Re: Visit with Squeak development team

[Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com>]

Thanks, Doug, for remembering to open this discussion up to the rest of
seul-edu. Let me offer a few comments on the planned meeting ....

1. The original plan was not for me to do this alone, but schedule conflicts
caused it to turn out that way. I'd welcome a second person from seul-edu if
the date and location (somewhere near the Burbank airport) work for one of you.

2. I'm not very familiar with Squeak yet, though I have some relevant
background from Smalltalk, and my familiarity with HyperCard and HyperStudio
will help. I'm mainly an applications programmer in C, C++, and Perl (plus a
little Java). I've downloaded the Linux and Win9x bundles for Squeak, and by
the time of the meeting I should have a fair technical familiarity with the
tool.

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.

This list is helping get me up to speed on the current state of both areas,
but aside from that, I'm somewhat out of date, having last worked for a
school about 3 years ago (as a part network manager, part teacher). Concrete
advice on both scores would be welcome.

So please do guide me as much as you can based on your own experiences
either as software developers in education or with Squeak-like packages.

At 02:51 PM 9/2/99 -0400, Doug Loss wrote:
>Ray Olszewski will be meeting with Alan Kay and the rest of the Squeak
>development team on November 22....

------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski                                        -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA  94303-3603    	 	        ray@comarre.com        
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