[Sugar-devel] SarynPaint: a Java program packaged for the OLPC

[Jim Simmons]

Tomeu,

I have to agree with you on this point.  I program in Java for a
living, and never programmed in Python before I got my XO.  I can do
Java in my sleep, especially with the Eclipse IDE.  Every time I need
to add a feature to my Activities I think about how I'd do it in Java
then translate that to Python.  I constantly wish that Eric had code
completion features anywhere near as good as I had in Eclipse.  If
anyone would benefit from having Java supported in Sugar it would be
me.

I don't want it.

I don't think there is an Activity you could write In Java that you
could not write in Python.  The Python version would perform better,
would use less memory, would integrate with Sugar better, would
probably have fewer lines of code, and would not require a 75+ mb
runtime.  Most importantly, children wanting to learn to program would
be much better served if most of the Activities they might want to
study the code for were written in Python, rather than a bunch of
different languages.  Python is a good language for beginners.

If the author of SarynPaint doesn't want to maintain two versions he
might rewrite it in Python and abandon the original.

James Simmons


> Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:09:37 +0200
> From: Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at sugarlabs.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sugar-devel] SarynPaint: a Java program packaged for the
>        OLPC
> To: Jeffrey Kesselman <jeffpk at gmail.com>
> Cc: Ben Wiley Sittler <bsittler at gmail.com>,     sugar-devel
>        <sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org>,      OLPC Developer's List
>        <devel at laptop.org>
> Message-ID:
>        <242851610908310809r4814cd9em5f2508b02b6bf70a at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 16:56, Jeffrey Kesselman<jeffpk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Honestly,? I think the lack of Java on the XO has more with python
>> defensiveness then anything else.
>
> Honestly, I don't think so. Most or all of the Sugar developers had
> zero python experience when joined the project. And we are way too
> busy to care about language wars.
>
>> I draw this conclusion partly from the fact that it has been pretty
>> crippling lack since initial inception of the XO, but one that there is
>> great resistance to fixing nonetheless.
>
> The Sugar platform is composed by what deployers want to be there, not
> by what each developer would like. If that was the case, we would have
> to ship the runtimes for all available languages and the XO doesn't
> have enough room for that, nm for the student's work...
>
> If you really think that Java should be there, propose to deployers of
> Sugar an activity that will bring value to their students and tell
> them to talk to us.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tomeu
>
>> On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Ben Wiley Sittler <bsittler at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I think maintaining two parallel versions of the code in two languages
>>> would be a huge waste of effort for me, but if someone else wants to
>>> they are of course welcome to.