We had an educational security application that needed to run in DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, and they wanted to re-use as much code as possible, so I #ifdef'd my way to glory. I worked on internationalizing applications in '95 when thunking (translating between 16 and 32-bit) was all the rage. I cut my teeth when Hello World was 92 lines of C code on Windows 3.0, not counting the dialog resources. It's powerful, but the power isn't immediately discoverable. By right, I mean, most robust, most reliable, most future-proof, most supported, most compatible. Often, there's a half-dozen ways to do something but no way to know which is the right. It's one of those things that is so completely different from how things were done in the past that it's not only hard to just pick up, but it's hard to tell what's the right way to do things. Note: Toddlers repeatedly hitting the keyboard of a laptop can spell damage! It is recommended that you use an external keyboard when running AlphaBaby on a laptop.WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) is confusing, to me at least. It functions almost identically to the application version.
A screen saver version of AlphaBaby is included in this release. Just delete the application to uninstall. To install, drag the AlphaBaby application to your Applications folder. Newer versions are no longer guaranteed to work on 10.2 or earlier.
It should work on Tiger and Mac OS X 10.3 and later. Version 1.51 was built and tested on Mac OS X 10.4.5 (Tiger) only, and is a Universal Binary. The newer versions, from 1.6 and higher, are supported on Leopard only. You won't be able to downgrade it if you don't find older versions of the app on the Internet. If you aren't using Leopard, don't upgrade, in case you plan to continue using it on Tiger or earlier versions of Mac OS X. To get to the preferences, use the same command replacing Q with P (control-option-command-P). Instead, you must use control-option-command-Q to quit the app. The standard command-Q is disabled to prevent accidental quitting. Probably the most important action, as Laura points out, is turning AlphaBaby on and off. However, since the app is aimed at the little ones, it is up to you to set it up the right way, as well as turning it on and off, so you'll need to learn some commands. You can even tell AlphaBaby to speak the letters, numbers and geometrical shapes appearing on screen. Multiple preferences can be set, such as shapes, letters, or numbers only, whether you want the app to play sounds etc. “Unfortunately, they also have the habit of renaming my hard drive to 'axlfkaj.' So, I wrote AlphaBaby so they could safely use the Mac without inflicting too much damage!” “My kids love to play with the computer,” said Laura Dickey. By holding down the left mouse button and dragging it across the screen, kids can draw using stars, lines, squares, circles, ducks and trucks. Your own sounds and pictures can also be used. Every time something is drawn, sounds are played as well. Every time a key is pressed or the mouse is clicked, a letter or shape is drawn.
I recently stumbled upon AlphaBaby, a free Mac app that can teach small kids letters, numbers, colors, geometrical forms and, of course, their names, in a very fun and easy way.īecause AlphaBaby lets the child do whatever he / she likes, not requiring any tasks from them, the app can be used even by infants, according to Laura Dickey, the developer of this simple, but fun program.
Every once in a while we browse our software index to remember what crazy, fun, or useful free apps we've added in the past that we haven't looked at thoroughly enough.