GCompris: high quality educational software suite for children aged 2 to 10
gcompris.net
gcompris.net
import "../../core"
import "../algebra_by/"
Algebra {
onStart: {
operand.text = "+"
}
}
ActivityInfo {
name: "algebra_plus/AlgebraPlus.qml"
difficulty: 3
icon: "algebra_plus/algebra_plus.svg"
author: "Bruno Coudoin <bruno.coudoin@gcompris.net>"
title: qsTr("Addition of numbers")
...
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.
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.
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... :-)
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.
Scratch of course, runs well in browser now.
- doudou linux http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/index.html (an entire linux distro that wraps gcompris and includes other child-specific apps/features)
Thanks!
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.
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.
- 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.
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.)
As a parent of two young children:
(1) It's not “will now” as in something that hasn't been true already.
(2) It's not “as young as”, if they are around, children will ask for them younger (much younger, like, before they have words, when asking is done by gesture.)
(3) It's not “instead of licking the floor”, but “in addition to licking the floor”. Also, they'll lick the tablet.
The hardest parts are to transition away from the tablet. We always supervise and use a countdown and replacement with another favorable activity (5 minutes and we're going to put the ipad away and play with trains.. 3 minutes.. 1 minute.. time to play with trains) and then following through even if they get upset. We also only allow like 15-20 minutes at a time (the longer they play, the harder it is to pull them away, such is addiction) and only a few times per week (if that). We also are not afraid to say no to tablet time and redirect to another activity.
I think kids can learn a lot from technology but it requires parenting to minimize harm.