Re "squares aren't resizable" I guess he hasn't even discovered halos, yet. Without them, etoys indeed is pretty hard to use ;)
- Bert -
On Dec 11, 2006, at 8:52 , Alan Kay wrote:
Hi --
We could use lots more documentation in lots more languages most certainly. It would be nice to have all the writing systems of the world available and usable (the OLPC machine will probably force us to do that).
I think he missed the book "Powerful Ideas in the Classroom" which would give him a start with his daughter (and for himself). Etoys is not at all about widgets, just the opposite. He also seems to have missed the tutorials that are on the website.
I don't understand the comment, "squares aren't resizable".
He should be encouraged to try a little harder.
Cheers,
Alan
At 07:39 AM 12/11/2006, Brad Fuller wrote:
I received a reply on another mailing list from a person who appears to have installed and briefly tried squeak, but had some negative comments. I was wondering if others here could comment on his reply about squeak and I'll condense a msg to him and send it out to the mailing list.
The original msg was a request (from someone else) asking about audio software for children - the thread also included general software for children.
Here's his short msg:
=== Just installed it. A very creative but frustrating package. As with too many of these things, one must be able to read and that in English (or a few European languages?). Fine print abounds in what at first looks like a very sparse UI.
The program abounds with objects and widgets. Some very creative and versatile, others frustratingly crude. Graphic objects like squares cannot be resized (nothing stops one from reprogramming them and then dutifully uploading the scalable versions for others to enjoy-- smalltalk was once the rage.)
Smalltalk 80 is, well, 26 years old. Before Unicode so is incompatable with mutlingual keyboard choices. No Hebrew for my daughter, not in UI and cannot type it in to text objects either. Truetype fonts (newer than smalltalk80) are beatutiful but they are also Unicode based nowadays.
I think most kids would enjoy trying various widgets but run out of patience doing anything more with them. Most adults would as well.
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