[Sugar-devel] multiple activity versions installed simultaneously (was Re: [Bugs] #1042 UNSP: cannot install new activity version)

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 03:24, Gary C Martin<gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> On 10 Aug 2009, at 17:24, Daniel Drake wrote:
>
>> 2009/8/10 Martin Dengler <martin at martindengler.com>:
>>> Learner-generated activity patches, perhaps?  Like, we're under a
>>> tree
>>> and here's my patched Terminal/Pippy/Speak that you may want to try
>>> but not commit to blowing-away your "official" version...
>>
>> Do we have the relevant tools/interfaces/activities to make this
>> possible and realistic?
>
> It's not so far off...
>
>> What are the user interfaces like when dealing with multiple
>> activities?
>
> Well, we have this already, it's called the Journal. Just download
> Activity bundles and they all live there (and have done as far back as
> I can recall)...
>
>> If I click on a new version of an activity in browse, does
>> it upgrade the one I have or install it in parallel?
>
> It downloads the bundle to Journal and auto unpacks/installs, though
> this may have been modified by a very recent patch I haven't poked at
> yet:
>
>        http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/1042
>
>> How do I erase old versions?
>
> Delete the bundle form the Journal
>
>> When I click the activity from the home screen, which version gets
>> launched?
>
> The last one that you installed (via either downloading in Browse or
> clicking a bundle in Journal).
>
>> Having user-modifiable activities like this is a nice idea, and laying
>> the groundwork to make it possible could also be sensible, but right
>> now it seems like we aren't ready and the reason for the introduction
>> of this code is/was for unrelated reasons.
>
> We would need a button to create an Activity bundle and pop it into
> the Journal). So work flow could be:
>
> 1) download some activity via Browse
> 2) Start it up
> 3) Click on "Edit Source"  – would be new feature, currently we just
> have "View Source", but there is a patch for the view that could be
> close if desired, from Lucian http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Development_Team/Almanac#How_do_I_create_a_text_box_for_code_editing.3F
> 4) Quit, Start, test, goto 3 and repeat
> 5) Click on "Keep Activity bundle to Journal" – would be new feature
> in "Edit Source" toolbar
> 6) Use "Send to <friend>" to share bundle with others
>
> As long as you kept the original bundle in your Journal, you can click
> it to restore the original code, and click a bundle you or a friend
> made to hop back in to an edit workflow cycle.
>
> Plenty to polish and smooth workflow, but an editable source view and
> a 'make bundle' button don't seem to horrendous to consider if this is
> seen as a desired feature to push on.
>
>> I also feel that this
>> functionality would rarely be used in the field.
>
>
> Agreed, but our minority percentage of 'to be geek' learners (we only
> need ~0.01% of users to be geeky enough to get us ~1000 new activity
> Authors) would be the ones in field to benifit, though clearly it
> would allow many more just to tinker with python. I can imagine
> starting with a template activity (could be helloworld, could be a
> Physics template, Simple game template etc) where folks then modify
> and add to it to create their own activity, game, et al, and learn how
> to build new activities. Work flow would be basically hack on live
> installed version for a while it for a while, bundle it when you want
> to keep a snapshot to Journal (version), repeat, rinse, share bundle
> once you're happy with it.
>
> Disclaimer, there are likely better ways of doing this but at great
> development cost, this is my view of the likely shortest path to
> feature.

+1, I like this approach at tackling unsolved problems.

Thanks,

Tomeu

> Regards,
> --Gary
>
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