[OLPC.ch] The New Etoys are Out:Fwd: {squeakland} Fall 2009

[Markus Gälli]

Hi

some news of one of the nicest XO Applications...

Cheers

Markus

Anfang der weitergeleiteten E-Mail:

> Von: squeakland website <noreply at squeakland.org>
> Datum: 24. Oktober 2009 20:09:10 MESZ
> An: Markus Gaelli <gaelli at emergent.de>
> Betreff: {squeakland} Fall 2009
>
>
> 	
> Fall 2009
>
> Etoys 4 and the new Showcase
> Great Hope for the Future
> Squeak Etoys 4 Release Notes
> Etoys 4 and the new Showcase
>
> by Timothy Falconer
>
> Squeakland is proud to announce the release of Etoys 4, which you  
> can now download from our website. Special thanks to the Squeakland  
> software team, particularly Bert Freudenberg, Yoshiki Ohshima, and  
> Scott Wallace for their tremendous efforts in the last month. Your  
> hard work really shows!
>
> Below you'll find some thoughts by Scott Wallace, along with the  
> Etoys 4 release notes which detail the changes you'll find. Of  
> special interest is the new Squeakland Showcase. Everyone can now  
> share their projects directly from Etoys to our website, where the  
> Etoys community can then benefit from the many surprising and useful  
> Etoys examples that are available. Please explore the showcase and  
> share your projects with us. We want to hear from you!
>
> Also, if you haven't signed our Squeakers list, consider adding your  
> name. As I write this, more than 175 people from 35 countries have  
> signed, which really shows the enthusiasm and reach of Etoys  
> throughout the world.
>
> Great Hope for the Future
>
> by Scott Wallace
>
> The Etoys 4 release completes the hand-over of Squeak Etoys from  
> Viewpoints Research to the newly formed Squeakland Foundation.   
> Under the leadership of Timothy Falconer and Rita Freudenberg,  
> Squeakland Foundation has now assumed full responsibility for  
> everything Etoys, including the Squeakland website, the mailing  
> lists, the bug-tracking system, Squeakfests, documentation,  
> community development, and now the Etoys software itself.
>
> Throughout the 2009 transition, Viewpointers were involved on an  
> almost daily basis with the software team.  Etoys 4 marks the end of  
> that formal involvement.  Many of us will continue as ordinary,  
> contributing members of the Squeak Etoys community on a volunteer  
> basis, but the system and the vision and the future of Etoys are now  
> entirely in the hands of Squeakland Foundation, and thus, more than  
> ever, in the hands of the broader community itself.
>
> For those of us who have been involved with Etoys for many years, it  
> is a poignant moment.  Since the beginning, a small core group of us  
> at Viewpoints Research have always had ultimate responsibility for  
> Squeak Etoys -- the code, the decisions, the releases.  Passing  
> those powers and responsibilities on will not be entirely painless  
> for us, but it's a goal of Viewpoints to spin out research  
> prototypes beyond our lab. It's also the right thing to do, given  
> the recent increase in Etoys usage due to OLPC.
>
> Several things give me great hope that the future of Etoys is  
> bright.  Foremost is the promise of the new website, particularly  
> the Showcase, with its "featured" projects vetted by the education  
> team and with the ability for children and adults to save and share  
> their projects on the site.  The content and evolution of the  
> Showcase will comprise a centerpiece and gathering place for our  
> community. We will all benefit and learn from the sharing of  
> interesting projects.  Secondly, people in the community have  
> started posting code fixes and enhancements to our software tracker,  
> and the new etoys-dev mailing list has been active.  And lastly,  
> witnessing the commitment and strength of people in the community,  
> beginning with Tim and Rita, and continuing through our strong teams  
> of educators, business people, and software writers, and ultimately  
> with the passion of our hardy, worldwide community of users. All of  
> these things give me confidence and optimism that Etoys will  
> continue to thrive and inspire for many years to come.
>
> Squeak Etoys 4 Release Notes
>
> Etoys 4 has three major new changes and many smaller improvements.  
> Representing a year's worth of work, Etoys 4 is the last release to  
> include the direct participation Viewpoints Research, as their focus  
> has always been to create prototypes and spin them out into new  
> organizations. Viewpoints will now pass the reigns over to the newly  
> formed Squeakland Foundation, whose mission is to "build community  
> and encourage deep learning worldwide by promoting, supporting, and  
> improving Squeak Etoys and related educational media."
>
> Please join us!
>
> Showcase
>
> The biggest change to Etoys and the Squeakland website is our new  
> project showcase. You may now share projects directly from Etoys to  
> the Squeakland website. Simply click the Save button, give project  
> details, and choose "My Squeakland" as the save location. To get a  
> showcase account, visithttp://squeakland.org/action/signup.
>
> You can then access your project from the Squeakland website or  
> directly within Etoys itself, using the Load button. This allows you  
> to use the website as a central place to store your Etoys projects,  
> whether you wish to make them public or not. When you first upload a  
> project, it's marked private, which means only you or your friends  
> may see it. (Friends functionality will be added later this year.)  
> You can then choose to make your project public by clicking "make  
> public" on the project page. After being reviewed by other users for  
> inappropriate content, your project will then become visible to  
> everyone. Please help us show off the best Etoys projects!
>
> Etoys-To-Go
>
> The next big change is called "Etoys-To-Go", which is a new way to  
> install and use Etoys. Simply choose Etoys-To-Go from the download  
> page instead of Windows, Mac, or Linux. You'll then have a portable  
> Etoys that works on any computer that can be easily copied from  
> machine to machine, without the added installation step. Even  
> better, you can run Etoys-To-go directly from a USB flash drive,  
> which means you can use Etoys on any computer without getting  
> permission from system administrators. Your project files are saved  
> back to the USB stick, so you can quickly save and run on your way  
> to school. Unfortunately, Etoys-To-Go does not include our browser  
> plugin, so if you want to browse projects on the web, you'll still  
> need to download and install the usual Windows, Mac, or Linux  
> version. Project files can be easily exchanged between the Etoys-To- 
> Go, Mac, Windows, and Linux versions.
>
> License Clean
>
> Etoys 4 is now "license clean", which means it conforms to the  
> requirements of free and open source systems, such as the various  
> Linux distributions. In 1996, Apple released Squeak under their own  
> license. In 2006, Apple relicensed the Squeak core under the Apache  
> 2.0 license, thanks to Steve Jobs, Alan Kay, and the lawyers  
> involved. Soon after, Viewpoints Research collected written  
> relicensing agreements from several hundred contributors under the  
> MIT license, thanks to Kim Rose and the Squeak community volunteers.  
> Finally, all code in Etoys not explicitly covered by a relicensing  
> agreement was removed, rewritten, or reverted to an earlier version,  
> thanks primarily to the efforts of Yoshiki Ohshima. The result of  
> this hard work is that Squeak Etoys is now completely free and open  
> source, which means it can be used and modified by anyone in the  
> world for whatever purpose they imagine.
>
> Improvements
>
> The project-info box fields were updated to match the new Squeakland  
> showcase.
> The load box lets you browse not only local files, but projects in  
> the Squeakland showcase as well.
> The local document directory is automatically pre-selected when  
> saving a project.
> Projects are now created at a 1200x900 pixel resolution by default,  
> and scaled to the actual Etoys window size. This ensures easier  
> sharing of projects between computers of different screen resolution.
> The former display-mode button in the toolbar now toggles full- 
> screen mode. To access the scaling options menu, hold down the button.
> On the right of the toolbar, there is a new button that governs  
> toolbar visibility.
> To minimize the chance of obscuring essential content when opening  
> older projects, the toolbar will now appear in its collapsed form,  
> at the top-right corner of the screen.
> New icons were chosen for Quit, Load, and Save buttons. Under Sugar,  
> the Stop, Import, and Keep icons are used instead.
> The "undo" button was removed to make room in the toolbar, as it did  
> not work reliably anyway.
> We renamed the startup screen to "Home".
> The home screen is now always accessible via project navigation  
> buttons.
> We now show the full set of choices in the authoring-tools menu to  
> all users whether eToyFriendly is turned on or not.
> A book's navigation bar is now protected from being ripped out  
> accidentally.
> Objects can now be copied into and out of Etoys using the system  
> clipboard. When the halo is visible, press Ctrl-C to copy (Cmd-C on  
> Mac).
> The world now receives all keystrokes for better scripting of  
> keyboard-controlled projects.
> The less widely-used items of the "geometry" category have been  
> moved out to a new category called "more geometry".
> Opening a new category pane now closes other categories if there  
> isn't enough vertical space on the screen.
> The "bearing to" and "distance to" tiles now respect an object's  
> reference position (center of rotation).
> The grab-patch tool can now be dragged in any direction, not just  
> top-left to bottom-right.
> Lasso and grab-patch tools were moved back to Supplies flap.
> Wording improvements were made in several menus and help balloons.
> On Linux, sound compatibility has been improved.
> The separate .gif file is no longer generated.
> Saving a project now includes a "thumbnail.png" inside the project.  
> You can use a zip tool to extract the thumbnail if needed.
> The Mac Finder now shows a thumbnail for new project files.
> Translations and Quick Quides now work in the web browser plugin.
> Etoys now ships the ScratchPlugin (although we only use the "open  
> URL in web browser" primitive so far). Thanks to Mitchel Resnick and  
> John Maloney and the other Lifelong Kindergardeners.
>
> Known Bugs
>
> Uploading a project from Etoys to Squeakland does not work if you  
> are behind a proxy. Please use a web browser to upload projects in  
> this case.
> On Snow Leopard, the web browser plugin works unreliable in Safari.  
> We recommend using Firefox until we fix this problem.
> If you encounter issues in the plugin, try clicking the full-screen  
> button in the toolbar. This can fix animation sluggishness,  
> repainting problems, and wrong key/button mappings.
>
>
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