Reminder: (Please email david@simberon.com if you plan to attend).
The Ottawa Carleton Smalltalk Users Group will be holding its first meeting since the summer break on Thursday, Oct 3, 2002.
ElastoLab - A Physics Playground for Kids
David Buck Simberon Incorporated
ElastoLab is a shrink-wrapped VisualWorks application that allows kids to design their own 2D scenes that incorporate physics elements like particles, springs, and gravity and lets them see their scenes animate in real-time. Originally written in C++, it was later completely re-written in Smalltalk.
David will be talking about the development history and the design challenges in writing ElastoLab. The talk will explain:
* how to interface to the Windows sound facilities from Smalltalk * how to make graphical applications run quickly * how to package a Smalltalk application for release * developing help facilities and guided tours * using the web toolkit to develop a message board on the Internet for ElastoLab.
A CD-ROM of the ElastoLab demo version will be available to all attendees.
Date and Time
Export Development Canada 151 O'Connor Street Ottawa, Ontario Thursday, Oct 3, 2002 7:00 p.m. (please arrive by 6:45)
Please RSVP to david@simberon.com if you plan to attend.
It would be great for someone to do Elastolab in Squeak!
Cheers,
Alan
-----
At 10:00 AM -0700 9/30/02, David Buck wrote:
Reminder: (Please email david@simberon.com if you plan to attend).
The Ottawa Carleton Smalltalk Users Group will be holding its first meeting since the summer break on Thursday, Oct 3, 2002.
ElastoLab - A Physics Playground for Kids
David Buck Simberon Incorporated
ElastoLab is a shrink-wrapped VisualWorks application that allows kids to design their own 2D scenes that incorporate physics elements like particles, springs, and gravity and lets them see their scenes animate in real-time. Originally written in C++, it was later completely re-written in Smalltalk.
David will be talking about the development history and the design challenges in writing ElastoLab. The talk will explain:
- how to interface to the Windows sound facilities from Smalltalk
- how to make graphical applications run quickly
- how to package a Smalltalk application for release
- developing help facilities and guided tours
- using the web toolkit to develop a message board on the Internet for ElastoLab.
A CD-ROM of the ElastoLab demo version will be available to all attendees.
Date and Time
Export Development Canada 151 O'Connor Street Ottawa, Ontario Thursday, Oct 3, 2002 7:00 p.m. (please arrive by 6:45)
Please RSVP to david@simberon.com if you plan to attend.
--
Alan Kay wrote:
It would be great for someone to do Elastolab in Squeak!
Cheers,
Alan
True - but on the other hand I wish that David's work is an economic success, too. Smalltalk needs to be a commercially viable platform, not just a great toolbox and environment for thinkers and tinkerers. I and many others who don't want to succumb to the dark side (I won't mention that dreaded J-word here) depend on Smalltalk jobs which pay. And there are quite some who don't have such jobs, sadly. That should not discourage anyone from trying to do physics simulation stuff in Squeak to provide such a framework for free - however just copying ElastoLab does not smell right to me.
As far as Windows-only is concerned, VisualWorks comes from the same breed as Squeak, and is binary portable to platforms such as Linux and Mac, too. I don't know how deeply integrated with Windows ElastoLab actually is, but it should be possible to make a Mac or Linux port with a reasonable amount of effort. Doing Windows first is a reasonable economic decision (most kids with computers will have Wintel stuff on their desks), but following up with Mac and Linux would clearly demonstrate that Smalltalk is the "true" write once, run everywhere language :-)
Cheers, Hans-Martin
Hans-Martin Mosner wrote:
Alan Kay wrote:
It would be great for someone to do Elastolab in Squeak!
Cheers,
Alan
True - but on the other hand I wish that David's work is an economic success, too. Smalltalk needs to be a commercially viable platform, not just a great toolbox and environment for thinkers and tinkerers. I and many others who don't want to succumb to the dark side (I won't mention that dreaded J-word here) depend on Smalltalk jobs which pay. And there are quite some who don't have such jobs, sadly. That should not discourage anyone from trying to do physics simulation stuff in Squeak to provide such a framework for free - however just copying ElastoLab does not smell right to me.
As far as Windows-only is concerned, VisualWorks comes from the same breed as Squeak, and is binary portable to platforms such as Linux and Mac, too. I don't know how deeply integrated with Windows ElastoLab actually is, but it should be possible to make a Mac or Linux port with a reasonable amount of effort. Doing Windows first is a reasonable economic decision (most kids with computers will have Wintel stuff on their desks), but following up with Mac and Linux would clearly demonstrate that Smalltalk is the "true" write once, run everywhere language :-)
I agree on much here, and wish David the best. I also think some day a etoy project with some degree of physics simulation, maybe based on Ned's ConnectorMorphs, will appear and not to compete with Elastolab but to teach kids bout physics. I hope both versions will benefit from this, and help them gain attention and hopefully more users.
Karl
But the Squeak licence allows people to make money with a Squeak product. So why wouldn't it be a good idea to have Elastolab in a Smalltalk that runs everywhere?
Cheers,
Alan
------
At 10:50 PM +0200 9/30/02, Hans-Martin Mosner wrote:
Alan Kay wrote:
It would be great for someone to do Elastolab in Squeak!
Cheers,
Alan
True - but on the other hand I wish that David's work is an economic success, too. Smalltalk needs to be a commercially viable platform, not just a great toolbox and environment for thinkers and tinkerers. I and many others who don't want to succumb to the dark side (I won't mention that dreaded J-word here) depend on Smalltalk jobs which pay. And there are quite some who don't have such jobs, sadly. That should not discourage anyone from trying to do physics simulation stuff in Squeak to provide such a framework for free - however just copying ElastoLab does not smell right to me.
As far as Windows-only is concerned, VisualWorks comes from the same breed as Squeak, and is binary portable to platforms such as Linux and Mac, too. I don't know how deeply integrated with Windows ElastoLab actually is, but it should be possible to make a Mac or Linux port with a reasonable amount of effort. Doing Windows first is a reasonable economic decision (most kids with computers will have Wintel stuff on their desks), but following up with Mac and Linux would clearly demonstrate that Smalltalk is the "true" write once, run everywhere language :-)
Cheers, Hans-Martin
--
squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org
-
Alan Kay -
David Buck -
Hans-Martin Mosner -
Karl Ramberg