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I noted that there was an 'education' tag on the EV3. Is there a special version, or is it talking about the kit in general and how its designed for education?

It's just the kit - the education version has extra parts and is priced/marketed a little differently. Both are really the same CPU though and use all the same motors and stuff.
 
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While I am always happy to see kids get involved in thinking logically it's also been shown that the majority of people are not abstract thinkers (see Myers-Briggs). I'll paraphrase the movie Ratatouille: It's true that anyone can code but only those who are predisposed to the discipline and effort required will succeed.
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Does anyone remember the Logo programming language?
Yes, that was what I first learned on in 3rd grade on an Apple IIe. I did it faster and quicker than my peers so the teacher didn't let me do any more thinking I'd be a distraction. So she put me on a reading course on the computer. Not as much fun.
 
While I am always happy to see kids get involved in thinking logically it's also been shown that the majority of people are not abstract thinkers (see Myers-Briggs). I'll paraphrase the movie Ratatouille: It's true that anyone can code but only those who are predisposed to the discipline and effort required will succeed.

That's true, I just wish I were taught coding when 10 or so. Learning to program really helped my understanding of maths, suddenly a lot more started to make sense (e.g. finally understood what the hell y(x) meant). Maybe more kids will have more possibility of becoming good at advanced maths, if they start early and put the effort into it.
 
Any person, grown or otherwise, will benefit from any exposure to programming patterns and methods. This is tremendous and exciting.

I 100% believe the the world will be a better place if everyone touched code, and understood computer science, at least at a high level. The benefits of the modes of thinking to begin to connect the dots would be tremendous for our society, we could catch fire (in a good way).

Imagine a generation, in it's entirety, familiar with computer science - Imagine one day a government, where each person, knew at least a little, of how to think abstractly and logically.

Steve Jobs once said the computer is like a bicycle for the brain. I still believe that statement to be true though we use most of our technology for entertainment when it can be so easily applied, to problems, not just as solutions themselves, but as a model for problem solving. I feel like we miss the boat but we're getting closer with things like this.

As a fan boy I obviously have my issues and feel like Tim should email me personally about certain things but this is tremendous, this will get kids excited about interacting with their env. through software, it will help them connect the dots that these things aren't just for snapchat but can be used to change the world.
 
neat... The BB8 Star wars can be controlled with Playground. I guess this is where playground got its name.... (not really useful for real world activities, but still useful to learn), it would be good if this could be further expanded, rather than saying "looks like i need to go somewhere else to learn a higher level".

The thing is how can can u go with iOS to make it convenient like inducing XCode on iOS, vs still maintaing that same security.? I don't think u can do both. One has to give way.
 
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In my day we had a hoop and a stick. A football fashioned from a pigs bladder and covered in hessian and we used jumpers for goalposts. And it didn't do me any harm other than failing my Fortran programmers course. Back in those days the internet was black and white. Electricity cost 5 shillings a minute. And everything online had to be written on a blackboard with chalk. Since then we have had crease resistant trousers, pot noodles and electric milk frothers. Is it any surprise our kids can't think for themselves any more?
 
I see Parrot drones are on the list. This raises the question of whether Swift support can be integrated into the controller apps of any UAV, or whether it has to be in their firmware. Any ideas?
 
There is Swift playground available on the app store for iPad and that's ok for learning and even for coding if you want to test some classes you're writing. But porting xcode on the iPad would be a huge effort for Apple, and I doubt the majority of developers would use it on a tablet. It would be a nightmare for me, I code most of the time on my iMac because of the screen size, I'd never code on a display so small.
Well I'm not a developer and don't code so you certainly know more than I would on what is involved and if it would even be worth it. I just know 2 things the Apple centric podcasts I listen to want badly is Xcode ported to iPad and the ability for iPad to support podcasting. Seeing as how Apple is offering podcasting services for WWDC media attendees for the first time it wouldn't shock me if podcasting support for iPad was announced.
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What percentage of developers you spoke told you this?
None. I'm just basing it off the the Apple centric podcasts I listen to and what I see in my Twitter feed.
 
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Does anyone remember the Logo programming language?

Yes, did that on my Commodore 64. Swift (from the screen shots) reminded me a lot of Logo.

I do! :)
I used it at school 25 years ago, it was funny and helped a lot learning about simple programming patterns.

Yes, that was what I first learned on in 3rd grade on an Apple IIe. I did it faster and quicker than my peers so the teacher didn't let me do any more thinking I'd be a distraction. So she put me on a reading course on the computer. Not as much fun.

I managed to dig this out of my closet. It predates me by over a decade, but I remember it fondly:

IMG_6713 copy.jpg
 
Huh?

I think he was implying that he/other devs, would like to see it come to iPad. Personally, it would be an awesome addition to my workflow.
I'm hoping we see Workflow baked directly into the OS. I only use it for very simple things but I would love to see Apple expand its capabilities and push it to the masses.
 
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Apple should spend less time on Swift Playgrounds and more time on fixing the garbage Music app

Unlike the earliest Apple I days, Apple has more than one programmer on staff. Woz is no longer the sole programmer of Apple computing devices.

Projects also have practical limits to how many developers can be assigned to them.

I'm pretty sure wanting Apple to improve Music has little to nothing to do with work done on Playgrounds.
 
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Something that would get huge cheers from the crowd on Monday would be Xcode for iPad. I wonder if that will ever happen.

Xcode runs slow enough on the latest hardware... god knows how terrible it would be on an iPad.

It would be like dragging a truck tire through oatmeal. No thanks.
 
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Something that would get huge cheers from the crowd on Monday would be Xcode for iPad. I wonder if that will ever happen.

What would this mean? Taking a keyboard-heavy, panes-heavy, screen-estate-heavy UI and porting it to run on a small tablet seems silly. You can take some portions and be good enough for casual use, and that might pique my interest. But if portability is why, running Xcode on a 12-inch MacBook sounds like a far smarter approach than an iPad.
 
What percentage of developers you spoke told you this?

The interesting thing about the ability to develop on the iPad would be the ability to script apps. I can't see Xcode coming to the iPad anytime soon, but something like playgrounds on steroids would do as a way to automate iPad apps. Of course this would require that Apple heavily modify iOS to permit this in the first place. Swift would be one hell of a lot better than JavaScript.
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Yes, that was what I first learned on in 3rd grade on an Apple IIe. I did it faster and quicker than my peers so the teacher didn't let me do any more thinking I'd be a distraction. So she put me on a reading course on the computer. Not as much fun.

Man don't you just hate this, I'm glad I'm not the only one that left high school feeling that the system was acting against me. For the most part I was in school before the computer revolution took off. I remember the science department getting a desktop "computer", a machine made by HP. Tried to get access to it - nope you can't do that. The same department had a little HeN laser tried to get to that for optical experiments - note you can't touch that. I could go on but I left school very frustrated with the education system.

In any event it is sad to see that things haven't changed any. Unfortunately I think many teachers are afraid of students that they think are smarter than them. Thus they feel obligated to slow you down.
 
Apple should spend less time on Swift Playgrounds and more time on fixing the garbage Music app
Yes, because every post that isn't about your personal pet-peeve really is about your personal pet-peeve.
 
While I am always happy to see kids get involved in thinking logically it's also been shown that the majority of people are not abstract thinkers

So what. There is no need to teach to the lowest common denominator. Just because there exist some people who won't benefit from abstract thinking or can't do abstract thinking is no reason to not teach abstract thinking to those who can learn it.
 
What would this mean? Taking a keyboard-heavy, panes-heavy, screen-estate-heavy UI and porting it to run on a small tablet seems silly. You can take some portions and be good enough for casual use, and that might pique my interest. But if portability is why, running Xcode on a 12-inch MacBook sounds like a far smarter approach than an iPad.

Last I checked, Apple had created an iPad with a 12.9" display...
 
Last I checked, Apple had created an iPad with a 12.9" display...

Yes. And to use Xcode on it meaningfully, you probably want an external keyboard.

At which point you got a bit of a frankenmachine and might as well use the better-suited MacBook. Why reinvent that poorly?
 
Yes. And to use Xcode on it meaningfully, you probably want an external keyboard.

At which point you got a bit of a frankenmachine and might as well use the better-suited MacBook. Why reinvent that poorly?

Everyone has different needs and different tastes. Turns out some people like the idea of a frankenmachine aka the Surface Pro.
 
Everyone has different needs and different tastes. Turns out some people like the idea of a frankenmachine aka the Surface Pro.

Yes, but those people are unlikely to use an IDE as one of their main apps. That's the point.
 
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