[Etoys] Attempt to interactive geometry in SqueakLand-OLPC

[Hilaire Fernandes]

Yoshiki Ohshima a écrit :
>   Hilaire,
> 
>>> more how to get started with it?
>> Great!
>>
>> Basically, you can create POINT, LINES, TRANSFORMED objects, NUMERIC 
>> OBJECT. All these geometric objects are all interconnected in a 
>> constraint system. To move these objects you have to click on the blue 
>> ball icon in the top of the interactive drawing.
> 
>   These steps are after I instanciated DrGWindow from 'new morph'
> menu, right?  I tried these flaps but they don't work...  I just
> figured out that I should evaluate "DrGApp new" (that was my
> question^^;).

Ah ok, yeah I wrote in the first email how to instantiate an interactive 
drawing.

> 
>   This is a serious and impressive work.  However, for OLPC, I feel

Please tell me if the OLPC is responsive enough with a complex 
interactive drawing. I am curious.

> that many Pythonists are contemplating similar systems.  (We have yet

contemplating = admiring?

Once upon a time I use Python and I also wrote articles about Python 
programming in LinuxFocus online magazine[1] and I can quite objectively 
write that  Squeak and Python are not playing in the same conceptual 
plane when it is about education oriented application development.

Oh, I don't want to dismiss Python. No, it is about how it looks like to 
me Squeak has not yet started to expose its full capabilities concerning 
educational oriented application. When writing DrGeoII, I was amazed how 
easily I can design it so it can be linked to other Etoys/Morph based 
component, and it is really there we have the full power.

As in Sciences, the things are not compartmented. There are conceptual 
bridges between mathematics and physics, geometry and optics, geometry 
and physics, etc. Everything is conceptually connected.
Concerning education and computer use, and in particularly microworld 
system, it is very important to have such system interconnected. It 
helps to make kids to think in system where things are connected like 
objects in the real world. And moreover it gives to teachers and kids 
the opportunity to build easily interconnected simulation systems.
In education we suffer to much about compartmented teaching, probably 
because teachers do not communicate enough among them.

Such microworld system could be about many of the sciences fields: 
optics, physics, mechanic, electricity, chemistry, geometry (DrGeoII is 
such a system). EToys itself is a general microworld system.
In this vision the glue/link component between these microworld is the 
EToys scripting system itself.

So yes! This is where Squeak has not been yet (providing a huge range of 
interconnectable microwrold systems), although the vehicle is just 
there, waiting to be driven.

Best regards,

Hilaire Fernandes


> to see what they'll offer).  There would be some politics get involved
> if we push DrGeoII... Hmm.
> 
> -- Yoshiki

[1]
http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/July2000/article160.shtml
http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/January2002/article224.shtml
http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/November2002/article266.shtml