[IAEP] [Sugar-devel] web-based activities (was Re: How to Make Activity Designers Happy , Parts I and II)
Bryan Berry
bryan at olenepal.org
Fri Jan 2 14:46:03 EST 2009
this is neat Wade.
It is a little more heavy weight for some activities. both google gears,
flash, and the flash framework flex have some nice lightweight
persistence functionality.
On Fri, 2009-01-02 at 14:32 -0500, Wade Brainerd wrote:
> The work we did for WikiBrowse (the WikipediaES and WikipediaEN)
> activities would make a good starting point.
>
> First of all the Browse code should be integrated into Sugar. This
> has been discussed before, and makes sense since you guys are
> maintaining the Browse activity anyway.
>
> The Browse code would be provided as a base
> sugar.activity.webactivity.WebActivity class. Currently, "web-based"
> activities (not content bundles) need to manually find the path to the
> Browse installation (assuming there is one!) and import its modules
> which feels rather hacky.
>
> The sugar.activity.webactivity module should also provide a WebServer
> class. This class is a SimpleHTTPServer derivative which supports
> iterating and finding and returning an unused local port to serve
> over. The server would handle GET/POST requests to a special
> '/journal/' URL prefix, allowing DHTML scripts access to the
> activity's Journal entry.
>
> Finally, a web-activity launcher script should be created. This
> script launches the Sugar Browse code and supports a variety of
> command line options to control what parts of the Browse UI are
> enabled, and to set the home page. It should be possible to launch a
> Browse instance with nothing but the Activity toolbar for example.
>
> These steps will allow for three (or more!) different variations on
> "web-based" activities:
>
> 1) Static HTML and/or DHTML ala the existing .xol system. A
> collection of .html, css and .js files can be bundled as a .xo file.
> The included activity.info exec line calls web-activity with
> appropriate command line options.
>
> The advantage of this approach over .xol files is that the "web-based
> activity" appears as a first class object in the Sugar UI with an
> independent icon on the Home view. Further, since the
> sugar.activity.webactivity.WebServer is used, DHTML code can
> read/write from the activity's Journal entry.
>
> 2) Static HTML and/or DHTML with custom UI. In WikiBrowse, I
> subclassed WebActivity and added a new Search toolbar, which searches
> the wiki DB and retrieves a page of results. This is the same as
> variation 1, except instead of calling "web-activity", a new Python
> activity class is derived from sugar.activity.webactivity.WebActivity
> and modifies the UI in some way - adding toolbars, etc.
>
> 3) Static HTML and/or DHTML with custom server. In WikiBrowse, a
> custom webserver attaches to a local port and serves wiki pages. It
> decompresses and formats wiki pages before serving them up as XHTML.
> So in this variation, a simple Python WebServer class is derived from
> sugar.activity.webactivity.WebServer and the appropriate page request
> handing methods are added. The base WebServer class additionally
> handles GET/POST request to access the Journal entry for the activity.
>
> Doing this work would allow us to rewrite WikiBrowse in a much cleaner
> fashion, and would allow a whole range of first class Web-based Sugar
> activities.
>
> Cheers,
> Wade
>
> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 1:18 PM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at sugarlabs.org>
> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> without needing to get into what is better for our
> deployments, I do
> see value in making easier to make Sugar activities using
> technologies
> such as HTML, CSS, etc
>
> Bryan, can we get into a more detailed view on what it would
> take
> ideally to create a new activity using such activities? Which
> would be
> the steps that an experienced web designer would need to take
> in order
> to create a Sugar activity?
>
> I'm sure that someone with basic knowledge of python could
> create some
> tools that make it much more easier than it is today. Also
> have some
> ideas about how those activities could interact with the
> journal and
> other Sugar features.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tomeu
>
> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 02:50, Bryan Berry <bryan at olenepal.org>
> wrote:
> > This is a draft of a multi-part article I plan to post to
> OLPC News.
> >
> > It is very long but I would very much appreciate your
> opinions and
> > feedback. Your input will make it a better article once
> published.
> >
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >
> > This OLPC project seems to be going pretty well as of late
> December
> > 2008. G1G1 v2 is well underway, there are a number of
> successful pilots
> > going on, and a number of larger-scale pilots will come
> online this
> > spring and coming summer.
> >
> > Still, there is a big gaping whole in the middle of our
> little education
> > project. There just aren't enough activities. Mind you, we
> have some
> > seriously awesome activities such as Etoys, Scratch, TamTam,
> and others.
> > We have tremendous depth but very limited breadth.
> >
> > By breadth, I mean interactive activities for language,
> history,
> > geology, health, etc. In order to expand the range of
> activities, we
> > need to recruit a lot more activity developers and make it
> dead-simple
> > for them to contribute.
> >
> > <strong>But Which Developers?</strong>
> >
> > Let's think about who we want to recruit. We're talking
> about breadth
> > here so we need experts on Nepali grammar, Pashto
> vocabulary, Philippine
> > history, and Andean geography. The good news is that there
> are
> > technically-oriented people out there that know these things
> and want to
> > help.
> >
> > We already have a hardcore team of dedicated hackers. We
> need them for
> > the work that hackers excel at: building infrastructure,
> testing the
> > limits of new systems. But now we need a different class of
> developer,
> > those that are focused on the presentation, game play and
> not system
> > internals.
> >
> > Based on these characteristics, let's call these people
> > <u>designers</u>. The good news is that there are lots of
> > designers-particularly in developing countries-that want to
> contribute
> > to OLPC. The bad news is that they don't know python. or GTK
> +. They may
> > not even be familiar with linux. They do know HTML, CSS,
> Javascript, and
> > Adobe Flash. Allow me to explain.
> >
> > Due to rise of the Internet and related boom in outsourcing,
> the vast,
> > vast majority of programmers in developing countries are web
> developers
> > (according to my own grossly unscientific survey). The rise
> of the
> > Internet has also led a lot of talented graphic designers in
> developing
> > and developed countries to learn web technologies. I even
> > wager that CSS/HTML/Javascript will become the de facto GUI
> technologies
> > in a few years time. <a
> > href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygtk">PyGTK</a> won't
> take over the
> > world nor will VB.net.
> >
> > The popular term for this triumvirate of technologies is <a
> > href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX">AJAX</a>, with the
> difference
> > that AJAX applications typically require communication with
> a remote
> > server. I propose using web technologies for completely
> offline
> > activities. Adobe's Flash is basically a variant of AJAX
> that uses
> > dialects of Javascript (<a
> >
> href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actionscript">Actionscript</a>) and
> > XML (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXML">MXML</a>).
> >
> > Very few programmers in the developed world get paid to
> write desktop
> > linux apps. Still, open-source developers find learn and
> build pygtk,
> > mono, and KDE apps in their free-time. Developers in the
> developing
> > world are extremely enthusiastic about FOSS but not nearly
> as prolific
> > in creating open-source software due to a phenomenon I
> > call the "FOSS-Nepal Paradox."
> >
> > The <a
> >
> href="http://wiki.fossnepal.org/index.php?title=The_FOSS_Nepal_Community">FOSS Nepal</a> community has <a href="http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2008">won the award</a> for best celebration of Software Freedom day for two years in a running. Despite all this enthusiasm the FOSS Nepal community is not very prolific in producing open-source code. The reason for this is that Nepal is not a wealthy country and that Open-Source is <em><strong>expensive</strong></em> to produce.
> >
> > <strong>Open-Source is Expensive</strong>
> >
> > Open-source software voraciously consumes a resource even
> more valuable
> > than hard cash, programmer time. Linus Torvalds could afford
> to spend
> > some of the most productive years of his life working
> without immediate
> > financial benefit. He could slack off in his classes without
> fear of
> > unemployment upon graduation. I doubt his parents were
> counting on him
> > to support them financially once he got a job.
> >
> > Most talented Nepali programmers I know do not have those
> luxuries. They
> > are under a lot of pressure to support their parents and
> extended
> > families, financially and otherwise. So Nepalis,
> Bangladeshis, Peruanos,
> > etc. certainly have the passion and ability to contribute to
> open-source
> > but their free time is significantly more limited.
> >
> > This doesn't mean that we should rely on developers from
> rich countries.
> > We simply need to radically lower the amount of time
> required to create
> > learning activities. I believe that many, many developers in
> the
> > developing world can contribute 3-5 hours per week. To make
> those few
> > hours productive we need to rework the default activity
> framework.
> >
> > >From what I can tell, the primary design goals of the
> default PyGTK
> > activity
> > framework are as follows:
> >
> > <ol><li>Give the programmer maximum
> flexibility</li><li>Fully exploit
> > the XO's hardware features </li><li>Mesh nicely with
> Sugar</li></ol>
> >
> > These three goals are laudable and their hacker roots are
> obvious. The
> > problem is that these goals maximize the technology's
> potential rather
> > than programmer productivity. We need reach beyond the
> vi/emacs crowd
> > (Note: I wrote this article using emacs) to thos folks that
> the masters
> > of Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Eclipse, and GIMP.
> >
> > I propose a new set of design goals:
> >
> > <ol>
> > <li>Allow activity designers to quickly build
> activities utilizing
> > widely-used tools.</li>
> > <li>Quickly reward effort with working behavior</li>
> > <li>Mesh nicely with the Sugar UI</li>
> > </ol>
> >
> > <strong>It's OK to be Opinionated</strong>
> >
> > We need an opinionated activity framework that makes
> infrastructure
> > choices for the designer so that she can focus presentation
> and
> > gameplay. Some may recognize this as the principle of <a
> >
> href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_over_Configuration">Convention Over Configuration</a>, a principle that two of the most popular web frameworks, Django and RubyOnRails, adhere to. Now a lot of geeks don't like Convention over Configuration--perl hackers especially--but they sure do allow you to create nice applications very quickly.
> >
> > Establishing an "opinionated" activity framework will in no
> way limit
> > the freedom of those hackers who want to go their own way.
> They can
> > always build their own activities from whatever tools they
> choose. The
> > whole point of a framework is to help people get started
> quickly but it
> > doesn't constrain anyone.
> >
> > This concludes part I. Here are some tantalizing morsels
> from Part II
> > of "How to Make Activity Designers Happy,"
> >
> > <ul>
> > <li>Where it's at: HTML, CSS, Javascript, and *gasp*
> Flash</li>
> > <li>Nepal's Content Development Experience</li>
> > <li>Aren't Kids going to create all learning
> activities so we don't
> > have to?</li>
> > </ul>
> >
> > <em>
> > Bryan Berry is the Technology Director of <a
> > href="http://www.olenepal.org">OLE Nepal</a> and deadbeat
> co-editor of
> > OLPCNews.com. Christopher Marin contributed his knowledge
> about all
> > things web to this article</em>
> >
> >
> >
> > In part 1, I talked about the paradoxical
> > nature of open-source communities in developing countries,
> flaws in
> > the current default activity development framework, and the
> urgent
> > need for a new framework that makes activity designers
> <em>happy</em>.
> >
> > By happy, I mean that the framework rewards their efforts
> almost
> > immediately (roughly 15 minutes of effort) and it lets them
> focus on
> > presentation and gameplay rather than infrastructure. Last
> time I
> > offered some vague ideas how this framework might function.
> This time
> > I will provide more details how this framework could work
> and why.
> >
> > Let's Ride The Internet Wave
> >
> > The Internet is the 300-pound gorilla in the
> software-engineering room
> > it will eat virtually everything, including your favorite
> desktop GUI
> > framework. All of the IDE's bend over backwards to support
> coding of
> > webapps, whether it is emacs, eclipse, or even vim. The
> software
> > industry is making huge investments into web technologies
> that support
> > the triumvirate of HTML/CSS/Javascript, witness Google's
> investment in
> > <a href="http://code.google.com/p/v8/ ">V8 javascript</a>
> compiler and
> > Apple's investment in <a
> > href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit">Webkit</a>. I
> speculate
> > that there are many, many more developers working on GUI
> toolkits for
> > the web browser- such as JQuery, Prototype,
> Script.aculo.us-than for
> > GNOME or KDE desktop frameworks.
> >
> > The web will keep innovating at a breakneck pace. We need to
> ride that
> > wave of innovation.
> >
> > In the early days of OLPC, we all had a lot of grandiose and
> > impractical ideas. The educational systems of developing
> countries
> > would change overnight into constructionist hotbeds. Kids
> would build
> > their own activities, eliminating the need for large
> investments in
> > content development. A million PyGTK apps with built-in
> collaboration
> > and "View-Source" key would spontaneously bloom . . . Well,
> we're
> > older and wiser now. School systems anywhere are not blank
> slates that
> > we can redraw from scratch using cheap laptops and Etoys.
> Similarly,
> > we cannot expect thousands of developers to flock to a
> framework
> > (PyGTK) that is not commercially popular.
> >
> > Developing Country Developer Economics
> >
> > As I wrote in Part I, the economics of open-source in
> developing
> > countries is quite different than that in the developed
> > world. Developers there have ample enthusiasm for
> open-source but much
> > less time to contribute.
> >
> > We need to lower the barrier of entry significantly in order
> to use
> > their talents. In fact, we need to entice non-programmers
> such as
> > graphic designers. In my limited experience, graphic
> designers are
> > much better at designing learning activities than
> programmers. They
> > better appreciate aesthetics and visual story-telling.
> >
> > Web designers layout their work using CSS and (X)HTML. They
> implement
> > user interaction and animations using Javascript. They
> design their
> > work using Photoshop, GIMP, Adobe Illustrator, and sometimes
> > Eclipse. They know the features and dark areas of the
> Firefox web
> > browser. Sugar infrastructure developers, these people are
> your
> > customers. We need KARMA to enable them to quickly buidl
> activities
> > for the XO without having to learn a whole new skillset.
> From a
> > programmatic point of view, Browse needs to behave as much
> as possible
> > like Firefox. Any discrepancy will distract activity
> designers from
> > the more rewarding parts of activity development.
> >
> > Building Good KARMA
> >
> > Before we get too far, let's give this new activity
> framework a name
> > so I can save us all a lot of excess verbiage. I call it
> <u>KARMA</u>,
> > because the word is loosely-related to Nepal, my current
> residence,
> > and I like to think creating open-source learning activities
> gives an
> > individual good karma. Coincidentally, it is also the first
> two
> > syllables of Rabi Karmacharya's last name--an individual put
> a ton of
> > hard work and personal sacrifice into the OLPC project in
> Nepal.
> >
> > Well, I haven't actually made up my mind what the core
> technologies of
> > KARMA
> > should be. I need your help to work it out. Before I get
> into the
> > technologies, here are my priorities. 1) These tools
> maximize
> > programmer productivity and 2) are open-soure. Priority #1
> is much
> > more important than #2. 100% purely open-source activities
> that don't
> > exist don't help kids learn. The current pygtk framework is
> purely
> > open-source but you have to become a unix programmer to use
> it. As I
> > noted in Part I, the vast, vast majority of programmers in
> the
> > developing world are web developers and a successful
> activity
> > framework will allow them to re-use their existing skills
> and tools.
> >
> > I have settled on HTML and CSS for the presentation but it
> is tougher
> > to decide on the scripting toolset and on persistent data
> > storage. Flash handles animations really well and it is easy
> to
> > integrate audio into the animations. Adobe sells some really
> nice
> > WYSIWYG tools for editing animation and adding audio. A lot
> of
> > developers know flash so there is a large pool of talent we
> can draw
> > from. Did I forget to mention that Flash is proprietary?
> >
> > The closed-source issue not withstanding, Flash is the tool
> to
> > use. Some may be upset that Flash doesn't lend itself to
> "View Source"
> > functionality but learning programming is not the sum total
> of
> > education. Kids can do all the programming they ever want to
> w/ the
> > excellent Etoys and Scratch. Sorry to sound like a broken
> record, but
> > Afghani kids won't be able to view the source of Pashto
> grammar
> > activities that don't exist, let alone interactively learn
> the rules
> > of Pashto grammar.
> >
> > Flash Ain't Open-Source
> >
> > Flash is not _as_ closed-source as other software
> applications like
> > Windows. The Adobe has published the specification for their
> SWF file
> > format and the ActionScript 3.0 compiler is open-source.
> However, the
> > Adobe's development tools such as Adobe Animator,
> Illustrator,
> > Photoshop, etc. are not open-source. Nor is Adobe's flash
> player
> > plugin. There is the open-source Gnash player but it does
> not fully
> > support Actionscript 3 or Flash version 9. Rob Savoye and
> his team at
> > Open Media Now do a great job but they seriously lack
> resources. Note:
> > Rob
> > Savoye, please correct my egregious errors.
> >
> > Javascript Isn't Ready
> >
> > I put in a good number of research hours into this article.
> I really,
> > really wanted to find a pure javascript framework that could
> compete
> > with Flash. I couldn't find one that does. There are
> libraries like
> > DOJO, JQuery, and Processing.js
> > http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs/. Unfortunately, there
> aren't any
> > IDE's that provide WYSIWYG animation editing for these
> tools. Every
> > try to edit photos from a text editor? It's painful, really
> > painful. So while real programmers use emacs (or vi, joe,
> sam, etc.),
> > designers use WYSIWYG GUI's.
> >
> > Sadly, Javascript can't use the Graphics Processing Unit
> like Flash
> > can. Ouch, it's a pain in the ass to couple animations with
> sound
> > files. Based on my research so far, pure javascript won't be
> able to
> > compete with Flash for at least the next several years.
> Please prove
> > me wrong. Please post a comment to this article linking to
> some
> > Javascript wonderfulness that pulls even with Flash.
> >
> >
> > I will continue with the assumption that KARMA will use
> flash. I will
> > happily revise this article ex post facto if someone in
> cyberspace
> > points me to a pure javascript solution that makes activity
> designers
> > happy.
> >
> > Building Momentum for Gnash
> >
> > I believe that the best way to increase interest in fully
> open-source
> > flash is to make Flash more central in the evolving
> open-source
> > education stack rather than minimizing its role. We
> definitely cannot
> > wait for Gnash to fully support every feature of the
> proprietary flash
> > before we begin using it. Open-Source starts when a single
> developer
> > "scratches an itch" as the proverb goes. It follows then
> that the best
> > way to bring Gnash up to speed we need to create a nasty,
> festering
> > sore that irritates the open-source community into action.
> >
> > Moving the Conversation Forward
> >
> > Many people will likely hate my promotion of Flash for
> learning
> > activities. It's OK if you hate me and Flash. I do hope you
> recognize
> > that we need a more developer-centric activity framework
> that uses web
> > technologies.
> >
> > I have a lot more to write about Nepal's experiences
> developing
> > learning activities and my ideas on Convention over
> Configuration in
> > sugar activities. I will save those for another day.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Bryan W. Berry
> > Technology Director
> > OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> > IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> >
> _______________________________________________
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--
Bryan W. Berry
Technology Director
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
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