Re: Visit with Squeak development team

[bickiia@earlham.edu]

>3. As to applications, it seems to me that the two important potential

>for Squeak are:
>
>        A. as a language to use directly with students, in developing
>                their computer skills, analysis skills, and programming

>                ability.
>
>        B. as a development language for teachers and others to use to

>                develop applications that use computers to assist in
>                the development of other skills.

The authoring aspect is probably more important than either of these. 
Right now I don't think Smalltalk is better than Logo for math-oriented
instruction at a young level -- not so much on basic merits of the
language as tradition and such.  Maybe in the future...

But making active content is important, commonly used in schools, and
has a lot of room for improvement.

Here's some things I'd like to know more about:

* Do they have any plans in the way of curriculum?
* Could they clone HyperStudio or HyperCard fairly easily?  I think
Scott was right that this could be an important stepping-stone for
acceptance in schools.
* Are they considering anything in the way of making this more multiuser
friendly?  Multiuser is a big selling point of Linux, but Squeak takes
more from the Mac in it's ideas of security and such -- i.e., it doesn't
really consider it.
* Are they planning a new, simplified syntax?  I've heard hints at this,
but nothing concrete.  I'd be very curious what ideas they have --
something like HyperTalk?
* What is the deal with Disney?  So far Disney hasn't seemed to do much
of anything in regard to Squeak (except pay the salaries :).  Does
Disney have expectations of what they will get out of this?  Does the
Squeak team see Disney as a significant part of bringing Squeak to the
mainstream?
* Find out about eToys.  I've just heard that Alan Kay has some really
neat Demos in his Squeak image.  And there's vestigal pieces of
something called "eToys" in a lot of images that are distributed.  I'm
just curious :)
* Have they considered any other directions for Squeak in education --
like as a tool for teaching math, like Logo?
* Do they have plans to help limit or focus the Smalltalk/Squeak
experience?  It's a big heap of everything right now, hard to approach
as a novice.
* This is similar to curriculum, but are they planning to make
beginner's documentation for Squeak, as in tutorials and such?  They've
always said that documentation is not their forte, or even that they are
any good at it at all.  I expect that they have some ideas of
highly-interactive tutorials as introductions.
* Do they have any demos or programs that they haven't released in the
general image, that relates to education?  Though the image is quite
inclusive, I imagine they must have made prototype applications and such
just to get a feel for what they are moving towards.  Could they release
these, even in a crude form?
* What sort of backgrounds are they missing?  What can we do to help,
who do they need to fill in gaps?

That's what comes off the top of my head.  Maybe I'll think of more
later.

  -- Ian