[sugar] Sugar on Beagle Board training at ESC Boston

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 4:23 AM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-08-18 at 16:00 -0500, Jason Kridner wrote:
>> Call for presentation from Sugar developers,
>>
>> I think it would be great if the Sugar community would put forth a
>> training at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston in October[1].
>
> What sort of class do you have in mind?  I will see what we can put
> together.
>
>> They will be holding several classes[2] on the Beagle Board and I
>> believe the board is well-suited for higher-level educational
>> environments (low-cost, low-power, small, DSP capabilities, 3D
>> graphics, etc.).  It is certainly no OLPC replacement, but I'd like to
>> get the people who are playing with that board thinking a bit
>> differently about how we train programmers to think about computers--
>> and I believe Sugar is a good tool for that.
>
> Further collaboration between the embedded world and Sugar has the
> potential for significant payoffs down the road.  We share a common
> interest in doing more with less.  Less power, less cpu, less memory,
> more usefulness.

One more point where can be synergy between the two projects is that
Sugar has shown how viable is to do an alternate desktop with
technologies like python, the GNOME stack, etc. Even if people decide
to build their own thing instead of just porting it, Sugar will
benefit from other platforms using these technologies in similar ways,
and we can share our experience in exchange.

>> Let me know if you are interested.  I'd be happy to help with the
>> port.  Python, GTK+, and GECKO are already running.

That's already a very big part of what's needed. Would love to have
some spare cycles to directly help in the port, but I guess I will
only be able to answer questions for the foreseeable future.

> I have subscribed to the beagleboard group at google.  Please let me
> know if they are other communication channels to which I should
> subscribe.
>
> In terms of getting a project like this going.
>
> 1. Gather together a small group of people who are interested in the
> port.

Yes, I trust some current contributors to Sugar will be interested in
helping with the port.

> 2.  Create a minimal infrastructure.  Wiki page, mailing list.... to
> coordinate your work.

Specially at the beginning, keep the Sugar mailing list informed of
your progresses.

> 3. Start working on the port.
>
> 4. As soon as you have made some reasonable progress on the port, go to
> the nearest mountaintop and start yelling, 'look at the cool project we
> are working on.'
>
> 5. Repeat step 1 though 4.
>
> I will assist you however I can in steps 1,2, and 4.  My short term goal
> will be be replacing myself with someone who can help you with steps
> 1-4;)

Good luck!

Tomeu