Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
 
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Hi
there,
I been thinking about the value of
blogs talking daily Squeak use. Squeak users/developers probably use the
squeak's environment in different ways according to what they do/develop.
And because Smalltalk was designed with the extremely valuable feature of making
possible to be all inteligible for one individual, that sometimes could be a
lonely task. That hasn't to be bad until the developer starts to loose valuable
experiences because of that. For instance, if you are in pair programming, one
developer could learn about a new way to find a method faster or a different
class browser or a different subtle and clever way to use the browser, and so
on...
That subtlelties that are easily
transmitted person to person so meetings, BOf's and educational
experiences are great to patch that, but what if your profile just don't
have access to that at certain moment to any of those?
I think, (and I may be right or
not in this) that there are lots of people that fits in this profile at least
for some time and there is a gap on support to those people. The result of that
gap is clear, or the person surpass it by itself or not.
If is interesting to us
that more persons can surpass that gap and find the completeness
of the squeak experience I think that fact makes interesting to us to have
vehicles (blogs are the more feasible I think) with articles that friendly
introduces stories of developments that in fact are merely excuses to
comunicate tips that should be fulfilling the gap. Even when they may seem
to be silly for more experienced developers.
I barely imagine a newbie's
frustration to understand the complete cycle experience of developing with
squeak because it happends to me the silly thing that I dicovered yesterday
the preferences browser after
some years of using squeak. Yes I know, I wasn't reading the menu and exploring
that option by myself, but maybe that shouldn't be the only access to that
information and access to information is what I'm talking
about.
Maybe universities and schools that
uses Squeak are aware and have taken measures about this, but I wanted to put
this here "just in case" and because I think that is valuable for squeak and the
whole smalltalk comunity that we have more bolgs that concentrates the veteran
squeakers virtual-environmental experiences that acts as welcome and friendly
"doors" to the knowledge and people can have an emotionally smoother experiences
surpassing the squeak/smalltalk experience gaps and knowledge
barriers.
cheers,
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Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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sure
we should change the menu items and reevaluate our environment. :) Stef On 15 mai 07, at 17:30, Sebastian Sastre wrote: > Hi there, > > I been thinking about the value of blogs talking daily Squeak > use. Squeak users/developers probably use the squeak's environment > in different ways according to what they do/develop. And because > Smalltalk was designed with the extremely valuable feature of > making possible to be all inteligible for one individual, that > sometimes could be a lonely task. That hasn't to be bad until the > developer starts to loose valuable experiences because of that. For > instance, if you are in pair programming, one developer could learn > about a new way to find a method faster or a different class > browser or a different subtle and clever way to use the browser, > and so on... > > That subtlelties that are easily transmitted person to person > so meetings, BOf's and educational experiences are great to patch > that, but what if your profile just don't have access to that at > certain moment to any of those? > > I think, (and I may be right or not in this) that there are > lots of people that fits in this profile at least for some time and > there is a gap on support to those people. The result of that gap > is clear, or the person surpass it by itself or not. > > If is interesting to us that more persons can surpass that gap > and find the completeness of the squeak experience I think that > fact makes interesting to us to have vehicles (blogs are the more > feasible I think) with articles that friendly introduces stories of > developments that in fact are merely excuses to comunicate tips > that should be fulfilling the gap. Even when they may seem to be > silly for more experienced developers. > > I barely imagine a newbie's frustration to understand the > complete cycle experience of developing with squeak because it > happends to me the silly thing that I dicovered yesterday the > preferences browser after some years of using squeak. Yes I know, I > wasn't reading the menu and exploring that option by myself, but > maybe that shouldn't be the only access to that information and > access to information is what I'm talking about. > > Maybe universities and schools that uses Squeak are aware and > have taken measures about this, but I wanted to put this here "just > in case" and because I think that is valuable for squeak and the > whole smalltalk comunity that we have more bolgs that concentrates > the veteran squeakers virtual-environmental experiences that acts > as welcome and friendly "doors" to the knowledge and people can > have an emotionally smoother experiences surpassing the squeak/ > smalltalk experience gaps and knowledge barriers. > > cheers, > > Sebastian Sastre > > |
RE: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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Stef,
ok you can have that attitude if you want but A) you're not getting my point or B) you want to evade the point with the sarcasm. I think I didn't wrote that with that lack of clarity, did I? Anyway.. suposing that is the case A what is going on here, let me say that I wasn't talking about improvments in tools nor the environment. They are what they are and I'm the first user/promotor of them. I was talking about transmitting how is *the squeak experience of using them* to people. Also what happened to me does not matters at all here. In fact I had great support if that is the case. What matters is that we can try to cover the gap for the new ones. So.. I only wanted to transmit the message that it seems to me that lots of veteran squeakers here has very valuable experiences to write down and publish and we can encourage them to take a few minutes and use texts editors a little more in the benefit of all. As writing books is a very challenging taks, I proposed something much more feasible: blog articles. It even can help to make the public understand the difficulties that developers suffers lots of times alone, prevent useless criticism, etc. That would be friendly, cost modest efforts make people more popular, do more debate gymnastics so promote better Smalltalk, and in fact bright just because what they do or what they have done. Is not about silly autopromotions, it's about sincere share of experiences. The kind of sharing I'm talking about is the share that adults can do preserving the very nature of the share that Mitchel Resink Scratch BBC's news show to us all today. cheers, Sebastian Sastre PS: Stef, also note that when a case B occurs in a situation like this, does not matters why or by whom, it is acting like a knowledge barrier for Smalltalk itself. > -----Mensaje original----- > De: [hidden email] > [mailto:[hidden email]] En > nombre de stephane ducasse > Enviado el: Martes, 15 de Mayo de 2007 17:10 > Para: The general-purpose Squeak developers list > Asunto: Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers > > sure > we should change the menu items and reevaluate our environment. > :) > Stef > On 15 mai 07, at 17:30, Sebastian Sastre wrote: > > > Hi there, > > > > I been thinking about the value of blogs talking daily > Squeak use. > > Squeak users/developers probably use the squeak's environment in > > different ways according to what they do/develop. And because > > Smalltalk was designed with the extremely valuable feature > of making > > possible to be all inteligible for one individual, that sometimes > > could be a lonely task. That hasn't to be bad until the developer > > starts to loose valuable experiences because of that. For > instance, if > > you are in pair programming, one developer could learn > about a new way > > to find a method faster or a different class browser or a different > > subtle and clever way to use the browser, and so on... > > > > That subtlelties that are easily transmitted person to > person so > > meetings, BOf's and educational experiences are great to > patch that, > > but what if your profile just don't have access to that at certain > > moment to any of those? > > > > I think, (and I may be right or not in this) that there > are lots > > of people that fits in this profile at least for some time > and there > > is a gap on support to those people. The result of that gap > is clear, > > or the person surpass it by itself or not. > > > > If is interesting to us that more persons can surpass > that gap and > > find the completeness of the squeak experience I think that > fact makes > > interesting to us to have vehicles (blogs are the more feasible I > > think) with articles that friendly introduces stories of > developments > > that in fact are merely excuses to comunicate tips that should be > > fulfilling the gap. Even when they may seem to be silly for more > > experienced developers. > > > > I barely imagine a newbie's frustration to understand > the complete > > cycle experience of developing with squeak because it > happends to me > > the silly thing that I dicovered yesterday the preferences browser > > after some years of using squeak. Yes I know, I wasn't reading the > > menu and exploring that option by myself, but maybe that > shouldn't be > > the only access to that information and access to > information is what > > I'm talking about. > > > > Maybe universities and schools that uses Squeak are > aware and have > > taken measures about this, but I wanted to put this here "just in > > case" and because I think that is valuable for squeak and the whole > > smalltalk comunity that we have more bolgs that concentrates the > > veteran squeakers virtual-environmental experiences that acts as > > welcome and friendly "doors" to the knowledge and people > can have an > > emotionally smoother experiences surpassing the squeak/ smalltalk > > experience gaps and knowledge barriers. > > > > cheers, > > > > Sebastian Sastre > > > > > > |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Sebastian Sastre-2
Hi Sebastian-- These are great ideas! I have a recording studio, and would be happy to do post-production on podcast audio and video (noise reduction, normalization, equalization, etc.), or even record some if there are particular topics people would like to see. thanks, -C -- Craig Latta improvisational musical informaticist www.netjam.org Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)] |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Sebastian Sastre-2
I understood what you were saying, Sebastian. Basically, you are
suggesting that since documentation is hard to come by (especially in the Squeak world) a good alternative, and all-around compromise, is to have experienced users take up blogging/podcasting and record golden nuggets for others to learn from. While this can not substitute for clear tutorials and good documentation, it's a good compromise considering the amount of work necessary to pen a short blog or record a short podcast. -- brad fuller website: www.bradfuller.com linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bradfuller +1 (408) 799-6124 |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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I also like the idea. As a (now ex) member of the documentation team I
have to admit I could not work up much enthusiasm for something that appears to have attempted several times before. I'm not suggesting the current documentation project is not worthwhile, far from it, but I think Sabastian's idea could be of more immediate value to new Squeakers... getting active participation may prove difficult. |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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I, too, would like to present Squeak in a friendly and constructive
way, using this great multimedia-authoring software with a built-in dynamic language, graphics, software libraries, and even great fonts and a collaborative 3D world. What better than for this system, written in itself, to present and describe itself? All the other mediums serve useful purposes, but "instruction documents" lead newbies into the environment, dangling over the sheer breadth and depth of the knowledge chasm, not knowing even what questions to ask. In-world, high-bandwidth, friendly, constructive material can assist digesting this information more quickly than external documents. A blend of non-interactive (like EventRecorder movies with audio), to "interactive" (providing input, selecting options), to full "assisted-construction" for small projects. Also, this all has to be "plug 'n' play". A lot of people won't do "hard fun" up front, we need to be a path of least resistance, or at least equal. I hope a Naiad web link can serve as a single-click "start button" for easily entering the _friendly_ high-bandwidth world. On 5/15/07, Derek O'Connell <[hidden email]> wrote: > I also like the idea. As a (now ex) member of the documentation team I > have to admit I could not work up much enthusiasm for something that > appears to have attempted several times before. I'm not suggesting the > current documentation project is not worthwhile, far from it, but I > think Sabastian's idea could be of more immediate value to new > Squeakers... getting active participation may prove difficult. > > |
RE: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Brad Fuller-3
Anyone have suggestions for tools to use for recording and editing screen
casts on windows? Ron > From: Brad Fuller > > I understood what you were saying, Sebastian. Basically, you are > suggesting that since documentation is hard to come by (especially in > the Squeak world) a good alternative, and all-around compromise, is to > have experienced users take up blogging/podcasting and record golden > nuggets for others to learn from. While this can not substitute for > clear tutorials and good documentation, it's a good compromise > considering the amount of work necessary to pen a short blog or record a > short podcast. > > -- > brad fuller > website: www.bradfuller.com > linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bradfuller > +1 (408) 799-6124 > |
RE: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Brad Fuller-3
Brad,
yes, it can also be put like that. and Derek has experience on documentation and he already saw that is not enough, and, because of the described gap, I had to agree with him. To illustrate: even for the hypothesis of having today a Squeak with perfect documentation, little simple and friendly articles will be worth because they work in another information access level. So, an initiative like this has not any conflic nor excludence for Squeak documentation. This is to fulfill another gap. A gap that several here has already surpassed having "payed the toll" (in at least the self-education's operative costs in $ and patience) but others are nessesarily going to pay or desist from entering to the Smalltalk market. So maybe, with a sum of modest distributed and heterogenic efforts from veterans and experienced ones giving the example (as a secondary but good intention), we can create a culture to find 'discounts' for their 'toll' making our part in the community grow index's health and showing that the community is prepared to (safely) receive more people. This could be specially interesting now that there is a trend of a grow in dynamic 'languages' interest and so Smalltalk may attract people. The nonSmalltalker market are sowly (more slow that we like or want) starting to be aware of smalltalk like feature's value (see that Rails conf for instance). And for motivated authors, also the articles can be preludes of papers (formalizations) or just the exploration through the discussion and extrapolations of ideas. So more space for useful criticism (so interesting conclusions) may appear for sure because the Smalltalk is the technology that promotes intelect in a very straight way, this is, more informatics and less computer than other technologies. As in any software project, there are other things to do than writing software and they haven't necessarily to be expensive nor extravagant. cheers, Sebastian Sastre > -----Mensaje original----- > De: [hidden email] > [mailto:[hidden email]] En > nombre de Brad Fuller > Enviado el: Martes, 15 de Mayo de 2007 19:03 > Para: The general-purpose Squeak developers list > Asunto: Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers > > I understood what you were saying, Sebastian. Basically, you > are suggesting that since documentation is hard to come by > (especially in the Squeak world) a good alternative, and > all-around compromise, is to have experienced users take up > blogging/podcasting and record golden nuggets for others to > learn from. While this can not substitute for clear tutorials > and good documentation, it's a good compromise considering > the amount of work necessary to pen a short blog or record a > short podcast. > > -- > brad fuller > website: www.bradfuller.com > linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bradfuller > +1 (408) 799-6124 > > |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Ron Teitelbaum
Ron Teitelbaum wrote:
> Anyone have suggestions for tools to use for recording and editing screen > casts on windows? > Not for windows, but for Linux recordMyDesktop works pretty well: http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/index.php |
RE: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Brad Fuller-3
At 7:40 PM -0400 5/15/07, Ron Teitelbaum wrote:
>Anyone have suggestions for tools to use for recording and editing screen >casts on windows? James Robertson at Cincom might be a useful contact. He has been doing this sort of thing for a while related to VW Smalltalk. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Anton 3800 243rd Place SE Phone: 425-313-1024 Issaquah, WA 98029 Cell: 425-444-3084 Concept Systems [hidden email] FAX: 425-313-1024 |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Chris Muller-3
On Wednesday 16 May 2007 5:09 am, Chris Muller wrote:
> I, too, would like to present Squeak in a friendly and constructive > way, using this great multimedia-authoring software with a built-in > dynamic language, graphics, software libraries, and even great fonts > and a collaborative 3D world. What better than for this system, > written in itself, to present and describe itself? You do have a point. I believe blogs are a good way to present the 'aha' experience but are the first ports of call for someone new to Squeak. The difficulty I faced when starting with Squeak was that information for beginners was sparse and all over the place. Many web links went nowhere. Squeak's wiki pages dont have a visible last-update displayed, so it is not clear if the discussion is still relevant (e.g. ImageSegments or Modules). Many of the articles target advanced programmers and leave the kids behind. Squeakland's projects and tutorials, and their stable plugin were a great help in getting to grips with Squeak. But I feel we also need short, quick tutorials in other formats. For instance, take a look at docs for Xara Xtreme (vector graphics editor) - demos[1], how-tos [2] and newsletters [3]. The demos and how-tos are short and to the point. It just took me a couple of hours to grasp what Xara Xtreme is all about. The community contributions in newsletters sustains freshness, builds anticipation and brings in many 'aha' experiences. [1] http://www.xara.com/products/xtreme/demos/default.asp. [2] http://www.xara.com/support/xtreme/hints/) [3] http://www.xaraxone.com/ Regards .. Subbu |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by Ron Teitelbaum
On Wednesday 16 May 2007 5:10 am, Ron Teitelbaum wrote:
> Anyone have suggestions for tools to use for recording and editing screen > casts on windows? VNC2SWF (vnc2swf.sf.net) is simple and quick. Would serve nicely for how-tos. xvidcap does a good job on Linux, Unix and Mac. Regards .. Subbu |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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On 16/05/07, Derek O'Connell <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Ron, check out Wink here: http://www.debugmode.com/ > Wink's a very useful tool; I use it regularly at work for presenting applications for user groups. It will capture screenshots at fixed intervals, or on specified events, and allows you to delete, pause and edit those frames (adding annotations etc). It also captures the mouse pointer as a separate object allowing you to remove the evidence of shaky hands, although I've not tested whether that works with the Squeak pointer. |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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Chipping in another (complementary) idea, something like
http://www.icanprogram.com/ would be great *and* good for promotional purposes. |
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In reply to this post by Derek O'Connell-2
Derek O'Connell wrote:
> Ron, check out Wink here: http://www.debugmode.com/ > > The OLPC image has a enhanced event recorder that is called EventTheatre. I theink its worth a look. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Etoys Karl |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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Just downloaded latest Wink and did a quick test:
http://www.doconnel.force9.co.uk/squeak/wink/ As you can see, it captures the mouse ok but not morphs attached to the hand. This took me 2 mins in total, most of that was resizing the squeak window and actually doing something in squeak. Wink made the rest a brainless exercise, which is lucky because mine is not working too well this morning, lol. BTW I had not actually used Wink before this, just remembered it was considered a good application. Karl, thanks for the info. |
Re: Smoothing Squeak's usability barriers
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In reply to this post by ccrraaiigg
Hi Craig,
Craig Latta wrote: > normalization, equalization, etc.), or even record some if there are > particular topics people would like to see. Some Spoon demos would be great! Movies are such low-barrier-to-entry ways of getting people interested... Tony |
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In reply to this post by Brad Fuller-3
Brad Fuller a écrit :
> Ron Teitelbaum wrote: > >> Anyone have suggestions for tools to use for recording and editing screen >> casts on windows? >> >> > Not for windows, but for Linux recordMyDesktop works pretty well: > http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/index.php and if you want a linux (virtual) in windows....go to www.virtualbox.org :) really cool and opensource... Cédrick ps: this solved my problem of slow snapshoting method...as I now use squeak in the virtual linux...of course It's twisted but it works... |
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