Re: Croquet & Alphaworld (getting OT)

It is somewhat serendipitous to me that the project is called Croquet. 
I'm part of a team at Purdue University that is (and has been for 5 
years) developing all of Purdue's student systems in Smalltalk 
(VisualWorks).  We work in a nice little converted fraternity building 
just outside the western edge of campus in a fairly wooded area. 
Someone brought in a croquet set this summer and we started playing 
over lunch breaks.  We've all become completely addicted to the game. 
We've even played in the rain for fear we wouldn't get our croquet fix 
that day.  It's a surprisingly strategic game and full of twists of 
fate.  I've even gone and purchased a second croquet set for the team 
since we wore the first one out.  I also developed a small play order 
randomizer for the Palm (in Pocket Smalltalk, of course).

As far as rule 2 goes, it is not only acceptable to "roquet" someone by 
putting your foot on your own ball while sending another player's ball, 
it's actually fairly common.  It is indeed found as an acceptable move 
in the official croquet rules (http://www.croquetworld.com/).

Alas, now that the weather is turning quite cold here in Indiana, we may 
have played our last croquet game of the season (though tomorrow may 
prove me wrong).  We'll probably do one honorary game of "snowquet". 
We've begun to move on to a lan party of Neverwinter Nights to occupy 
our lunches now.

I am very excited about Croquet, the project.  I've seen various 3D 
interfaces here and there and have been "ho-hum" about them.  But to 
have one developed by Squeakers and especially the esteemed Alan Kay, 
I'm anxious to find more than the 15 minutes I've had so far to play 
with it.  So far, so fun.  Good luck, Croquetters!

Cees de Groot wrote:

> Alan Kay <Alan.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
>  
>
> > The documentation says quite clearly not to hit OK, but to hit cancel.
> >
> >    
> Talking about documentation, via-via I got the following feedback on the
> graphics:
>
> "you must know that the lady in the croquet picture is
> violating at least two rules that I was taught when I was a lad - (1) not to
> raise the mallet above waist level (you were meant to swing it between your
> legs, and that would make high swings impossible without some personal
> damage(!)) and (2) not to put your foot on your ball when you were sending
> your opponent off - nice picture though."
>
> Nothing important, but it's the only bit of feedback I can give as long as I
> haven't downloaded the 90Megs ;-)
>
>
>  

--
Jason Dufair - jase@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.dufair.org/
"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people:
those who do the work and those who take the credit.
He told me to try to be in the first group;
there was much less competition."
-- Indira Gandhi