Squeak

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Definition

  • Squeak is highly portable open-source Smalltalk with powerful multimedia facilities. Squeak is used for a wide variety of computing tasks, ranging from child education to innovative research in computer science, or creation of advanced dynamic web sites.
  • In education, Squeak often just refers to Squeak Etoys, an easy visual programming / execution envionment built on top of Squeak that is a very popular tool for building microworlds (designers, teachers and children as authors).
  • Squeak Etoys was inspired by LOGO, PARC-Smalltalk, Hypercard, and starLOGO. It is a media-rich authoring envi-ronment with a simple powerful scripted object model for many kinds of objects created by end-users that runs on many platform, and is free and open source. It includes 2D and 3D graphics, images, text, particles, pres-entations, web-pages, videos, sound and MIDI, etc. It includes the ability to share desktops with other Etoy users in real-time, so many forms of immersive mentoring and play can be done over the Internet” (Etoys and learning)
  • The best known member of the squeak community is probably Alan Kay, inventor of the Dynabook and who is also known by: The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Note: Maybe we should separate Etoys from Squeak and make two articles. Etoys has gained recent interest again, because it ships with the OLPC (the 100$ PC).

Squeak in education

  • Squeakland is the home for Etoy, an easy graphical programming environment built on top of Squeak. This site has downloads, information for teachers and children, papers, etc.
  • ComiKit is a Swedish product for making games and interactive pictures.
  • The Swiki server is a very popular Wiki System (despite the fact that development seems to be frozen). E.g. TECFA runs 2 Swiki servers that are used in the school system.
  • Squeak is also a important foundation of [Croquet], an open source software platform for creating deeply collaborative multi-user online applications

Links

References

  • Allen-Conn, BJ and Kim Rose (2003), Powerful Ideas in the Classroom, Using Squeak to Enhance Math and Science Learning, Viewpoints Research Institute. ISBN 0974313106
  • Ingalls, Dan; Ted Kaehler, John Maloney, Scott Wallace and Alan Kay (1997). Back to the Future. The Story of Squeak, A Practical Smalltalk Written in Itself. OOPSLA 97 Proceedings.318-326. ACM Press, New York, HTML, retrieved 20:02, 14 November 2007 (MET).
  • Kay, Alan (2002). The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet - Grand Challenge: Make It Happen In The Best Possible Way 3. CRA Conference on "Grand Research Challenges" in Computer Science and Engineering, June 23-26, 2002, Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia PDF (3 pages).