Next month, my son starts kindergarten, and I promise I will round up
more titles to add to the cd - all of yours included. I'll take them to
the lab and see how they go over. I'm sure they will be a hit.
If you find any bugs let me know and they will be fixed. My lab is not
set-up yet. Like you I am rounding-up a GS and want to get the Apple //e
that I scrounged last year into a place of honour, get flash cards, and just
generally have the vintage stuff available for testing and also for
grand-kiddies and me to play-on. I have the C64 to resurrect too. In the
meantime I use an emulator to test-in. Therefore tests are cursory and
subjective. For example, AppleWIN has disk acceleration. This is a wonderful
feature but creates the illusion that disk IO is more responsive than it
would be on floppy media.
Keep 'em coming!
No problem there. Thanks for the feedback.
The goal as always should be that the user experience defines the success of
the software and not the other way around. Compiler developers and other
complex folks who focus on "pure" and idealistic computer-science are often
and usually blind-sided when it comes to ergonomics and other human-factors
issues.
When I studied Industrial Design our mantra was "FORM=FUNCTION". However in
computer engineering type courses that churn-out programmers and even in
business computing courses, the design component is largely absenst and the
focus is on the lowest common denominators of language syntax, and
algorithms, and other left-side logical training and is deficient in
balancing the calculus with development of the right-side's creative
potential.
Without getting too far into why this is, the end result is usually crappy
software that conforms to some comp-sci standard like CUA (common user
access).
So what about basic design concepts like color selection, pattern,
repetition, alternation? Yes this is Interior Design. But the last time I
looked, most kids aren't using educational software when they are out on the
play-structure during recess.
"Percentile Satisfaction" and Software:
If we go back to the 1970's an Engineer by the name of "Sid Love" published
a series of articles in a magazine called "Mastery of Engineering". One of
them ("Design by Timely Interation") was much later rebranded by Micro$oft
as RAD (Rapid Application Development). Another (the name of the article
escapes me) that I use whenever I have the opportunity in both hard product
design and software is a "Percentile Satisfaction" design evaluation
methodology which rates design options by quantifying each "quality" with a
ratio metric based on what programmers call "requirements" then compares
each design and picks the highest rated option as the best.
Bear with me. This gets simple:)
You take every requirement of a design and give it a value on a scale of
your choosing. This rating can be arbitrary but it must be fairly balanced.
First decide what overall percentage of the design each requirement is:
Clear Simple Graphics=20%
Ages 4-8(audience)=20%
Boys and Girls(inclusion)=20%
Keyboard Navigation=5%
Mouse Navigation=5%
Good Documentation=30%
Total =100%
It should already be apparent despite the simple example that the computer
sciencey stuff rates pretty low in the overall rating. Usually it will since
software is mostly about content. And the design doesn't even consider if it
is running on Windows Xp or on an Apple II.
Now that the requirements have been prioritized and ratios have been
established up to 3 potential options are devised for each. Each are
compared against the overall satisfaction value and given their own value
based on ratio. For example, no mouse navigation is rated as 0 and using a
mouse in place of the keyboard for all commands is 5. A compromise is
subjective and probably gets a value of 3.
Now comes the fun part. Since all design is a compromise, the designer, or
programmer now has a tool to prioritize which compromises can be made and at
what cost to the overall design.
I realize that I am on a tangent here. But when it comes to programming
children's software, and selecting the best presentation venue, since the
design accomplishes the overall goal, the Apple II or even an old Nintendo
gaming system and a TV does just as well as anything else.
Now here's where venues like the Apple II are better I think.
The teacher can leave a box of disks out and the kid can pick one and walk
over to an Apple II and put the disk in the drive themselves, then turn-on
the computer and they are right-into the program. At least that's the way I
remember it. No learning of Windows or other desktops, and no need for
dealing with these horking and expensive fearsome monstrosities that we call
computers these days.
IMNSHO It is a fine thing that you and the teacher have done. If I was 5 I
would be having fun:)
As far as this reply goes, I certainly have provided a mine-field of
arguments that can be raised for a lively discussion:)
Cheers,
Bill