A stupid newbie question

G.J.Tielemans at dinkel.utwente.nl G.J.Tielemans at dinkel.utwente.nl
Tue Oct 9 10:39:43 UTC 2001


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Justin Walsh [mailto:jwalsh at bigpond.net.au]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 10:57 AM
>To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
>Subject: Re: A stupid newbie question

<snip>

>Squeak, a free tool, enables ordinary humans, like the gifted authors of
>Gulliver and Alice, to model mere perceptions of the human world faster,
>cheaper and more efficiently then ever before.

<snip>

>Wasn't child behavior what inspired Alan Kay in the first place. 
>From the first day of Smalltalks release not a single qualitative
>improvement has been made. Why? because it was perfect then

-------------------------

Lots of cultures are dreaming of the golden age when anything still was
perfect.
Paradise lost: Lots of holy books are written in that spirit.
Most people experience the same in their personal life. (The wonderfull
sixties?)
In my younger years we had the dream of the makable society, (John Lennon:
Imagine) 
youngsters today cannot even live that illusion because of CNN and other
media.

Well, most of us did grow up, had to surrender to reality:
- We have to admit that things are more compiclated and not always solvable
- There is more then one truth, depending of your viewpoint
- We have more experience, so we recognise more and more patterns from the
past.
  (That's one reason why we are rereading the books of philosophers)
All this could make you a pessimistic person....

...Or you could cherish your old personal dreams and still dare to dream
them:
- the dream of the computer as a personal assistent: dynabook
- the dream of a toolset so easy that you could call it a toy (in the e-era:
eToy)
- a language so easy that you could call it Smalltalk
- the fun of a child: a day not learning is a day not living. (that's before
they go to school)  
- is it not beautiful to dream a palmbook in the days that computers still
did fill complete rooms?
- is it not great that during your life this dream seams to approach reality
(and then the feeling of being so close, you only have to.... and that for
years)
- share these dreams with your old friends, that is the easy and the fun
part
- share these dreams with the world: That is the hard part. Smalltalk turns
out not to be perfect (Yet? dreamer,dreamer) why does not anyone use it?,
learning Smalltalk is still not that easy?, something is missing, lest work
together, that is where the discussion is about. 
 
Parafrasing Pink Floyd: "the memories of a man in his old days are the
dreams of a man in his prime."  
So what are the dreams you want to share with us? 





More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list