[IAEP] [Sugar-devel] ASLO Suggestion

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 16:22, Gary C Martin<gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> On 11 Jun 2009, at 14:10, Sean DALY wrote:
>
>> Bert - many thanks, I understand much better now.
>>
>> We're expecting a traffic peaks at the end of the month with our media
>> push, that's why this work on clarity/simplicity is important.
>>
>> I'm afraid "Fructose" as a left-hand category on ASLO is obscure, it
>> really should be "base" or "core" or "base install", this last I like
>> best because it's very clear. Note: a search for "Fructose" in ASLO
>> returns no results!
>>
>> I actually don't think it's that hard to set a list; it's really just
>> a Get Started list which covers online/offline, younger/older
>> Learners, and super-helpful to have even if off-ring (Terminal...).
>>
>> I agree some deployments will want to zap some Activities, but as long
>> as it's clear that there's no technical barrier to doing so we're
>> fine.
>>
>> The list of 13 Fructose Activities at
>> http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/
>> does not match the list of 11 Fructose Activities on ASLO
>> (http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/browse/type:1/cat:112?sort=name
>> ).
>> I imagine Image is off the bus (replaced by Image Viewer), but is the
>> omission of Write intentional? I couldn't find it on ASLO at all :-(
>>
>> (N.B. Write is always the first Activity I choose to demonstrate
>> classroom collaboration; people understand collaboration instantly
>> when each of two machines can edit the same document live. My kids'
>> nanny who is in her early 60s and does not use computers understood
>> right away the usefulness of XOs in a classroom when she saw that, she
>> got all excited and started asking me questions!)
>>
>> So I think the ASLO Fructose list, plus Write, can certainly be
>> qualified as 12 "base install" Activities:
>>
>> Browse
>> Calculate
>> Chat
>> Etoys
>> ImageViewer
>> Jukebox
>> Log
>> Pippy
>> Read
>> Terminal
>> TurtleArt
>> Write
>>
>> However I think it would be judicious to add Help to this list. Help
>> is very reassuring during discovery of the totally unfamiliar
>> interface. I'm aware there are issues right now building a new Help
>> from the FLOSS Manuals source, but I believe Help aids teachers and
>> parents significantly with the Sugar GUI learning curve.
>
> Can I raise "Populate Journal with a handful of useful/exemplary
> items" trac ticket:
>
>        http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/840
>
> And suggest that we start using the Journal as a journal, rather than
> trying to create monoliths. Why not just take the help content break
> it into it's sections/chapters and add each as a PDF** entry with a
> nice title, description, and set of tags. That way anyone can go into
> Journal and type, "help turtle" and will be given the sections about
> turtle art.
>
> ** I'm just choosing PDF as it's support is mature in the current
> Sugar platform. Splitting up the help content will improve accuracy of
> search and avoid the memory issues of opening single large documents.
>
>> Are there any other candidates today for the Fructose list we should
>> consider? Not to open a can of worms - adjusting the pantheon is much
>> less urgent than the discoverability/usability issues - but a review
>> before each SoaS version seems judicious to me, especially since a
>> choice needs to be made about which Activities are in the ring and
>> which are off. I would suggest:
>
> FWIW: As an Activity author I've long resisted any of my stuff going
> into Fructose. The whole point of Activities is that they are
> divisible from the base distribution and can be developed out of sync
> from the core Sugar platform. The harder you try to glue them all
> together as one great lump, the more brittle the whole development and
> release process is going to get.

IMO, the only reason for an activity to be part of Fructose is to be
tied closely to the release cycle. For most activities this will be a
bad thing, but for some it's good. I think it's good for activities
that depend closely on some part of the platform, so that when the
platform updates, say, xulrunner or evince, the activity for this
release cycle won't work in the past releases and past versions won't
work in the last release cycle. Using the same release cycle as the
platform makes things much easier.

Also might benefit translators, but Sayamindu would be able to confirm this.

Regards,

Tomeu


> For me, the only reason for Fructose is for those Activities
> considered an essential part of the Sugar platform, i.e without Browse
> it's going to be tough to install other Activities, without Read you
> won't be able to read documentation. Most Activities ended up in
> Fructose because their developers were also 'core' developers (those
> also working on the core Sugar platform), and they usually needed
> specific Activities to actually test and exercise the various features
> they were working on and integrating in Sugar.
>
> Fructose is a technical term used by developers, it's also mutable as
> Activities fall in and out of it over time.
>
> Regards,
> --Gary
>
>> Clock
>> Help
>> Maze
>> Memorize
>> Moon
>> Read ETexts
>> Speak
>> Tux Paint
>>
>> I hesitated over:
>> * Record which kids adore, but which I understand is iffy due to wide
>> hardware variations, also teachers don't seem to like it much :-)
>> * the TamTams which would make the list longish... (though my
>> four-year-old figured out TamTam Mini in ten seconds the other day and
>> loved every second with it)
>> * GCompris Chess, since no 2-player yet.
>>
>>
>> Our introduction to Sugar has a page with an attractive smorgasbord of
>> Activities (http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=page&page=about_activities
>> ),
>> and a link to ASLO. We listed the Activities in teacher/parent
>> interest order: reassuring basics, net stuff,
>> games/language/multimedia, the TamTams, tech/system utilities. Image
>> Viewer and Jukebox are missing from this page, I propose to add them
>> and two others to the matrix so the complete Fructose set (minus
>> Image) is present. The Journal starts the list due to its special
>> status, but it really should be broken out as a "special" Activity
>> that is always there, saves everything automatically, allows resuming
>> of work, etc. ASLO should have a brief mention of the Journal in the
>> orientation intro I want to edit; telling inexperienced Sugar
>> admins/teachers/parents/Learners that it is always in Sugar and can't
>> be installed or uninstalled. This "super-Activity" distinction is
>> important because the Journal icon occupies the same spot under the
>> central XO avatar as the current Activity. Note that each icon links
>> to the OLPC page (the intro site was published on a tight deadline
>> just before the March 16th press release :-), I think we can update it
>> to link to the ASLO pages now.
>>
>> Note: we have been doing some "star marketing" of Activities in our
>> PR: Write, InfoSlicer, Mindmap, Portfolio. We chose these to appeal to
>> teachers; they are differentiators. Some press articles have mentioned
>> the star Activities, recognizing that they are interesting and unique
>> to Sugar. Library for example is an Activity I'm not quite sure does
>> what, but its name and logo will be irresistible to parents and
>> teachers.
>>
>> OLPC has their list (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All) and we
>> need to get that page to link to ASLO, the information there is uneven
>> (contains some stillborn/abandonware). Perhaps the easiest fix would
>> be to link from each Activity position on that page to that Activity's
>> ASLO page; people searching the Activity population would quickly
>> understand the different/parallel nature of the OLPC page and ASLO. As
>> far as I know, there aren't any issues with the very latest versions
>> running on XO-1s, would I be correct in assuming this? Or does OLPC
>> prefer to identify "known good" version, the ones updated through the
>> XO Control Panel?
>>
>> Google search ranks highly this 6-month-old page:
>> http://www.spitting-image.com/OLPC/ , an indicator of the need for
>> ASLO's rating system.
>>
>> By "Activity Pack" I mean a set of Activities.
>> * Activity Set: clear and concise, but dullish.
>> * Activity Pack: implies a "box" containing a bunch of chosen
>> Activities; my favorite, because it sounds like you're getting
>> something.
>> * Activity Group: will be confused with Learners.
>> * Activity Bundle: bundle clearly means something already, so that's
>> out. I'm afraid I don't know what a "content bundle" is.
>> * Activity Hive: fits with honey metaphor, but obscure.
>>
>> Activity packs can have a very useful role in promoting Sugar, e.g.
>> "our updated Multimedia Pack is perfect for budding musicians and
>> artists" or "our Games Pack has been specially selected for 2 or more
>> player learning fun". As our Activity offer becomes richer, we
>> encourage potential installers to jump through the hoops of
>> downloading an ISO, installing VirtualBox or loading a USB stick,
>> learning the new interface, etc.
>>
>> Echoing James' mail which started the thread, I agree Featured
>> Activities will ideally be:
>>
>> * non- base install
>> * interesting
>> * different each month, encouraging return traffic
>>
>> In short, the place to go for "extras" beyond what you start out with.
>>
>> The "base install" grouping will be very useful to replace an
>> accidentally deleted Activity or offer further information about an
>> Activity with a learning curve (link to author's page etc).
>>
>> A parent or teacher who successfully installs Sugar and then
>> successfully upgrades and adds to its Activities will fully understand
>> the key advantages of the platform's openness and extensibility.
>>
>> Does this seem like a good path?
>>
>> thanks
>>
>> Sean
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Bert Freudenberg<bert at freudenbergs.de
>> > wrote:
>>>
>>> On 11.06.2009, at 09:51, Sean DALY wrote:
>>>
>>>> ultimately, the question is: are there (or not) Activities common to
>>>> every, or nearly every instance of Sugar?
>>>>
>>>> Browse
>>>> Read
>>>> Write
>>>> etc.
>>>
>>>
>>> At least the Fructose activities should always be there:
>>>
>>> http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/fructose/
>>>
>>> - Bert -
>>>
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>
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