[sugar] Why Embedded Sugar?

[Edward Cherlin]

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 7:29 PM, Bill Gatliff <bgat at billgatliff.com> wrote:
> David Farning wrote:
>> It has been a bit of a plug but it looks like we have reach critical
>> mass for a self sustaining embedded Sugar community.
>
> I love the idea of getting a critical mass around something, but I don't yet
> "get it" regarding Sugar for embedded work.  The problem is most likely that I'm
> not thinking out-of-the-box, but if you present Sugar at ESC then you're going
> to have to really know--- and show--- the embedded itches that Sugar can scratch
> to a room full of people like me.  A demo of a pretty UI on non-PC hardware
> isn't enough.
>
> I'm not discarding Sugar's contribution to the computing community as a whole,
> and I'm certainly not suggesting that Sugar lacks anything to offer for embedded
> applications.  I just want to make sure that while your new team is busy getting
> Sugar to work on beagleboard, they're also thinking about how to package its
> "sell" to the larger embedded audience.  Do that right, and you'll never have to
> struggle for critical mass again.  Do that poorly, however, and all the effort
> goes nowhere.
>
> Case in point.  I happen to think Forth is cool for embedded work, but it hasn't
> caught on.

Except at Sun, Apple, and OLPC in the form of Open Firmware, and in a
few other such places where the casual observer wouldn't know about
it.

> The problem isn't that Forth lacks advocacy, it's that Forth lacks
> advocacy by those who can credibly "sell" it as a solution that embedded
> developers need.

If I didn't have more urgent things to do, I would love the
opportunity to sell GPLed FORTH/Open Firmware plus consulting to all
of the PC board makers in place of the next billion proprietary BIOS
chips. I expect that to be one of the lucrative spinoffs from the OLPC
project, just like Pixel Qi's daylight-readable screens and the A123
LiFeP batteries.

> So we remain stuck with uBoot.  :)

Makes no sense to me. I would expect OFW to be smaller, faster, and
easier to work with. But what do I know? Ask Mitch Bradley for an
informed opinion.

> So, sell Sugar to me!

I wonder whether you are thinking only of embedded Sugar competing
with the XO in schools. Let me suggest a different scenario.

We are working on a literacy project within Sugar, combining a
multilingual text-to-speech engine with karaoke-style text coloring,
as in the Same Language Subtitling practiced in India. SLS in
Bollywood musicals and TV singalongs has proven to be a spectactularly
successful literacy program, measured in bang/Rupee. Little old ladies
who thought they were past it and would never be able to read anything
have been going to musicals six or seven times over, memorizing all
the songs, and singing along with all the rest of the audience. With
SLS they have unconsciously started learning to read. It's a real
revelation to them. Now imagine the poor man's music player with a
graphical text display, sold as a learning device, not just as
entertainment.

Another aspect of this is that XOs can read to the illiterate and
preliterate without regard to teaching reading, providing access to
all kinds of software and information.

Now consider a handheld reading device, with or without a screen.
Consider machinery that comes with spoken instruction in addition to
printed manuals. Think what people might come up with when they are
not bound to the form factors of the conventional devices of the West.
Talking POS? Talking GPS and ATMs already exist for the blind. Talking
voting machines that can read your ballot back to you so that you know
that what you picked on the screen is what will go into the ballot
box? With a bit of speech recognition and OCR to open up these and
even more opportunities.

OK, that was one piece of Sugar software. How about Measure for
Free/Open Source digital oscilloscopes? How about mesh-networked
medical equipment, like the prototype EKG currently in GSoC? Emergency
communications systems? Engineering and scientific measuring
instruments? MIDI musical instruments? A voice-chat, mesh-networked
replacement for mobile phones? If we want to get a little more
blue-sky, how about Open Source cars with built-in driving
instruction?

> b.g.
> --
> Bill Gatliff
> bgat at billgatliff.com
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