[IAEP] [Sugar-devel] Journal criticism

[Jonas Smedegaard]

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On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 06:18:35AM -0400, Albert Cahalan wrote:
>On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 5:49 AM, Jonas Smedegaard <dr at jones.dk> wrote:
>> On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 04:58:17AM -0400, Albert Cahalan wrote:
>>>Tomeu Vizoso writes:
>
>>>> I think it's very important if we want to keep pushing Sugar that 
>>>> we distinguish between design decisions and bugs and unimplemented 
>>>> features. If we bring down good design ideas not by themselves but 
>>>> because of its implementation status, we risk ending up with 
>>>> nothing that brings new value compared to existing desktops.
>>>
>>>You say that like it would be a bad thing. The existing desktops are 
>>>at least time-tested. Learning to deal with the common features of 
>>>modern desktop systems is very valuable for children.
>>
>> I flat out disagree that Sugar should be a learning experience 
>> towards using alternative user interfaces.
>>
>> In that mindset we should mimic Word, Excel and the Windows desktop, 
>> not for the quality of their interface designs, but simply because 
>> they are expremely popular so getting acquainted to them is "very 
>> valuable for children".
>
>To the extent that there are common features that are highly
>unlikely to change across versions or even OSes, definitely.
>
>MacOS System 6, MacOS X, OS/2 Warp, and Windows Vista
>have certain basic features in common. It's a safe bet to say that
>most of these features will remain in the computers of 2017.

Actually, I am not so sure about that: I suspect user interfaces (as 
well as many other features of our society) do not evolve linear, but 
more and more rapidly transform.

So I am willing to challenge you in that bet. :-D

I suggest, for simplicity sake in our later judgement, that we limit the 
bet to "do all popular computer desktop environments still use (and 
directly expose to the edn user) a hierarchical file system in 2017, as 
they did in 2009?"

And I propose a symbolic item from looser to winner, with a fun 
punishment twist added: One bottle of bewerage of the winner's choosing, 
delivered personally at the winner's door step.

How does that sound?


Kind regards,

  - Jonas

- -- 
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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