Like many of you, I work amongst a combination of Macs and Windows
PC (and with at least some users who want to try out Linux). In my
case, it's at an elementary school. Schools tend to collect a
hodgepodge of hardware including different platforms from different
eras.
Ideally, we would like the kids to be able to do the same work no
matter what computer they're sitting at, so cross-platform software is
a big plus.
A while ago, a grade 3 (as Canadians put it - only Americans say
"3rd grade") teacher asked a simple sounding question: "Is there
anything my kids can do on the computer that will help them learn to
work with money?"
One of the skills that adults take for granted is knowing that four
quarters make a dollar and that two fives is the same as one ten dollar
bill. Kids have to learn this.
There's a nice website: Change Maker, that
supports US, Canadian, Australian, UK, and Mexican currency, but
frankly, it's a bit too hard - kids have to mentally do a fairly
complex subtraction and then click on pictures of various kinds of cash
to indicate the right answer.
Talking to the teacher, she wanted something simpler, something that
gave kids an amount and asked them to show the kinds of money they
would use to reach that amount. As I checked around with different
early grade teachers, something like that seemed potentially useful,
but with various levels. The grade 1 kids needed to work with small
change, up to a dollar or so. By grade 3, they needed to be comfortable
with amounts up to about $100. And, of course, being in Canada, we
needed something with Canadian currency, not American.
Some History
Step back a couple of decades to the early years of personal
computing. When Time Magazine declared the personal computer its
"Machine
of the Year" in its 1983.01.03, there was a concept known as
"computer literacy." There wasn't much prepackaged software available
yet, and any self-respecting personal computer user of the late 1970s
or early 1980s had to expect to be able to make their own.
For most personal computers, that meant a familiarity with the BASIC
(for Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) computer
programming language, which was originally developed in 1964 at
Dartmouth University by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurt as a teaching tool.
Steve Wozniak developed a version of BASIC for the Apple II computers,
and Microsoft got its start peddling BASIC variants for most of the
other personal computers of the era. (Little-known fact: IBM originally
contacted Microsoft to license Microsoft BASIC for its then under
development IBM PC; they only licensed the operating system that became
known as MS-DOS after failing to reach agreement with Digital
Research.)
When the Mac was released in 1984, there was a Microsoft BASIC for
it, too. But standard BASICs were not a good fit for the graphical,
windowed, mouse-driven Mac environment; they were designed for an
earlier era of text-based terminals. And much of what made the Mac
Mac-like was buried deep in Apple's Toolbox code; it was possible to
access it with MS BASIC, but it wasn't fun or easy.
Graphical environments like the Mac OS or MS Windows make life
easier for users but harder for programmers. And BASIC was getting a
bad rep. Many programs made a lot of use of GOTO statements for jumping
around to different parts of the code; programming professionals
derided this as "spaghetti code," a tangled mess that was hard to
follow.
With the increasing availability of commercial software, there was
less need to write your own code to get your work done. And just as
people can learn to drive a car without having to become auto mechanics
few computer users saw any need to learn to program their own
computers.
Apple's 1987 release of HyperCard
was a step towards changing this, a way that nonprogrammers could
create graphic and friendly computer applications. But while the Mac
version was wildly popular, similar programs failed to catch on amongst
PC users running DOS or Windows. Instead, Microsoft went back to its
roots in 1991 and released Visual Basic, initially with versions for
Windows 3.0 and DOS.
Visual Basic simplified program development for graphical
environments by including an environment similar to a desktop
publishing program; users could create an interface with windows,
buttons, and standard controls without having to program them from
scratch. Controls could then be attached to BASIC code, modernized to
do away with those ugly GOTO statements, but including modern
subroutines and modules.
Visual Basic (VB) was a big hit; it unleashed thousands of wannabe
programmers, and the resulting flood of VB applications (covering the
full range of good, bad, and indifferent) played a roll in making
Windows massively popular. It's no surprise that Microsoft kept later
versions of VB Windows-only (though the related Visual Basic for
Applications is used as a macro language in Microsoft's Mac Office
versions).
Enter REALbasic in
the late 1990s. REALbasic started life as a Mac-only Visual Basic
look-alike; a similar drag and drop environment for creating user the
user interface, and similar modernized BASIC-style code behind the
scenes.
In fact, REALbasic includes the ability to import Windows Visual
Basic project code, and, with a bit of massaging, use it to produce
Mac-usable programs.
Disclaimer
I am not now and have never been a programmer. Over the decades,
I've dabbled a bit in writing code in BASIC. For instance, on my
website, you can download copies of a BBS-simulator that I wrote long
ago for my school district, letting classes simulate the experience of
logging on and poking around the BBS that the Vancouver school system
ran for educational use. At a time when a school was lucky to have one
computer connected to a phone line for online activities, this let a
lab-full of students get a taste of being online. There's even a
version in MS Macintosh Basic. (I just gave it a try, and it mostly
works in Classic mode on my Panther-powered system: www.zisman.ca/files/Ed-Net.sit).
While I've done some work with Visual Basic, and now with REALbasic,
I'm nowhere near a guru with any of these development environments.
There are lots of helpful REALbasic resources online, starting with,
but not limited to, REALsoftware.com.
Back to BASICs
Like Visual Basic, REALbasic is extensible; third-parties can add to
its capabilities with plug-ins. As a result, would-be programmers don't
have to reinvent everything from scratch. If a feature isn't already
built-into REALbasic, there is often a plug-in available that already
provides the feature you need. A quick search for "REALbasic" at
Versiontracker.com, for
instance, listed 132 downloadable plug-ins, many free, others shareware
or commercial.
Coding Exact Change
As REALbasic evolved (it is currently up to version 5.5), it added
support for the Internet and for media types including sound and video.
But more importantly for my purposes, it became cross-platform.
Relatively early, REALbasic users on the Mac were able to create
Windows applications! Later versions supported both Mac Classic and
OS X environments. Still later, REALsoftware released a companion
Windows version - this version can load projects created with the Mac
version (and vice versa), though some third-party plug-ins may only run
on one platform or the other.
Currently, REALbasic 5.5 comes in Mac Classic, Mac OS X, and
Windows versions. The Professional edition of any of these versions can
compile code into programs for Mac (Classic and OS X), Windows,
and now Linux as well. (The Standard edition can only create
applications for the OS it is running on).
For me, that's a killer feature - the ability to code something once
and then compile it so that it will run everywhere.
"Write once, run everywhere" is the promise of the Java programming
language, but Java programs have tended to look ugly and run slowly,
dependent on the quality of a virtual machine for each operating
system. Compiled REALbasic programs run quickly and use the standard OS
widgets and components for each operating system; the Mac OS X version
gets rounded, glowing buttons, while the Windows versions gets
Windows-native buttons.
It Don't Come Easy
There's still a learning curve. My 1980s-era BASIC background has
some carry over; I can write IF-THEN-ELSE statements and DO-UNTIL
loops, but I'm still fuzzy on a lot of concepts. (Thanks to fellow
Vancouver teacher and Duet
Software programmer Peter Findlay for getting me through a
number of rough spots).
You can look at the current version of my money program, Exact Change, in
Mac OS X, Mac Classic, Windows, and Linux versions, since it was
built with REALbasic.
Exact Change
One of the things I've realized: Computer programs are never
finished. Aside from getting the obvious bugs out, every version leads
to ideas for how to go further. The original Exact Change evolved into
a version with different levels for kids in grades 1, 2, and 3. Then it
grew to offer practice using money to help count by 2s, by 5s, and by
10s, and to help learn place value.
The current version uses Canadian currency. I would like to
internationalize it and let users choose US currency - or Australian or
British. I would like to be able to print out the students' work.
To do those things, I'm going to have to learn more about working
with REALbasic.
But another thing I've realized: Creating computer programs is
addicting. Like many computer games, there's a real rush when something
works. And there are a lot of dead ends. But I'm finding myself
thinking of strategies and planning modules and trying to squeeze in
time to just add one more feature.
Getting REALbasic
A full version of REALbasic (Classic, OS X, or Windows) can be
downloaded from www.realsoftware.com; potential
users can register with REALsoftware and receive a license key that
enables the downloaded program to work for 10 days. (The trial period
can be extended for an additional 10 days). Programs created during the
trial version will run for 15 minutes and then shut themselves
down.
REALsoftware sells the software in a variety of packages, both
downloadable and physical. A Standard license (US$100) can be used with
one downloadable copy of the Standard edition. A physical copy
(included printed documentation) starts at US$150.
The cross platform-capable Professional edition costs US$400 for a
download license, US$450 for a physical copy. Academic pricing (with
proof of academic status) is about 30% cheaper.
