> I guess you could have a look at Smalltalk, which was originally 
> designed for just this purpose.  Its most readily accessible form is 
> Squeak, and in particular at: http://squeakland.org/ which is 
> dedicated to teaching children through computers.  Smalltalk was 
> designed by Alan Kay, and developed in the Xerox labs. Squeak is a 
> free implementation which includes an extensive set of capabilities 
> including multimedia.
> To quote from the Squeakland:
> "
>
> Squeak is a "media authoring <http://squeakland.org/author/index.html> 
> tool"-- software that you can download to your computer and then use 
> to create your own media or share and play with others. It is free and 
> downloadable here <http://squeakland.org/detect.html>. If you'd like 
> to get a feel for what Squeak looks like without downloading, view a 
> typical early project for kids in HTML 
> <http://squeakland.org/school/drive_a_car/html/Drivecar12.html> (no 
> download needed). Once you download Squeak you can use the Squeak 
> Tutorials <http://squeakland.org/author/etoys.html> and download the 
> handy Etoys Quickstart Guide 
> <http://squeakland.org/author/startguide.html>.Further information can 
> be found in the Squeak FAQ <http://squeakland.org/whatis/squeakfaq.html>.
>
>
I just had a look at Squak,
because I'm always on the hunt for environements that can be handled by 
non-technician (including children).
Is  Squak really simple ??
NO.
Yes, maybe for people who can think analytical and in hierarchiecal 
structures.
But most of the non-technician cann't, and children still have to learn 
that.
For children, it's just trial and error, and although they will have fun
(having control over something (or someone) seems to be fun always),
I doubt if the learn anything from it.

The only really simple thing I found in years was RIS (Robot Invention 
System) from Lego.
This is a real event-driven program environement, that can be handeld by 
kids from the age of 8 or so.

I've seen a few other programs, cann't remember their names, but 
something like "MindMapper" ?
that allow non-technical people to organize information and generate 
docs from it.

So if anyone really knows a simple programming environement,
I would love to hear it.

Stef Mientki



>
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