What Rev Needs -- Again (was "Why is Konfabulator "Pretty?")

[Jerry Muelver]

The kids in the K-12 where I do some substitute teaching (good hobby for a 
mostly-retired technical writer!) use MS Word and PowerPoint for doing 
reports. The 6th and 7th graders tend to throw web-caught graphics into 
their projects, so a simple one-paragraph book report will have a half-page 
photo at the top, or an ocean-view sunset background. The PP reports are 
transition- and clipart-heavy. The high-schoolers get a little more academic 
in their approach, but will still produce materials with elegant (or garish) 
font treatments if they are banned from using graphics. It's all very 
entertaining.

If a Dreamcard version could have its interface simplified, along the lines 
of PowerPoint with scripting, to regain the impact and newbie-usability of 
the original HyperCard, it would be an excellent entry-level programming 
environment for schools. The projects I'm working on fall into that 
"entry-level" category, leaning on the hypercard paradigm for purposeful 
work. I remember how Revolution got its start as an extended IDE for 
MetaCard. Maybe it's time for a contracted IDE for Revolution to happen.

---- Jerry Muelver