[sugar] patch - build abiword with sugar-jhbuild

[Alan Kay]

Hi Robert --

At 07:41 AM 8/16/2006, Robert Staudinger wrote:
>On 8/9/06, Alan Kay <alan.kay at squeakland.org> wrote:
>>Don't we really want the children to collaborate at higher levels than
>>individual apps? And to integrate media at a higher level than word
>>processors, chat UIs, etc.?
>
>Alan, quite frankly, your messages are slightly confusing me every now
>and then. We want to create a "word processing activity" (in whatever
>incarnation) that fits the requirements as good as possible (and time
>permitting).
>If you have ideas how to improve collaboration we'd certainly be most
>interested and also willing to prototype stuff. If the word processing
>is just a part in that higher level system we'd like to have it fit
>that bill.
>Has any work been done yet towards higher level integration? Is there
>any writeup, API or code to look at?

There are several issues here. The first is the integration of media. A 
good old model that would be great for children is Hypercard (and to a 
lesser extent Logo Microworlds). Hypercard was a mini authoring system for 
many kinds of media, including text, pictures, presentations, scripted 
applications, etc. A few additions would allow it to also do email, screen 
sharing, web pages and wikis, etc. Examples of this in a more modern form 
are the Squeak Etoys, which was heavily inspired by the directions 
Hypercard was pointing. Several white papers on the educational approach 
and the media approach are:
  http://www.squeakland.org/pdf/etoys_n_learning.pdf , 
http://www.squeakland.org/pdf/etoys_n_authoring.pdf .

For many reasons, I think the "integration of media objects in a unified 
media approach with scripting" is a better way to go, not just for 
children, but for most users. The current alternative is the extreme 
stovepiping of separate applications without perfect copying between them: 
this leads to a weaker media approach in general and makes things more 
difficult than they need to be.

The Squeak Etoys will be included with the $100 laptop, but I have urged 
(on this list, in OLPC meetings, to the Ruby folks, and in a keynote at 
EuroPython) for something like the Etoys to be done in a more recognizable 
open source vernacular (such as Linux + Python). I'm still hoping this will 
be done, as it would ensure the strongest integration between media for the 
children and the adults who are trying to help them.

The second issue is that of sharing. Again, Squeak Etoys has a number of 
methods for deep multiuser collaboration, not just chat but multiple cursor 
simultaneous access to shared worlds in both 2D and 3D. I used the 2D 
version to give my presentation from Los Angeles to EuroPython at CERN. 
Again, I want to urge OLPC to try to deal with the larger issues involved 
here, and one of these really requires collaborative sharing of any and all 
experiences, not just something specialized to a particular application. 
And, again, though this can be done now in Squeak Etoys, I urge OLPC to use 
the underlying technological solutions to make a recognizable vernacular 
version.

Cheers,

Alan



>Thanks,
>Rob
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