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List:       ruby-talk
Subject:    Re: Ruby on OLPC??
From:       "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb () cesmail ! net>
Date:       2007-11-27 15:02:56
Message-ID: 474C2E34.7070900 () cesmail ! net
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Ryan Davis wrote:
> 
> On Nov 26, 2007, at 18:29 , M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> 
>> *Anything* to avoid Squeak!
> 
> well, I was going to chime in with support / info, but not after that...
> 
> 
> 

I've loaded Squeak three times on my Linux boxes. I've bought both 
commonly-available Squeak books and attempted to work my way through 
them. I just can't get past the UI and how totally different it is from 
everything I've ever touched before. In short, I really *want* to like 
Squeak, but I don't.

Now I'm sure if I locked myself in a room with it for a month, I could 
figure out how to make it do what I wanted to do and would come out 
wishing someone would pay me to use it. But given all the other 
languages out there with UIs/IDEs that *do* work more or less the way I 
do, it just doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

Squeak (and Logo, btw) remind me of that old Tom Lehrer song about the 
"New Math": "It's so simple, so very simple, that only a child can do 
it!". I am 0.5 -- 1.0 generation older than the kids who were trained in 
that "New Math", and as a consequence I spend large parts of my day 
having to explain when one multiplies and when one divides to solve 
simple word problems.

"John's car gets 45 miles to the gallon on the highway and 10 miles to 
the gallon in the city. John drives 15 miles on the highway and one mile 
in the city to get to the office. What is his average gas mileage?"


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