Fwd: Flash + AIR on OLPC

[Paul Fox]

stanley wrote:
 > 
 > Sorry, Paul,  I just can't accept the idea that the target audience of the
 > OLPC projects must necessarily include kids who are capable and interested
 > in re-programming the software activities they're using.    Moreover, would
 > you want to modify and re-compile your application software (for example,
 > Firefox) just to change the way it behaves with respect to which home page,
 > web site filters, cookies, etc. etc.?   That's what configuration options
 > are for.   Even if you want more versatility, the application can implement
 > rules in xml or an application-specific mini-language or whatever.
 > Rebuilding an application in Python should be a last resort and not even for
 > the 99.9999% of target users of the system.

these are all strawmen, and i won't bother arguing them
seriously.  in fact, one of the reasons i wouldn't modify
firefox as you suggest is _precisely_ because i probably don't
have the source and tools at hand, and it will be difficult (yes,
even though it's open source) to obtain them and configure all of
the prerequesites.  (ironically, the barrier to entry for
modifying my own kernel is far lower than for modifying my
browser, though the stakes are higher, of course.  ;-)  the
barrier to entry for modifying applications written in a
scripting language are lower still, and i'm more likely to do so,
or, at least, to examine the code to see why something works the
way it does.

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at laptop.org