When my relatives moved to Linux

[Richmond Mathewson]

Wow . . . 

Bill Marriott, thank you - I got a lot more advice and
help than I expected there - all of which is useful.

However, the relative program was written over a 15
minute period (mucking around preparing the graphics
took ages) as a 'one trick pony' for kids who have
little or no contact with computers (in Bulgaria most
people cannot afford a computer) so would be quite
unable to insert photo of their own relatives (one
wonders how they would get the images into the
computers - I have each group of kids for 90 minutes
twice a week, and the main task is to teach them
English - teaching kids how to work with a scanner,
graphics prog. and so on is a whole different
ballpark).

I have been known to use much less 'heavy' scripts -
but, while, eventually the return on them is super,
the effort involved in thinking them through is not
worth it for a quickie that will keep kids occupied
for 15-20 minutes while I run through their homework.

There is an inevitable conflict between my making
elegant, potentially extensible programs and
interfaces, and the fact that what pays for my bread
and cheese is shoe-horning English into the tiny minds
of 6-10 year-olds.

I am sure that many other educators wish they had the
time, energy and money to make really super programs
for their educational needs.
But they don't.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson

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"Its time to do Philosophy and stop worrying about what dead men said."
                                                                                           Mathewson 2006
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