Gary Chambers recently announced the imminent release of an add-on package for Morphic that brings more eye-candy to your Squeak desktop.
This package offers TrueType font support (via the FreeType Plus package), desktop theming and a whole collection of standard widgets.
While waiting with impatience for the release of the package, you can look at the screenshots here and here.
A history of Squeak that is still being written, the following is a Squeak Tale by Göran Krampe.
Let me tell you a story…
I was around… when King Dan ruled the Land of the Mice, his court the “SqC” was strong and the stream was flowing smoothly. It was a glorious and joyous time and I were there to see sir PWS, sir Comanche and princess Swiki being born as children of Socket. The wizard Morphic was still young and agile at that time…
Things were well, but not everyone were happy in the Land of the Mice – the population grew quickly and only the fortunate ones to enter the castle Image could have their fields fully prosper and not wither and die in the harsh outbacks of the Internet. (more…)
Cincom recently reiterated their support for Seaside. Not long ago Gemstone announced something similar. What will these two commercial companies lend to Seaside?
It is certainly true that Seaside will benefit from additional resources. Resources devoted to documentation, compatibility, and testing will help the community. Working on new solutions for persistence is a great idea, and having different options to solve your persistence requirements can only help developers. (more…)
Antonio Moreno just let us know of this Youtube video featuring a demonstration of Squeak use in education. The demo, taken at the Salón de la Educación 2007, shows Randall Caton explaining to teachers, students and politicians how he uses Squeak with his students as part of the Nasa Connect program.
You know what they say, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the laptop for the worlds children business!” Pictured above is the OLPC computer running day and night (look closely and notice the Squeak E-Toys running) at scorching temperatures 52C (125F) during the day time and 22C (72F) at night. Just image running your computer laptop in an oven all day!
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) has published the following press release:
Wilmington, N.C. – While demand for Information Technology (IT) professionals is projected to increase over the next five years, a dwindling number of American students are choosing to specialize in IT fields. Now, a grant-funded partnership between the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the New Hanover, Pender and Brunswick County schools is addressing that issue by infusing IT skills into the curriculum in grades 7-12.
[…]
The three-year-long project will work directly with about 75 educators who teach the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) curricula and 150 of their students in grades 7-12. Teachers and students will learn to use “Squeak” software to create virtual models that simulate actual science and math-related experiments. For example, students could create a computer model to study the transmission of a disease, an activity that could be too dangerous to study in a physical laboratory.
“It may be difficult to study the spread of a virus for real in middle school,” said Gene Tagliarini, associate professor of computer science and grant coordinator. “But you can simulate an epidemic using the Squeak tool, which can create models to study things as abstract as balancing equations or as concrete as building a bridge.”
[…]
You can read the complete press release on the UNCW website.
I know that this is not a ringing endorsement, but a mention is a mention, and I thought it was cool that we made the list. Plus it’s a cool story. Why Spend More Than Five Minutes on a GUI?
Previously we spoke with Michael Rueger and Steve Hunter. From Michael we found out about the perspective of writing and supporting open source software. From Steve we found out what it is like being a consumer of open source software. Today we talk with Bert Freudenberg. From Bert we hope to learn what it is like being a Smalltalk programmer contributing to open source.
The Weekly Squeak 