Kirk, I like your ideas about what is a "developer" :-)
Thanks, Dave On Sat, May 07, 2016 at 12:11:19PM -0700, Kirk Fraser wrote: > Dave, > > You can dismiss it as my own personal mid-life crisis if you like. But as > you have offered your suggestions for reprogramming my personal point of > view, let me offer some for yours. > > > What about the 99.99% of people on the > planet who are not application developers? > > I see all people as application developers in the wetware of their own > minds and hearts. They all need but not all want help to program > themselves to perfection which can unlock miracles that Jesus Christ's > gospel speaks of. > > Although I consider myself world class in Bible analysis, I find nobody > cares. So as my time on the planet is limited, I'm using Squeak to build an > Artificial Intelligence to encapsulate my level of understanding so > children in the future can learn to meet and exceed my skills, which may > help end world hunger, poverty, illiteracy,, crime, terrorism, and war. > > I think part of that vision is what motivated Alan Kay to pour himself into > trying to make the world's kids become programmers through EToys and others > similarly with Scratch. > > > To me that is what makes Squeak special. It is a tool for thinking and > learning, and it is accessible at people with all sorts of interests and > ideas. It is not just for programmers and application developers. > > Often I must fight my imperfect dreams and pray for the perfect. In this > case I suggest analyzing your statement until you understand the oxymoron. > I can write a one word text file that is accessible to all sorts of people > but so what? What matters is what Squeak can do for me and others who > download it. With the 2-3 button mouse preference error Squeak is no > better than a screen saver image to the majority even if Squeak is > otherwise so good it should have been the first computer language instead > of Fortran and thousands of other languages should never have been > invented. In the 5 computer stores I frequent, I can't recall seeing a > laptop with a 3 button mouse. You are asking me and 99.99% of the world to > think so highly of Squeak even in its dysfunctional state that they worship > it like the people did in the story of the emperor with no clothes. > > > It's just that to me, it would be really discouraging if Squeak got > turned into a "development tool", and disappointing if people did not see > its role as something > more than just another programming language. > > If it is not a superior development tool then it is just another > programming language but only when it works. The lack of development in > Smalltalk is why it is dying like human languages such as Esperanto or > Latin. See > http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyIsSmalltalkDead > If Squeak gets used in more viral applications then people will get more > interested in learning it. > > Kirk Fraser > > > > > > > > On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 10:38 AM, David T. Lewis <le...@mail.msen.com> wrote: > > > On Fri, May 06, 2016 at 12:02:52PM -0700, Kirk Fraser wrote: > > > Byte magazine which published the balloon concept for Smalltalk rising > > > above the ivory tower of a lighthouse guiding the way in a sea of > > computer > > > languages is out of business. I think it is time for the Squeak balloon > > to > > > be grounded to connect with the reality of why computer languages exist - > > > to make things easy for application developers. > > > > I hope that you do not truly believe this, that Squeak should exist for the > > benefit of application developers. What about the 99.99% of people on the > > planet who are not application developers? > > > > After all, it's not as if the application developers of the world aren't > > already focusing enough attention on their own self-centered interests, > > and it's not as though the world really needs yet another software > > productivity tool. > > > > To me that is what makes Squeak special. It is a tool for thinking and > > learning, and it is accessible at people with all sorts of interests > > and ideas. It is not just for programmers and application developers. > > > > I certainly do not want to discourage anyone from writing useful > > applications in Squeak, that would be great. It's just that to me, it > > would be really discouraging if Squeak got turned into a "development > > tool", and disappointing if people did not see its role as something > > more than just another programming language. > > > > Just my personal POV. > > > > Dave > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Beginners mailing list > > Beginners@lists.squeakfoundation.org > > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners > > > _______________________________________________ > Beginners mailing list > Beginners@lists.squeakfoundation.org > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners _______________________________________________ Beginners mailing list Beginners@lists.squeakfoundation.org http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners