
Alan Kay (1972). A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages - robg
http://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/Kay72a.pdf
======
cesare
The exact opposite of the iPad. Or, better, how the iPad could have been if
the computer revolution would've gone right.

~~~
glhaynes
"right" because it was Kay's "original intent"?

It doesn't seem that, in practice, users want to modify their computer systems
in that way, despite that that's what early programmers imagined (note that
such manipulation of systems had been something their personalities had
obviously been drawn to--as is mine and those of most of the people on HN,
probably--and also that it was necessary in those days to get interesting
results).

~~~
cesare
"right" in the same sense that it's a good idea to teach math at school even
if only a very limited few will become mathematicians.

~~~
glhaynes
We can teach every child to program computers in school, but we don't teach
every child most other engineering fields in school. So why would we teach
software development?

Besides, the only way you're going to get anybody but the tinkerers to be
interested in modifying the parameters of the thrust calculation in their
Spacewar game (I recall how in school we modified the trajectory of the
bananas in QBASIC Nibbles) is to not give them anything else interesting on
the device that already easily does something interesting and fun... I also
recall that there wasn't much else to do on the 386s in my school other than
Minesweeper or setting up new groups in Program Manager. Now we've got
billions of web pages and thousands of free apps.

Necessity is the mother of invention -- except for when it comes to tinkerers.
And I'm super thankful for tinkerers: they push us forward in software just as
they do in other fields. But in a world where devices already do way more than
their users can imagine (most people very much do NOT have good ideas for how
software could be better or do something new) and offer a ton of other easily
accessible options for activity, the vast majority of people just aren't a bit
interested in tinkering.

------
danblick
The video of Alan Kay at <http://www.archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987> is one
of my all-time favorites.

