
GCompris: high quality educational software suite for children aged 2 to 10 - based2
https://gcompris.net/index-en.html
======
ivan_ah
Very nice. Looking at the source code
[http://gcompris.net/download/qt/src/gcompris-
qt-0.95.tar.xz](http://gcompris.net/download/qt/src/gcompris-qt-0.95.tar.xz) I
saw the tech stack is based on QT, so works cross platform. Very nice suite
with each game described by concise format, e.g. addition activity is a 6-line
file:

    
    
      import "../../core"
      import "../algebra_by/"
      Algebra {
          onStart: {
              operand.text = "+"
          }
      }
    

and metadata here gcompris-
qt-0.95/src/activities/algebra_plus/ActivityInfo.qml

    
    
      ActivityInfo {
        name: "algebra_plus/AlgebraPlus.qml"
        difficulty: 3
        icon: "algebra_plus/algebra_plus.svg"
        author: "Bruno Coudoin &lt;bruno.coudoin@gcompris.net&gt;"
        title: qsTr("Addition of numbers")
        ...
    

Interestingly in the case of Algebra, there seems to be some of the logic
running in .js files. I didn't you you can have .js code in QT apps. Very
cool!

We normally assume to make an app truly cross-platform and reusable we have to
use web technology, but this is a good example of a civilized GUI framework
helping achieve something super clear and cross-platform.

~~~
sbuttgereit
Actually, as part of my consultancy, I make a fairly substantial income from
doing development work with the older (and technically deprecated) Qt
scripting framework QtScript ([https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtscript-
index.html](https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtscript-index.html)), which is really just
an ancient version of standard ECMAScript with Qt'isms and hooks added. I do
ERP work and the ERP that I've been working with is Qt based and is extensible
via QtScript. While I'd prefer to be 1) using a different scripting language,
and 2) at least a more modern JavaScript flavor, given the nature of COTS ERP
software I'll probably see a fair amount of work here for quite some time,
albeit niche.

The big problem I have these days is finding people sufficiently knowledgeable
and willing to take overflow as projects exceed my availability. Old, obscure
ECMAScript variants that aren't web focused aren't the draw they once were ;-)
.... kinda feels like a less legit version of COBOL... but pays enough to keep
me engaged with it.

~~~
ec109685
Are there cross compilers that can take more modern JavaScript and transpile
it down to the older version to make it more comfortable for developers?

~~~
sbuttgereit
The answer is: possibly.

I've thought of toying with TypeScript, for example, in this way; some while
ago (years) when I looked, it looked like it may well let me target the
versions of ECMAScript that QtScript uses. I would expect to have to deal with
some misses in that process, but it did look feasible.

I ended up not pursuing this because, while I think it would make a much more
sane development experience, I don't think I'd interest other more mainstream
JavaScript devs (or aspirants) to make sojourns into ERP-land and at the same
time I would likely write code much more difficult to understand for those few
other people that work this niche as well; also, a substantial portion of the
work (upwards of 60%) is in SQL and PL/SQL flavors... again a barrier to many
JS devs. I feel I owe it to my clients to leave the code serviceable by those
others that have experience working in this environment should I decide to
stop doing this work (or they decide not to like me anymore :-) ). On balance,
the cons of a transpiling approach outweigh the pros unless I was able to get
our community to shift "best practice" to more modern standards; the ISV that
produces the ERP is highly conservative, not terribly forward looking, and has
a good case of "Not Invented Here" syndrome, and the other practitioners are
not exactly the highest level developers... so at the end of the day I don't
think I'd get any traction in mitigating the risks of such a change while only
really achieving a little more comfort for myself.

Good news for me is I do other stuff that this ERP developer thing... :-)

------
lazydon
My seven year old absolutely loves GCompris. I would recommend GCompris by far
compared to what we have on the phone apps nowdays for kids.

I personally appreciate the old school non commercial spirit of the makers of
the GCompris. It's one of the many goodies of sticking with Linux as my
primary desktop OS.

~~~
kej
I'm planning to set up an old laptop with Linux for my 7 and 5 year olds, so
I'm curious if you have any other software suggestions in addition to
GCompris?

~~~
icarito
There's plenty! Try `childsplay`, `pysiogame` for collections of didactic
activities. Other fun individual games are `raincat`, `colobot`. Try `rabbit
escape` also. For fun (we let them play as prize) try `X-moto` and
`SuperTuxkart` as well as `Supertux` platformer. We only let our kids play
with libre games, so that we are able to adapt the games and learn how they
are made, even reuse the assets. My kids are the same age 5 and 7.

~~~
icarito
Forgot to mention `pingus` is a lemmings-alike. Good for logic, also comes
with a map editor which my kids like.

------
hk__2
For the context “GCompris” reads as “J’ai compris” in French, meaning “I got
it” / “I understood”.

~~~
perlgeek
... and here I was wondering why a KDE project started with G (which is used
much more often for Gnome projects).

Thanks!

~~~
octachron
GCompris was originaly a GTK(Gnome) project, it migrated to Qt few years ago
to make it easier to port it to tablet.

------
nolroz
I really love the spirt behind gcompris and got to enjoy watching my girls
play with it when they were younger. How would one get started with
contributing to the project in primarily a design/art capacity?

~~~
based2
[https://gcompris.net/wiki/Artwork_guidelines](https://gcompris.net/wiki/Artwork_guidelines)

[https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/gcompris-
devel](https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/gcompris-devel)

[https://gcompris.net/wiki/Developer%27s_corner](https://gcompris.net/wiki/Developer%27s_corner)

------
pbhjpbhj
I got annoyed by the kooky voices used for the English version, heavily
accented and way over the top "way to go!" \-- it selects a "good" response
seemingly at random from a list, so when other apps might go "ding" for minor
encouragement this goes "congratulations!". Also it ascribes to "never say
anything is wrong" which means instead of "wrong" it says "check answer" which
doesn't always fit (eg if you miss getting a ball in a "goal").

I did look at providing new sound files but was suprised to find they weren't
just wav/mp3/whatever in a folder.

I like some of the games; I seem to recall it's highly configurable.

------
seabird
I have a lot of fond memories and appreciation attached to software like this.
I only realized that when I spoke with somebody who made a point that's stuck
with me for years now; when he was young, his dad installed something
comparable to GCompris on the family computer, and although he only has faint
memories of it, he remembered activities of simply clicking balloons to pop
them, and typing simple words. Only when he was a teenager did it truly make
sense to him why his dad installed the software, or why anybody had thought to
make it; simply _using_ a mouse and keyboard came to him from those early
childhood experiences that he could barely remember, and the revelation came
when he saw people his age struggle with basic computer input. He would
eventually move on to Starcraft scripting, and then to video game
modifications, and then to a career in programming, but all of that was
enabled by just popping a balloon on a screen.

Plenty of people can use a computer, and click things, and type things on a
keyboard, but ever since hearing that anecdote, I realized how many people are
just "getting by" in that department. Since my early childhood, I could count
my daily misclicks on one hand, but that doesn't seem to be the reality for
most people. Thinking about it, a Sesame Street game that I have very little
recollection of could be a huge part of how I use a computer today, and that
thought makes me hugely appreciate what programs like GCompris do.

------
johnwyles
I remember finding this project years ago and it is indeed much more flushed
out than when I checked it out then. However, and I recognize this is begging
disdain from Linux purists, I wonder if their are any React projects with a
similar goal, target audience, or set of features/games? I feel like there
would a more vibrant contributing community releasing a richer set of
unforeseen features, challenges, games, etc. I am not a huge fan of React,
electron, etc versus native apps personally myself but I cannot dismiss the
very active and large community and for a project like this I feel like there
could be a great benefit. I suppose when someone writes most of these apps for
kids they are charging for it in the App Store and that is where a project
like I am envisioning quickly falls short. Thoughts?

~~~
simion314
I think a react project will have more issues like:

\- the package dependencies, packages get often deprecated on npm and in rare
occasion contained malware, Qt contains most things you need and a web view if
you need to show html or run JS for some reason

\- GCompris is an old project and it had one big rewrite to Qt in latest
years, using Web tech they would be forced to keep up with the web frameworks,
imagine you will have to rebuild your current web project in 10 years from now
and continue working on it

\- I think a port to web tech would have negative effect on the battery life
of the devices

On the upsides you could have the web port running in a browser, though having
something that works without internet is a big plus, there must be similar
projects or collection of different web projects somewhere but others
mentioned Windows and mobile devs will think how to make money in the app
stores maybe with some ads.

------
mxuribe
I used to love watching my kid play with the various games in GCompris!

------
hn_throwaway_99
"Find the sepia butterfly"???

~~~
johnwyles
Yeah, that got me too. I was looking for the butterfly with a cowboy hat
sitting on a bail of hay with a "Butterfly Saloon" sign behind them.

------
partycoder
Seems nice except for the developer art. Kids are exposed to very high quality
material these days.

------
jackallis
how addicting is this? aren't we trying to avoid this? do we want our kids to
glue themselves infront of a tablet all day in the name of "it's helping them?
As young as 2 year olds will be now asking for tablet instead of licking the
floor.

~~~
avip
I'll put it blatantly, without citation, and accept the downvotes with love:
do not give your 2yo anything that has a screen. Just say no. And yes -
licking the floor is order of magnitude healthier for them.

~~~
EvanAnderson
It's anecdote, to be sure, but I credit our 5 1/2 y/o daughter's ability to be
amused and contented with books, imaginative play, and art (as compared to her
cousins and classmates) to our having nearly completely disallowed "screens"
in her life. (We even go so far as to plan restaurant seating to keep her back
to TVs after we saw her "veg out" when a TV was in her sight line once.)

In the last year we've let her watch some YouTube cooking videos in a
supervised setting, and she and I have started working thru some educational
titles on my old Apple IIgs. We've tried very hard to avoid "twitch" stimulus,
if only because I have an unscientific belief that such stimulus "dulls" ones'
sense of novelty. (I know that I find myself struggling to deal with "slower"
movies and video games that I enjoyed when I was younger.)

------
kyleperik
I actually played this when I was a kid. I remember really enjoying it. Now
I'm a computer programmer and I won't use any OS other than Linux.

------
sytelus
I paid $9.99 on Windows store and it says I "own" the app but when I start
GCompris it still says I must buy full version!

------
mccada
On a similar note, any good mobile educational apps for kids? I found Khan
Academy Kids which is quite polished and nice.

~~~
roel_v
Edoki 'Montessori Preschool' & 'Code carts'. And their other apps.

