[IAEP] For Sugar Everywhere, Google-ize!

[Rafael Ortiz]

On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 2:11 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>wrote:

> FWIW, there are already some efforts underway to port some Sugar
> activities to Android... hope to learn from those efforts in the short
> term.
>
>
Are there links or info about this efforts ?



> -walter
>
> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 2:09 PM, C. Scott Ananian <cscott at cscott.net>
> wrote:
> > Hi folks.  I wish to make a radical proposal:
> > Sugar's days on OLPC hardware are numbered.  Sugar as presently written
> is
> > not developing quickly enough, and hasn't made significant progress
> towards
> > supporting the new touchscreen devices coming down the pike.
> > This isn't a problem: it's an opportunity!
> > I believe that SugarLabs should radically embrace "Sugar Everywhere".  In
> my
> > opinion, this means attempting to target Android or ChromeOS with Sugar
> > activities as quickly as possible.
> > "But these OSes aren't geared for learning!" you might respond.  Neither
> was
> > Linux, until Sugar arrived!  Nor was GNOME!
> > First, let's take a serious look at where we *actually* are with respect
> to
> > self-programmability of Sugar.
> > There isn't a serious IDE.  None of the Sugar software is accessible via
> the
> > Journal.  Much of it is actually writable only by root!
> > Python is a great pedagogic language, but the best tutorials to show how
> > Sugar can be hacked start by teaching kids vi!
> > Viewed dispassionately, we have fallen very short of the 'view source'
> > ideals, and activities like Scratch or Etoys provide a much better
> pedagogic
> > introduction to programming than attempting to read through the python
> > sources of Sugar does.
> > If Sugar were to rebase on Android, one of the first tasks would be to
> > figure out how to run as many of the existing activities in Android as
> > possible.  This can be done via projects like Jython, which implement
> Python
> > in Java, and by reimplementing some of the underlying Sugar collaboration
> > and storage services.   The activities are the most important part of
> Sugar!
> >  We don't need to reimplement the frame, or activity management, or
> > networking configuration (at first) -- take advantage of the hardware
> > support of Android and build on its OS services, and concentrate
> SugarLab's
> > limited energies on the activities.
> > In addition to getting Scratch/Etoys/Speak/Pippy to run on Android, the
> > Sugar community can contribute a simple Java compiler to make Android
> > more-fully self-hosting.  Perhaps some small hacks to Android are needed
> to
> > allow it to install apps from its own filesystem.  Android is open
> source,
> > go for it!  The result may be a slightly tweaked android, but
> > Sugar-on-Android will be portable to hundreds of different low-cost
> phones
> > and tablets from any number of different manufacturers.  Sugar
> everywhere!
> > Or perhaps consider rebasing Sugar on ChromeOS.  Existing Sugar
> applications
> > could run in a plugin, or as a Chrome extension.  In addition, new Sugar
> > activities could be written in *web standard languages*.  In my travels
> in
> > South America, Python is still an oddball out-lyer.  But universities are
> > eager to teach HTML and Javascript.  Further, Javascript interpreters in
> > browsers are many times faster than Python, and getting faster all the
> time.
> >  Consider also that the "Chrome Debugger" is already a *much* better IDE
> > than Pippy, and already fulfills the most important goal of the "view
> > source" manifesto -- you can click on *any visible thing* on the webpage,
> > and see immediately what code produced it.  We're still a very long way
> from
> > that goal in Sugar/Python.  Again, we can build on the system support of
> > Chrome OS (starting apps, configuring networking, preferences, etc) and
> > build activities as web applications (which can use a special chrome
> > extension for additional services, including collaboration and the
> journal)
> > which can again run on a large number of different devices.
> > Portable devices are the future.  Lots of manufacturers are already
> spending
> > enormous amounts of effort on hardware porting and all the UI and network
> > and system management tasks for their devices.  Sugar shouldn't need to
> > reproduce this work, or be tied to particular hardware.  By capitalizing
> on
> > the existing work done for Android or ChromeOS, SugarLabs can concentrate
> on
> > what makes Sugar great: strong support by educators, excellent
> activities,
> > and a focus on making the system introspectable and hackable.
> >   --scott
> > --
> >                          ( http://cscott.net/ )
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> > IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.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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