Leopard Programming

As Alex Eckelberry wrote in the following post, the partnership with WeatherBug has come to an end and Leopard is looking for a new home.

Here’s the message that I sent out to Leopard users:

Hello Leopard Programmers,

This is Brandon Watts, creator of the Leopard programming language. I sincerely hope that you’ve been enjoying using Leopard in your homes and schools, and I’m sending you this message today to give you an update about what’s going on with Leopard.
 

As you know, I have partnered with WeatherBug over the past couple of years to develop and distribute a co-branded version of Leopard through their network. WeatherBug’s support has helped Leopard to reach new heights, and I’m incredibly thankful for the boost that they have given to the language. With that said, our partnership has now come to an end, which means that I’m actively pursuing new partnership or acquisition offers. WeatherBug has graciously offered to continue to host Leopard on their site while Leopard finds a new home.
 

Before I pursue any other means, I wanted to reach out to the community of Leopard programmers to see if any of you have an interest in acquiring Leopard or have leads to a company or individual who does.
 

Here’s some of the press that Leopard has received during the WeatherBug partnership:
 

The Gainesville Times 

ScobleShow

WDUN AM

Please contact me directly if you’d like to get more information, and thanks for all of your support!

Like I said in that message, contact me if you’d like to talk about this. Thanks!

There’s an interesting conversation taking place over at TechCrunch about bridging desktop and web applications. This is obviously becoming a huge trend due in part to the development of solutions like Mozilla Prism, Adobe AIR, and Fluid. All of those products offer interesting advancements, but this idea is certainly nothing new.



WeatherBug started going down this road years ago with their desktop application, and Leopard itself now enables anyone to create their very own truly connected desktop application. If you have experience using Leopard, then you know that not only can you embed any piece of web content like a widget or even a full web site in your Leopard programs, but you can also completely build and customize the rest of the application in the way that you want due to the functionality of the programming language.



As it is right now, even though Leopard is one of the easiest programming languages around, the very idea of programming something can still be intimidating to people, and we have more work to do to simplify the creation and distribution of Leopard programs through wizards and other means. Once these changes are implemented, Leopard will be able to be a bigger part of this connected desktop application movement and offer functionality that is unique and even more powerful in many ways than what is already out there.

In our research, we’ve found that teachers enjoy the functionality that Leopard offers, but at the same time, they need direction in how to actually use it in their classrooms. We’ve heard the requests for lesson plans, and we’re now making three of them available to help get you started. Assuming that they’re received favorably, we might be able to produce some more.

If you have any further ideas for Leopard lesson plans or have created your own, please e-mail me so that we can work on featuring them.

This morning, I was interviewed on The WDUN Morning Show with Bill and Joel, which is broadcast on a local AM radio station here in Georgia.

At almost six minutes long, the interview was short and to the point, and I think it went very well. It’s always nice to talk to people who get where I’m coming from with Leopard, and the hosts certainly understood my motivation.

I recorded the interview while it was streaming on the Internet, and you can listen to it if you’d like.

A local newspaper here in northeast Georgia just published a feature story that they did on Leopard and its integration with WeatherBug.

The story contains very positive feedback from one of the local high school technology teachers that’s teaching Leopard and one of his students, and a picture was even taken of them using Leopard in the classroom (it’s the second slide). The third slide contains an audio excerpt from my interview.



This is some great press to have for Leopard, and it should help us to spread the word about the tool throughout the local area and even the entire state of Georgia more effectively.

If you visit the Leopard Web site, you’ll see that Leopard v2.2 is now available! This version contains a number of new features including logic, looping, a timer, and the ability to chain multiple onclick events together.
 


Read through the online help file to see some of what has changed, and give this latest version a try to experience the possibilities for yourself.



Download Leopard v2.2!

It came and went in a hurry, but Nashville’s TETC 2007 was a great conference to be a part of, and I had the opportunity to meet quite a few teachers who were genuinely interested in what we’re doing with Leopard. 



The presentation went well, and I think that those in attendance appreciated having the ability to experience Leopard in a hands-on way thanks to the laptops that Gateway provided. My session may have been an hour long, but it felt like it flew by in about five or ten minutes.



It’s always nice to have the opportunity to get a bunch of teachers in a room and tell them what Leopard is all about, and it’s one of the parts of what I do that I truly enjoy the most.

This November, Nashville will host TETC (Tennessee Educational Technology Conference), and I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting a lab session about Leopard on Wednesday (28th). If you’re going to be in attendance at the conference, then I’d love to have you join in on the session so that I can show you more about Leopard and answer any questions that you may have.

For more information on the session, please check out page four of this document.

See you in Nashville!

On the Leopard Web site, you’ll now find a revised introductory video in a variety of formats and a Leopard forum in which you can both start and participate in discussions about the tool.

Now that October 1st is here, I’m pleased to announce that the WeatherBug 2007 Online Science and Programming Contest has begun!

The contest runs through November 16th, and the winners will be selected in December. Now is a great time to get your students started with using Leopard so that they can be a part of this national contest and possibly win some fantastic prizes.

Please visit the contest Web site for more information.