[olpc-software] AbiWord, HIG

[Alan Kay]

Hi Robert --

At 07:19 AM 3/15/2006, Robert Staudinger wrote:
>On 3/15/06, Alan Kay <alan.kay at squeakland.org> wrote:
> > There are many other ways to provide access to controls -- e.g. William
> > Newman at PARC used a kind of overlay scheme that worked quite well.
>
>Are any further details on that available? URL?

I think that Newman & Sproull 2nd Edition might show some pictures. But I 
also think that better designs are possible today, once we start looking 
for "better".


> > This could be one route for the integration of media and scripting that
> > children need.
>
>Where can I learn more about the requirements?

AFAIK, there is no current official set of requirements (though Walter 
Bender is no doubt trying to put such together). The current opinions range 
from "just give them Linux with a windows-like UI and apps" to more extreme 
views (such as the ones I hold) that desire a real children's environment 
that is highly integrated, with a simple comprehensive UI, child scripting 
possibilities for everything, wiki-like but WYSIWYG authoring of dynamic 
media in or out of a browser, screen sharing with VOIP (for mentoring, 
internet collab, etc.), that runs bit-identically on all internet connected 
platforms, etc.

In the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, we aren't pushing hard for 
what we use (Squeak Etoys) to be adopted, but I am pushing hard for a set 
of requirements that (however they are implemented) have the same kind of 
coverage (or better) as the Etoys. Here are two white papers about Squeak 
Etoys that you can go to directly: 
http://www.squeakland.org/pdf/etoys_n_learning.pdf , 
http://www.squeakland.org/pdf/etoys_n_authoring.pdf .

Cheers,

Alan


>Best,
>Rob