** Ideally we should try harder to better layer complexity in the Write, Calculate, et al UIs so that you need to drill down to the more complex features while the common/novice features are exposed early at the top level — but it seams there's only so far you can take this (Write and Calculate being on the cusp of this cliff edge).
Maybe this question would be better on IAEP or SUR because its about pedagogy more than technology?
More features just for features sake is not a good idea, Sugar is an educational tool not an office productivity tool, not all new office features need to be included. I would like to hear from teachers on this question. They might, for example, like annotation in a paperless classroom as a way of marking essays.
I agree, we should try harder to layer complexity, in line with the goal of low entry and high ceiling.
I think that children handle complexity and incomplete information much better than adults so its not necessary to give them cut down versions of Activities. As long as they can ignore features that they do not need and still get unobstructed access to the simplified features they are happy. Adults however are more likely to get stressed if presented with too many features.
I looked at Calculate again. I am happy with the features. You can still do 9+1=10 by ignoring the extra features. None of the menus obscure simple calculator operation. If you select hexadecimal then 9+1=0xa but quitting and resuming reverts to decimal operation so it seems experimenting is likely to be harmless to simple calculator use.
I share some responsibility for encouraging feature creep on TurtleArt. Maybe complexity could be layered better but I dont thinks it needs a version with it disabled. The goal should be that basic blocks, repeat, forward, right, are the ones most obviously presented to the learner and no amount of random clicking should make them not discoverable. Maybe the pallettes can be reordered to emphasise beginner blocks.
With write, the goal would be to emphasise the beginner tools and deemphasise the advanced features, and make recovery from random clicking easy.
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