Promoting Squeak in Academia

I am an undergraduate student working in a mostly graduate lab
at Arizona State University. We are developing an interactive
multimedia environment with the goal of teaching young students
through active engagement (currently dance), and assessing how
well they are able to learn as it relates to the video and audio
feedback we provide.

In this regard, I believe our project has uncanny overlap with
the goals of squeak. Even our name (SMALLab) is similar. Our
quite out-of-date project page is on the web:
http://ame2.asu.edu/projects/ameed/
Our more up-to-date private wiki is at:
http://ame4.hc.asu.edu/edu/index.php/Main_Page

I think I should promote research and development in squeak. A
short discussion on #squeak with wBryce revealed that even our
CPU-intensive computer vision and motion quality analysis
sub-projects should run fast enough on squeak.  The various
sub-projects use a combination of Java, C++, MATLAB, and
Max/MSP+Jitter. I think (I do not know) that we use MIDI and
Ethernet broadcasting for communication between all the
computers and the devices.

How much of this is possible to do in squeak? Also, how might I
promote squeak to a very diverse set of students? There are
electrical engineering students (we use MATLAB and C++),
computer science students (they use C++ and Java), music
students, and visual arts students (using Max/MSP with Jitter)
developing the code that runs in SMALLab.

Also, I may look deeper into the viability of squeak in our
project when I enter graduate school in spring 2008.

Please note that I do NOT represent SMALLab; this is 100%
unofficial.

--
Matthew Fulmer

Le Sep 16, 2006, à 3:26 PM, Matthew Fulmer a écrit :
<snip>

>
> How much of this is possible to do in squeak? Also, how might I
> promote squeak to a very diverse set of students? There are
> electrical engineering students (we use MATLAB and C++),
> computer science students (they use C++ and Java), music
> students, and visual arts students (using Max/MSP with Jitter)
> developing the code that runs in SMALLab.
>
I'm neither an expert in marketing, nor in promotion, but I would say
that the best thing you could do to interest others in Smalltalk is to
pick a problem that they are having in their existing languages. Then
try to solve it elegantly in Smalltalk. If you then show them your
solution, and its a better solution (easier, faster, less code,
whatever) you should at least get their attention.

Eric

Matthew,

You should probably explore the Croquet environment. They can import
motion capture files for avatar control which might be relevant for
your project.
http://www.croquetproject.org
Join their discussion lists and also check out what other universities
are doing with it in the US, Japan, Europe, South America, etc. Many
white papers can be found presented at the C5 conference.
http://www.db.soc.i.kyoto-u.ac.jp/c5-06/

You'll find the Squeakland discussion list has more discussions on
academic and child education and how Squeak can help.
http://Squeakland.org

Cheers,
Darius

Another big win for smalltalk is the environment.  Show those C++ guys
errors like when you forget a double quote.  It isn't going to make an error
actually show up 300 lines below, it shows up exactly in that method
(because you do one method at a time).

Show them the fact that the code is compiled when it is entered.  You don't
have to press 7 buttons to find out if your code is even right, just one (I
know modern compile environments improve on this some, but no one has it as
good as a smalltalker).

Show them that you have the ability to change method of a running system and
the changes take place instantly.  Show them built in version control and
change sets.  Show them what happens when an exception gets thrown (i.e. you
see the problem in the debugger, restart it in the debugger and resume, in
the debugger and it goes on as if it had worked the first time).

I don't know if all that (and more) will sell them, but it sold me.

On Sun, Sep 17, 2006 at 06:46:17PM +0000, J J wrote:
> Another big win for smalltalk is the environment.  Show those C++ guys
> errors like when you forget a double quote.  It isn't going to make an
> error actually show up 300 lines below, it shows up exactly in that method
> (because you do one method at a time).
>
> ...
>
> I don't know if all that (and more) will sell them, but it sold me.

I think you are right about the programmers, but I think it is
far more interesting what the art students will think of
smalltalk. Unfortunately, I think that Max/MSP is still a
higher-level programming environment than is smalltalk, and it
would probably be a big sell to get them to "downgrade" to
smalltalk.

I am a programmer, but I have never really seen anyone be as
productive as the visual art students who have never used a
traditional programming language, but learned "programming" in
Max/MSP. They have created some impressive games with collision
detection and good physics without writing a line of source
code. I even had one of them ask me, "What is an index?". I
think it goes to show that programming does not need to be
nearly as low-leveled as "programmers" make it out to be. Squeak
has embraced this concept, but I think we can still do a lot
better.

So, I think that Squeak should expand it's focus beyond
traditional programmers, and look at the revolutions computers
are causing in other areas, such as art and engineering. Squeak
definitely has the potential to revolutionize computer
interaction, and we can learn a lot from those who have not been
exposed to traditional programming.

Note: I am new to smalltalk, so some things I said will be wrong.

--
Matthew Fulmer

I implemented a testing environment that was used to test a fairly large
telecoms management software application written in C++ and Perl.

My favourite was running a scalability test on a largeish system and
refactoring the code or even writing code to satisfy new requirements
while it is running.

Snapshotting showed that the scalability test environment can continue
from exactly where it left off.

Keith


               
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