These are demos of software which is designed to acquaint small children with some of the graphics operations of a PC home computer. Children can easily learn to click and drag icons and graphic objects in activities which is easy to understand. The goal was to reduce the activities to the simplest possible level and to eliminate many of the confusing distractions which software suitable for older children often have.
NOTE: The pictures below are "screenshots", i.e. static images, of each demo at some point in a particular run. They are not active. If you want to try the program, you must download the file as explained in the following text.
This simple program displays a snowman with twigs, pieces of coal and other objects on the ground. It is very easy for beginning computer users to click on one of the objects on the ground and, holding the button down, drag it to some place on the snowman. Release the button to drop the object. It can be moved later by clicking and dragging it to a new location. This operation is referred to as 'drag and drop' in the Windows literature. When the snowman is done, it can be printed on the printer by clicking the PRINT button.
Click on the picture above to download the snowman.zip file which contains all the files necessary to run the program. Unzip the file and run snowman.exe.
This demo starts with a bare tree and an upper toolbar containing icons for various Christmas tree ornaments. Clicking any of the ornaments will activate it and then click on the tree will place one at each clicked location. To change ornaments, simply click a new one. The main color of the ornament can be changed by clicking on the lower toolbar which contains a color palette.
The garland ornament, the third one on the toolbar, is placed by clicking it and then clicking alternate points on the left and right sides of the tree. The hanging portion of the garland will be automatically drawn as each point is clicked.
The tree lights can be made to blink by clicking on the BLINK button, and the current tree can be printed out by click the PRINT button.
Click on the Christmas Tree picture above to download the demo, xmastree.zip . Then unzip the file and run xmastree.exe to try the demo.
This demo is the simplest possible computer activity. All that is required from the user is to click one of the icons on the lower toolbar to activate a fireworks display. Each of the fireworks contains a launch sequence and an explosion sound when the selected display is begun. The chosen object explodes on the screen in a realistic manner and as the lit objects fall they fade away.
Click on the above image to download firework.zip which contains all the files needed for this demo. Unzip the file and run firework.exe to try the program.