[Sugar-devel] Physics activity (Was: Release v3 tonight?)

[Brian Jordan]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 8:56 AM, Simon Schampijer<simon at schampijer.de> wrote:
> On 07/13/2009 04:11 AM, Gary C Martin wrote:
>>
>> Just cc:ing the list to keep others in the loop.
>>
>> On 12 Jul 2009, at 22:55, Asaf Paris Mandoki wrote:
>>
>>> A release will be great.
>>
>> Think we need to make a call on the stability of the new Physics
>> Journal state format first, or at least make sure everyone knows the
>> storage format may (or may not) be stable long term (hate to see a
>> bunch of folks generating/posting examples for lesson plans only to
>> have them all fail to resume in a few versions from now).
>>

+cc-ing Kne from pyBox2D -- what do you think about the stability of
pyBox2D's pickling format?  Will future versions likely remain
backwards compatible?

>>> I also suggest scheduling an IRC meeting to discuss some "long" term
>>> plans about what we're going to do and how we're going to do it.
>>
>> Yes, an IRC meeting sounds like a good idea. I'm usually only on IRC
>> for specific meetings so we'd need to pick a time. Perhaps we could
>> make it a Physics specific ActivityTeam meeting on Friday, some other
>> interested parties may join the discussions?
>>
>>> I'm thinking about adding some sort of goals and objectives but I'm
>>> not sure if there is where we want to go.
>>
>> Well need to chat :-) but the X2o Activity seems like the place for
>> driving "goals and objectives". I see Physics as more the open ended
>> sand box for experiments, like a simple Paint tool for physics
>> simulations. We need to keep an eye on the usability for younger kids,
>> the number of tools is probably about right, but I have been looking
>> at the idea of adding more options as secondary palettes, i.e. you
>> hover over the circle tool and the palette includes extra options for
>> "helium balloon", "rubber ball", "wooden ball", "stone ball"  for some
>> pre-set material types, this would vary depending on the tool, so the
>> motor could perhaps have clockwise and anti-clockwise as well as some
>> torque settings (strong, medium, weak).
>
> Hi,
>
> In case you did not see my post (http://erikos.sweettimez.de/?p=789):
> [...]
> One problem I observed with younger kids is the use of the mouse. In that
> age for example moving the mouse over the whole screen (like for closing an
> activity) is a hard task. Now, in physics to create an object you have to:
> click on the screen, hold the button and move the mouse to create the item
> at your desired size. Sounds hard doesn’t it?

Proposed UI: a left mouse click with no drag creates a default (or
random?) size, while clicking and dragging allows you to set your own
size.


Consider also how extensively the click-and-drag interaction is used
in Paint, Colors, Etoys, TurtleArt and Scratch.

> Maybe we can present the kid
> on right mouse click with a palette and let’s say 3 objects at different
> sizes to select from?

Do you mean right mouse click on an object's menu item or a right
mouse click on empty space?

> [...]
>
> Might be an option for some palette information as well.
>
> Regards,
>   Simon
>