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> that strategy is older than most people posting on this site True. And let's not misunderstand that this was only "big tech". I can remember (being older th

> that strategy is older than most people posting on this site True. And let's not misunderstand that this was only "big tech". I can remember (being older than most on this board) our BBC micros being ubiquitous in schools circa 1982 under government digital literacy edicts. That was a big win for Acorn at the time. What has changed in recent years is full-spectrum domination of vendor values in education. Hitherto, we've at least been able to install the software we like, even if some vendors (Dell/Novell/Apple etc) pushed for hardware dominance. Later they pushed for operating system dominance. And the end-game seems to be pushing for full-stack application and service domination of fully locked-in ecosystems. That's too much power, and it's not appropriate for schools anywhere. Not to mention that it's ultimately a disaster for competing educational software companies. I certainly do not want to see any child educated with Microsoft values, any more than I want to see kids "nourished" to McDonald's nutritional standards. So yes, it's a very old strategy, and has been a very successful one. Too successful, and has reached the point it needs firmly slapping down.

vidarh 4y ago
> Hitherto, we've at least been able to install the software we like If you were very lucky and had an IT department not locking things down. Locking things down in this respect has been a key selling point for e.g. Microsoft for a very long time.
smaudet 4y ago
"I certainly do not want to see any child educated with Microsoft values" Not just the children, one thing I have seen as of late is indoctrination of developers in Arrange Act Assert (AAA) - I specifically remember it being pushed because people were indoctrinated in Given When Then - however ironically most people end up indoctrinated in AAA, which is hypocritical to original point... As an adult, constantly seek to push past (your) boundaries, because you are probably being fed some ill-informed BS about how "things should be". There are a lot of other places this holds true for as well, in tech (using the newest but not best performing tech your boss sold out for), in life (having a standard meal every day and suffering nutrition deficit or adverse health issues, eg.)
- bitwize 4y ago
  Given-when-then and arrange-act-assert are different variants on the same idea: tests shoukd show that a postcondition holds after an action occurs under certain preconditions. It's the same thing as Hoare triples, really. It's sound computer science.

vidarh 4y ago

> Hitherto, we've at least been able to install the software we like If you were very lucky and had an IT department not locking things down. Locking things down in this respect has been a key selling point for e.g. Microsoft for a very long time.

smaudet 4y ago

"I certainly do not want to see any child educated with Microsoft values" Not just the children, one thing I have seen as of late is indoctrination of developers in Arrange Act Assert (AAA) - I specifically remember it being pushed because people were indoctrinated in Given When Then - however ironically most people end up indoctrinated in AAA, which is hypocritical to original point... As an adult, constantly seek to push past (your) boundaries, because you are probably being fed some ill-informed BS about how "things should be". There are a lot of other places this holds true for as well, in tech (using the newest but not best performing tech your boss sold out for), in life (having a standard meal every day and suffering nutrition deficit or adverse health issues, eg.)

bitwize 4y ago
Given-when-then and arrange-act-assert are different variants on the same idea: tests shoukd show that a postcondition holds after an action occurs under certain preconditions. It's the same thing as Hoare triples, really. It's sound computer science.