about 25-30 participants in each and from a range of backgrounds (kids, teachers, programmers, our family members, etc). Only a few of our participants have been under 12 (six of them I'd estimate) and they've done at least as well as the adults. People had a LOT of fun at the one last saturday. The format is a computer lab where each student has their own computer and the instructors share a machine that's hooked up to a projector. We've had about five instructors each time: we take turns demonstrating Squeak features on the projector and otherwise wander around the room helping people out and answering questions. The program we've used is based on the "drive a car" example from Alan and Kim and we've found it very well matched to complete beginners. Here's the agenda we used last saturday: 1. Introduction to Squeak (30 minutes). Demonstrate how to use halos&handles and how to paint sketches. The students follow along and have a 15 minute practice session to draw a car that they'll be scripting. 2. Scripting (30 minutes). Introduce the concept of scripting and build up to a car that can be driven. Usually we draw a steering wheel and write a script that turns the car based on the wheel's heading. It's also possible to e.g. have the car follow some object that you can pick up with the mouse and other variations. 3. More advanced scripting (30 minutes). We create a simple car game by drawing a racetrack on the background of the screen (painting a curvy line with the largest brush setting) and adding some simple scripts: (a) car moves fast on the road but slowly when off road (introducing test/yes/no 'is over color' tiles), (b) car makes a "brrrrbrbrbrbrr" sound when it's driving off the road (introducing sound recorder and 'make sound' tile -- important to have microphone and speakers on each machine!), (c) cheering sound is made when the car crosses a differently-coloured finish line. 4. More practice followed by Q&A and demonstration of some fancy projects that we had already prepared. In the first workshop we had one additional segment but we reckon this shorter agenda is better - it left people wanting more instead of being a bit tired. (It also meant we could fit the whole thing in before lunch instead of having a long break in the middle.) There's a LOT of room for improvisation both on the projector and on each person's own computer. On saturday we showed a couple of people individually how to program the car to drive around the road as a robot and that was pretty clear to them (proudly one was my mum :-) a born programmer if only she knew it!). NB: We use the XO image on normal PCs for this. Let us know if you have any questions. We're quite close to one another so we could possibly cooperate a little bit. I passed through singapore in december and january and I'll be sure to let you know if I'll be there any time soon. For more info see these blog entries: http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/132 http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/107 http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/106 Cheers, -Luke ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:28:17 +0800 From: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <h.pillay(a)ieee.org> Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore To: squeakland <Squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Message-ID: <eeea2b6b0802142328j589be48m417df796cd4e7292(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Thanks, Luke, Tony and Eric for your responses. It is certainly encouraging to see the offers of suggestions and ideas. The contest the ITSC is running, called code::XtremeApps:: 2008 has two categories - an open and a junior. The junior category is what I alluded to - for 12 and under. THe open category is for just about anyone to take part and is pretty much what we did last year: http://www.itsc.org.sg/codeXtremeApps.html For the junior category, there exists some local expertise in Alice and a decision has to be made as to whether Alice or Squeak is to be the chosen platform. If anyone of you have worked with both, can I ask for a considered opinion on the merits of them? I have found out that stuff created in Alice cannot be "exported" and worked on by others. That could put a constraint on how the contest is run. Squeak, on the other hand, can easily import and export stuff giving the children their own space to work and then for the teams to combine. Please confirm that this is doable. I need to report back to the organizing committee this coming Monday as to which platform to use and I would love to have Squeak as the one. I will look into all the links provided by the Luke and Tony to understand better. I am a coder myself, but I haven't had a chance to teach programming to young children and am trying to get my head around to the merits of Alice and Squeak for this task. Appreciate your inputs and suggestions. Thanks. -- Harish Pillay h.pillay(a)ieee.org gpg id: 746809E3 fingerprint: F7F5 5CCD 25B9 FC25 303E 3DA2 0F80 27DB 7468 09E3 ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:38:45 -0600 From: "kathleen harness" <k1harness(a)insightbb.com> Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore To: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <h.pillay(a)ieee.org>, "squeakland" <Squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Message-ID: <000c01c86fcf$b4ea0c50$6501a8c0@kathleen> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Hi Harish, Have you looked at the materials K-5 Technology Passport at www.Squeakcmi.org I wrote them as introductions to Etoys in the classroom and have used them with many young beginners. The site also has some children's projects in the Library Collection tags: letter slates, number slates, Aesop's Fables, Science Books, and others. Regards, Kathleen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <h.pillay(a)ieee.org> To: "squeakland" <Squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 1:28 AM Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore > Thanks, Luke, Tony and Eric for your responses. It is certainly > encouraging > to see the offers of suggestions and ideas. > > The contest the ITSC is running, called code::XtremeApps:: 2008 has two > categories - an open and a junior. The junior category is what I alluded > to - > for 12 and under. THe open category is for just about anyone to take part > and is pretty much what we did last year: > http://www.itsc.org.sg/codeXtremeApps.html > > For the junior category, there exists some local expertise in Alice and a > decision has to be made as to whether Alice or Squeak is to be the chosen > platform. If anyone of you have worked with both, can I ask for a > considered > opinion on the merits of them? I have found out that stuff created in > Alice > cannot be "exported" and worked on by others. That could put a constraint > on how the contest is run. Squeak, on the other hand, can easily import > and > export stuff giving the children their own space to work and then for the > teams > to combine. Please confirm that this is doable. > > I need to report back to the organizing committee this coming Monday as to > which platform to use and I would love to have Squeak as the one. > > I will look into all the links provided by the Luke and Tony to understand > better. I am a coder myself, but I haven't had a chance to teach > programming > to young children and am trying to get my head around to the merits of > Alice > and Squeak for this task. > > Appreciate your inputs and suggestions. > > Thanks. > -- > Harish Pillay h.pillay(a)ieee.org gpg id: 746809E3 > fingerprint: F7F5 5CCD 25B9 FC25 303E 3DA2 0F80 27DB 7468 09E3 > > _______________________________________________ > Squeakland mailing list > Squeakland(a)squeakland.org > http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:24:32 +0800 From: "Harish Pillay 9v1hp" <h.pillay(a)ieee.org> Subject: Re: [Squeakland] An opportunity to promote Squeak in Singapore To: "kathleen harness" <k1harness(a)insightbb.com> Cc: squeakland <Squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Message-ID: <eeea2b6b0802150524h607593acn657167877f927a85(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Kathleen - Hi! Thanks for the reply. > Have you looked at the materials K-5 Technology Passport at > www.Squeakcmi.org > I wrote them as introductions to Etoys in the classroom and have used them > with many young beginners. The site also has some children's projects in the > Library Collection tags: letter slates, number slates, Aesop's Fables, > Science Books, and others. I am now exploring it. I have given my 8 and 10 year old sons the task of checking it out for themselves. Thanks again. -- Harish Pillay h.pillay(a)ieee.org gpg id: 746809E3 fingerprint: F7F5 5CCD 25B9 FC25 303E 3DA2 0F80 27DB 7468 09E3 ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:47:48 -0800 From: Kim Rose <kim.rose(a)vpri.org> Subject: [Squeakland] Squeak in Singapore To: Harish Pillay 9v1hp <h.pillay(a)ieee.org> Cc: "Squeakland.org mailing list" <squeakland(a)squeakland.org> Message-ID: <B40E7311-25A5-4326-B344-EF6B29747817(a)vpri.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Hello, Harish - I'd like to refer you to the group of three below -- Toh Hiew Kang (Dennis), Katerine Bielaczyc and Yeo Tiong Meng. As you'll see from their emails from late last year (below) they are working with students in Singapore in both elementary and secondary schools using Squeak Etoys. I encourage you to introduce yourself and your program (s) if you do not already know them, and their work. I imagine they can provide some valuable information and insight from their experiences. I had the opportunity of meeting Katerine in Singapore in early 2007 -- she is at the National Institute of Education there in Singapore, and I know she is doing excellent work. http:// lsl.nie.edu.sg/bio/drkate.htm. Please mention I encouraged you to contact them. regards, Kim > From: Toh Hiew Kang <toh_hiew_kang(a)moe.edu.sg> > Date: November 7, 2007 9:55:29 PM PST > To: Kim Rose <kim.rose(a)vpri.org> > Cc: Katerine Bielaczyc <kateb369(a)gmail.com>, yeo_tiong_meng(a)moe.edu.sg > Subject: Re: Hi Kim > > Dear Kim, > > Thank you for sharing and we really look forward to learn from you > and Dr Alan Kay. > > We will be implementing Squeak with our students and they are > around 13 to 15 years old (Marsiling Secondary School). The good > thing is we are also engaging local squeak trainers in > collaboration with school teachers to implement Squeak in our school. > > Yes, we would be glad to share with you our teachers and students' > feedback and experiences. > > Best Regards, > Dennis > This from an email from Katerine.... [snip] I am teaching a course this semester called Theory, Design and Practice of Computer-Based Learning Environments. As part of the course students work in teams to carry out a case study of a particular environment, which involves reading, working with the envrionment, and interviewing persons related to the environment. Two of my students are focusing on Squeak. They are teachers and are really interested in learning more about teachers' experiences with Squeak. They are excited by Squeak and are eager to learn more. ================ ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:48:51 -0600 From: "Mark Nelson" <prof.mark.nelson(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Squeakland] duplicate (not sibling) - garbage collection? To: "Scott Wallace" <scott.wallace(a)squeakland.org>, squeakland(a)squeakland.org Message-ID: <e40d51ba0802150848y2f664d4bp29e7988d39171303(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hi Scott, Recently you gave me a useful tip for creating duplicates (not siblings) from a textual script using "costume duplicate player". This has been working great except for one problem. As students are developing their scripts, their project files keep growing rapidly in size. We start off with a 'template' project that is about 300 kB. Each round of program development and debugging usually involves creating and destroying multiple 'duplicates' using the above method. Before long, the project files are many MB in size, even after all players have been cleared from the playfield and the trashcan has been emptied. Loading and saving project files gets slower and slower. I've discovered this happens even if the duplicates are created using the halo icon, rather than the textual script. Each duplicate that is ever created seems to leave a 'ghost' that take up about 130 kB of storage. In the process of debugging their scripts, students typically create and destroy dozens of 'duplicates', leading to multi-MB file sizes. This growth in file size seems to happen only with 'duplicates', not with 'siblings'. Is there some way to do garbage collection to get rid of these 'ghosts' so we can keep the file sizes manageable? Thanks, --Mark ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Squeakland mailing list Squeakland(a)squeakland.org http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland End of Squeakland Digest, Vol 58, Issue 9 *****************************************

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Squeak in Singapore
by Kim Rose 15 Feb '08

15 Feb '08

Hello, Harish - I'd like to refer you to the group of three below -- Toh Hiew Kang (Dennis), Katerine Bielaczyc and Yeo Tiong Meng. As you'll see from their emails from late last year (below) they are working with students in Singapore in both elementary and secondary schools using Squeak Etoys. I encourage you to introduce yourself and your program (s) if you do not already know them, and their work. I imagine they can provide some valuable information and insight from their experiences. I had the opportunity of meeting Katerine in Singapore in early 2007 -- she is at the National Institute of Education there in Singapore, and I know she is doing excellent work. http:// lsl.nie.edu.sg/bio/drkate.htm. Please mention I encouraged you to contact them. regards, Kim > From: Toh Hiew Kang <toh_hiew_kang(a)moe.edu.sg> > Date: November 7, 2007 9:55:29 PM PST > To: Kim Rose <kim.rose(a)vpri.org> > Cc: Katerine Bielaczyc <kateb369(a)gmail.com>, yeo_tiong_meng(a)moe.edu.sg > Subject: Re: Hi Kim > > Dear Kim, > > Thank you for sharing and we really look forward to learn from you > and Dr Alan Kay. > > We will be implementing Squeak with our students and they are > around 13 to 15 years old (Marsiling Secondary School). The good > thing is we are also engaging local squeak trainers in > collaboration with school teachers to implement Squeak in our school. > > Yes, we would be glad to share with you our teachers and students' > feedback and experiences. > > Best Regards, > Dennis > This from an email from Katerine.... [snip] I am teaching a course this semester called Theory, Design and Practice of Computer-Based Learning Environments. As part of the course students work in teams to carry out a case study of a particular environment, which involves reading, working with the envrionment, and interviewing persons related to the environment. Two of my students are focusing on Squeak. They are teachers and are really interested in learning more about teachers' experiences with Squeak. They are excited by Squeak and are eager to learn more. ================

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squeakland February 2008