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Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

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Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#31

Post by david927 »

bulka wrote: post #30
david927 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of a 10 room mansion in Tuscany, Italy that could house a group of future of coding researchers for a year, starting in September. It would work out to €500/month for room and board. But would anyone be up for it?

I don't think the physical colocation is the key here.

It’s not the key but it’s a key.

If you want to talk about the key, that’s a much bigger discussion. Personally I always thought Alan (with all due respect to obviously one of the greatest luminaries of our time) had it wrong. Point of view is not worth 80 IQ points. First, that smacks of a time when we used to conflate IQ with intelligence and honestly think someone with 150 was 5 smarter than someone with 145. No, intelligence and knowledge just get you to the table. Point of view is why you’re there.

It’s like saying Picasso’s style gave him points towards his technique. Having a good line allowed him to express his style.

So what’s the key? Insight. And while that’s much harder to understand and evaluate, that’s the ticket.

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#32

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #25
david927 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The room is €200; €300 was back-of-the-napkin for general meals and it could be low, but when you buy in bulk it can be quite inexpensive and Italy is definitely cheap.

To me, the cost of buying cooking ingredients isn’t a concern in the slightest - but I don’t enjoy cooking. I’d hire a full-time live-in chef if I could afford it. But I can’t, so I mostly live-off Soylent.

I honestly have no idea why my above reply has been downvoted to -4 for simply describing my habits...

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#33

Post by DennisP »

blihp wrote: post #28
DennisP wrote: post #4

Dang. I used to look forward to the 20KLOC OS/GUI/IDE. I guess they never really achieved that. Maybe it was just time for Alan Kay to retire.

They actually did... to a degree. The last artifact I'm aware of was called Frank[1] and incorporated a number of designs, concepts and DSLs the group presented and wrote papers[2] about over the years the project was active. However, I believe Alan was disappointed that he never achieved the 'from the ground up' deliverable that he really wanted as Frank relied on Squeak as its VM and OS. I think what he really had…

Oh that's more than I realized. Is the demo available somewhere?

If they were making good progress and just ran out of funding, that's pretty sad.

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#34

Post by quickthrower2 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #12
david927 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of a 10 room mansion in Tuscany, Italy that could house a group of future of coding researchers for a year, starting in September. It would work out to €500/month for room and board. But would anyone be up for it?

> It would work out to €500/month for room and board €500/mo with food per month? That's suspiciously affordable. What's the catch? (My Red Bull addiction is currently costing me ~$300/mo alone right now, seriously)

That says more about Red Bull than renting a room outside of a major metro area in a cheap country.

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#35

Post by wrycoder »

wrycoder wrote: post #15
DennisP wrote: post #4

Dang. I used to look forward to the 20KLOC OS/GUI/IDE. I guess they never really achieved that. Maybe it was just time for Alan Kay to retire.

This group blew up very suddenly, leaving a lot of unfinished work. They didn't even properly release the work they had done on GitHub or someplace similar. It's just not like Alan Kay to do that. https://awarth.blogspot.com/ Note that Warth's name is missing from the 2012 STEPS report. Piumarta went to Japan. There's something we don't know. For a bit of follow-on, there is Alex Warth's homepage: http://www.tinlizzi…

Edit: chubot found Amelang's github https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26927698

Going up a level, there is Gezira and Nile. The latter includes Maru with changes through Dec 2012. Piumarta kept committing changes to Maru through Nov 2013. piumarta.net is, sadly, unresponsive today.

So, it appears that Dan Amelang was able to capture the core of the STEPS project at github. I don't see anything about the UI or Frank, though.

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#36

Post by koo6 »

david927 wrote: post #7
beaconstudios wrote: post #2

For those who are unaware, this was headed by Alan Kay and was researching various concepts in human-computer interaction, including ideas about the future of coding ( http://www.vpri.org/work/ifnct.htm ). It's a real shame to see them close up shop, we need that kind of research to continue.

I know of a 10 room mansion in Tuscany, Italy that could house a group of future of coding researchers for a year, starting in September. It would work out to €500/month for room and board. But would anyone be up for it?

you pay or they pay?

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#37

Post by coolgeek »

wrycoder wrote: post #35
wrycoder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This group blew up very suddenly, leaving a lot of unfinished work. They didn't even properly release the work they had done on GitHub or someplace similar. It's just not like Alan Kay to do that. https://awarth.blogspot.com/ Note that Warth's name is missing from the 2012 STEPS report. Piumarta went to Japan. There's something we don't know. For a bit of follow-on, there is Alex Warth's homepage: http://www.tinlizzi…

Edit: chubot found Amelang's github https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26927698 Going up a level, there is Gezira and Nile. The latter includes Maru with changes through Dec 2012. Piumarta kept committing changes to Maru through Nov 2013. piumarta.net is, sadly, unresponsive today. So, it appears that Dan Amelang was able to capture the core of the STEPS project at github. I don't see anything about the UI or Frank…

> piumarta.net is, sadly, unresponsive today

Did you want piumarta.com, which somebody else linked above? It's got pages for COLA and MARU

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#38

Post by wrycoder »

coolgeek wrote: post #37
wrycoder wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: chubot found Amelang's github https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26927698 Going up a level, there is Gezira and Nile. The latter includes Maru with changes through Dec 2012. Piumarta kept committing changes to Maru through Nov 2013. piumarta.net is, sadly, unresponsive today. So, it appears that Dan Amelang was able to capture the core of the STEPS project at github. I don't see anything about the UI or Frank…

> piumarta.net is, sadly, unresponsive today Did you want piumarta.com, which somebody else linked above? It's got pages for COLA and MARU

You are right. That's my mistake!

Re: Viewpoints Research Institute concluded its operations at the beginning of 2018

#39

Post by david927 »

koo6 wrote: post #36
david927 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of a 10 room mansion in Tuscany, Italy that could house a group of future of coding researchers for a year, starting in September. It would work out to €500/month for room and board. But would anyone be up for it?

you pay or they pay?

Well, they pay. There's no IP transfer here; you own your own IP.

That said, I'm hoping that, via donations, there will be spots for those that can't pay anything at all. But that's a lot of speculation for something that is still very much up in the air.

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