Squeak

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” ([1])

• 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.

• Scratch is a programming language for children animations, games, and interactive art. Developped at MIT's LifeLong Kindergarten group.

• 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

• squeak.org

• http://squeakland.org/

• Squeak Swiki

• Etoys (OLPC wiki)

• Etoys - Wikipedia

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 20:01, 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).

• Kay, Alan. (2005). Squeak Etoys Authoring & Media, VPRI Research Note RN-2005-002, Viewpoints Research Institute. (PDF)

• Kay, Alan. (2005). Squeak Etoys, Children & Learning, VPRI Research Note RN-2005-001, also from here (PDF)