[IAEP] IAEP Digest, Vol 14, Issue 57

[James Simmons]

Caroline,

I have been thinking a bit along the lines you mention.  Several people 
seemed to have the idea that my Read Etexts program should not just read 
Gutenberg etexts, but should enable you to go find and download said 
texts easily.  I had resisted that idea, but now I'm beginning to see 
some merit in it.  What would make it possible is that PG produces a 
text file which is a catalog of all of their books.  You can get it here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL

My own program, if I ever get around to writing it, would download this 
file on request, create an array of objects that cross referenced titles 
to book numbers, sort it, and pickle it.  The pickled file would be used 
as input to a search dialog or perhaps a search panel that would let you 
type in words like "Verne" or "Aviation" and would list out titles that 
had those words in it.  The user would select the title he wished to 
download and the program would download it and create a Journal entry 
for it.  This Journal entry would have the Read Etexts icon and would 
resume with Read Etexts.

I have a pretty good idea how to add this functionality to Read Etexts 
but no idea when I'll find the time to do it.  However, it occurs to me 
that this text file, converted to a PDF (use courier font), would be a 
pretty good demonstration of the number and variety of books available 
for free in just one repository.  You could make a Journal entry out of 
it or link to it from the Start page of Browse (in which case no 
conversion would be necessary).  The file is human readable.

James Simmons


Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 13:37:40 -0400
> From: Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com>
> Subject: [IAEP] The eBook "ah ha" moment for Sugar on a Stick
> To: iaep <iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<b74fba2b0905121037n5feef7ecle60046b75b29d30b at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> For the next SoaS Beta I'd like to help users trying out Sugar, especially
> educators, have an "ah ha" moment about how Sugar on a Stick can open a huge
> world of books for their students.
>
> The US elementary schools I visit have a computer lab and they have books.
> But they certainly don't have the budget to get as many copies of as many
> different books as they would like.
>
> Maybe our new users will know that there are free books on the internet.
> Good chance they have never actually tried it themselves.  Plus, having a
> book on the internet doesn't help their students if they get one hour of
> computer time in the lab.
>
> But having a book on your Sugar Stick and being able to read it in multiple
> locations is actually very useful!
>
> This is one of the many things I want educators to discover as they play
> with their Sugar Sticks.
>
> I know we have wonderful library apps coming down the pike. What I'm
> interested in right now is what is the art of the possible for the next Beta
> in June?
>
> Suggestions so far:
>
> - Include the FLOSS Sugar manual in the SoaS Image
> - Add a link to one or more free book sites in the startup page on Browse
> - Include a kids book in the SoaS Image.
>
> Other ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> Caroline
>