On Thu, 2007-07-19 at 19:22 +0100, Phil Thane wrote:
On Thursday 19 July 2007 16:29:49 Ian Lynch wrote:
Get them to fund Dial Solutions to port PDT to Linux and Windows and Open Source it.
Am I missing something here? Dial Solutions I've heard of, but their CAD package is Oak Draw originally for Acorn I think (hence Oak) but now for Windows. It's basic 2D proabably comparable to TechSoft's Primary Design.
What's PDT?
Parametric design tool developed for the Acorn Archimedes back in the late 80s. I think considerably more powerful than Oak Draw but Phil Driscoll is better placed than me to say what it can do. I think it was written in C so might not be too difficult to port.
ProDESKTOP which is common in UK schools (but now obsolete) is often referred to as ProD. It was produced by Parametric Technology Corp (PTC). Back in the day when a specialist CAD workstation was needed to run PTC's ProEngineer, ProD was the Windows desktop PC alternative for smallish designs. These days a decent Windows or Linux PC will run ProE so commercially ProD is pointless. It continues in schools becase a) they've already got it, and b) it's reasonably simple as 3D CAD goes.
Thing is that thin clients are not ideally suited to specialist CAD but as servers are getting more powerful that is becoming less of an issue. Also in a school, I suspect teaching the principles of vector graphics is not generally highly developed in any case. I see very few examples of kids stretching inkscape or OpenOffice Draw (or proprietary equivalents) never mind professional CAD tools. If a school needs 500 terminals for general productivity tools and 5 specialist CAD machines hooked up to CAM then it seems more sensible to have 500 Linux thn clients and if necessary 5 workstations running Windows or whatever. We don't have to have every machine identical. Let's fit the technology to the educational need rather than having a one size fits all applications mentality. Ian -- New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications www.theINGOTs.org You have received this email from the following company: The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-edu+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-edu+help@opensuse.org