View Source question

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

> Indeed, that is one of the virtues of Squeak. Python was somewhat of a
> compromise in this respect, but it has the virtual that opens up ready
> access to most of the rest of the GNU/Linux world.

  I'm not sure if Python has that edge over Squeak, but probably it
does.

> Alas, this is a feature that, as has already been mentioned, hasn't
> had enough time and attention yet. It'd be nice to "architect" what
> view source means in these different environments to provide a
> starting point for developers as per the original post in this thread.

  "Yes" in one sense.

  ...  But, here I'd like to change the topic a bit (and it would be
more suitable for the its.an.education.project mailing list).

  If there is any real operating system researchers around, they would
"raise eyebrows" when they hear the idea of letting the kids learn
Linux as *the* example.  Remember the discussion between Linus
Torvalds and Andrew Tannenbaum, and Tannenbaum was right about Linux
has nothing great in regards to its technology.  Linus was great at
forming the community by listening people, but its success wasn't
about its technology.  (There are arguably better systems like
OpenBSD.  And, it wasn't conceivable to actually do in that short
time, an OS-less system would have made more sense for the target
system; as you know, Ivan was thinking the possibility of "full Python
machine".)

  If we are trying use the OLPC XO as the trojan horse of
disseminating a better idea of computer including operating system, it
is unfortunate that we needed to use Linux.  It is the most practical
system to use in the short term, but basically we are using it because
it is the de-facto standard.  (And people are rather thinking it
better because it is not Windows.  Strange.  Without real education
content, neither is good enough.)

-- Yoshiki