A great Alan Kay quote

[Francis Girard]

Le jeudi 10 Février 2005 04:37, Arthur a écrit :
> On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 21:23:06 +0100, Francis Girard
>
> <francis.girard at free.fr> wrote:
> >I love him.
>
> I don't.
>
> >It's also interesting to see GUIs with windows, mouse (etc.), which
> > apparently find their origin in is mind, probably comes from the desire
> > to introduce computers to children.
>
> Alfred Bork, now
> Professor Emeritus
> Information and Computer Science
> University of California, Irvine 92697
>
> had written an article in 1980 called
>
> "Interactive Learning" which began
>
> "We are at the onset of a major revolution in education, a revolution
> unparalleled since the invention of the printing press. The computer
> will be the instrument of this revolution."
>
> In 2000 he published:
>
> "Interactive Learning: Twenty Years Later"
>
> looking back on his orignal article and its optimistic predictions and
> admitting "I was not a very good prophet"
>
> What went wrong?
>
> Among other things he points (probably using a pointing device) at the
> pointing device
>
> """
> Another is the rise of the mouse as a computer device. People had the
> peculiar idea that one could deal with the world of learning purely by
> pointing.
>
> """
> The articles can be found here:
>
> http://www.citejournal.org/vol2/iss4/seminal.cfm
>
> One does not need to agree or disagree, it seems to me about this or
> that point on interface, or influence, or anything else. What one does
> need to do is separate hope from actuality, and approach the entire
> subject area with some sense of what is at stake, and with some true
> sense of the complexity of the issues, in such a  way that at this
> stage of the game the only authentic stance is one of humility,
>
> Kay fails the humility test, dramatically. IMO.

I think I've been enthouasistic too fast. While reading the article I grew 
more and more uncomfortable with sayings like :

- Intel and Motorola don't know how to do micro-processors and did not 
understand anything in our own architecture
- Languages of today are features filled doggy bags
- Java failed where I succeeded
- I think beautifully like a mathematician while the rest is pop culture
- etc.

I'm not sure at all he likes Python. Python is too pragmmatic for him. And its 
definition does not hold in the palm of his hand. 

I think he's a bit nostalgic.

Francis Girard
or




>
> Art