Thanks a lot for this blog entry.

I re-used and included your spring security integration techniques in a library I released and documented here :
http://fna.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/fna/site/flex-contrib-spring/index.html

This library is also referenced in a maven archetype of mine:
http://fna.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/fna/site/mvn_archetypes/blazeds-autowired-spring-hibernate-archetype/index.html
Blazeds-autowired-spring-hibernate-archetype helps you generate a multi-module maven project : a flex front-end application communicating with the backend through Adobe’s blazeds messaging. The back-end relies on a spring hibernate architecture.

Cheers !
François

I’ve been looking for such a project for quite a long time. Please don’t abandon it!!!!

Something I didn’t quite get through my post was that the target audience for these machines was someone already interested in computers to begin with. Though you can argue with the C64 that they were aiming for personal pc/gaming market (On The Edge [http://www.amazon.com/Edge-Spectacular-Rise-Fall-Commodore/dp/0973864907/] is a fun read). So, although you could use the C64 for just gaming, you couldn’t run away from that prompt when you started the machine, and its innards and needs were much more on the surface. For example, you’d have to type weird commands to get it to “load” a program, you didn’t just double click on something, you had to swap disks in and out for some programs when a program needed to load another bit of code. All this stuff made the workings of the computer apparent, brought them to the surface. Now, you can get away without even knowing that the apple has a terminal. I’m not saying that it’s bad that this stuff is hidden. I’m glad it is because that means more people can use it and get stuff done that’s not computer related. But, now kids do not encounter the computer as a computing machine, instead it’s a swiss-army machine, with a calendar, a mail program, a gateway into the internet.

That makes me wonder about the controlled interaction imposed on the user by the iPhone. Apple certainly has no obligation to make their device open and available to tinkering, but what opportunities for discovery people get to miss on when they can’t play with the device other than in the way the manufacturer intended.

And of course Linux and Solaris also have many of the same languages out of the box.

What would be great would be shipping something like NodeBox out (which simplifies PyObjC) or Shoes (which has the exact intention you talk of) or making Quartz Composer one of the default Dock/Desktop Icons - something to tempt the user into playing, and feeling they can without breaking things, rather than a hidden power (Terminal = Danger to lots of people).

The use of Python in NodeBox makes me hold back, as I think that may be intimidating to the complete newcomer to programming - perhaps Ruby or fscript’s version of Smalltalk would make a good alternative. NodeBox is also more ‘a new Logo’ while Shoes is more ‘a new BASIC’. The important thing with both is that they are specifically not aimed at Enterprise developers.

These aren’t the only pedagogic languages out there (the OLPC has similar aims) but I guess it comes back to the point that without making them blatant to the end user, it takes that extra step to look (and indeed then decide).