[sugar] Squeak / Etoys RPMs

[Marco Pesenti Gritti]

> I find it hard to avoid this entirely.  For instance, imagine we have 
> a flashcard activity (not too much of a stretch).  It seems like an 
> obvious implementation to put flashcard data on the web somewhere, as 
> type application/xml+x-flashcard (or whatever), and then import the 
> data when that data type is encountered through a browser.
>

What is a flashcard activity? This is *way* too abstract. Activity is 
not a synonymous for application (our fault we are totally failing to 
communicate this). But even using the more generic application term... 
what is a flashcard application?

Why I never see a browser activity, a text writing activity, a drawing 
activity, a chat activity, a journal activity, an hypercard like 
activity mentioned in this thread? These will be the core of the user 
experience and they should be the focus of the design. Side cases are 
well... side cases.

>> IHMO all that the first approach can bring is an over-engineered 
>> system and a disastrous user experience.
>
> I think this all seems rather abstract because the journal/storage 
> system has not been spec'd out or implemented.  Once that happens I 
> expect these issues to become more prominent.  That said, perhaps it 
> is best we defer this conversation until then.
>

You know what's my real worry? I'm worried that when the storage system 
will be spec'd out (or even worst implemented) we will find out it's not 
what we need to implement the user experience design. And the reason I'm 
really worried is that I *care* about it because I'm sure you guys are 
building a great piece of software.

Building a good user interface is not putting nice pictures on the top 
of a prebuilt system. It's a top-down process where the final goal is 
clearly defined by the user experience design. Usefulness and merits of 
the architecture are not abstract technical values but are evaluated on 
the base of this final goal.

We failed to communicate the design outside of the design team. That's 
one of the reasons of the communication difficulties this thread is 
clearly bringing up. We are trying to get this fixed.
The other reason is that it's difficult to involve you guys in the user 
experience design process. Please help out with that. Just look at the 
design, questions and contributions are always very welcome.

Marco