[Sugar-devel] GSoC idea: Chart/graph-making activity

[Walter Bender]

The clipboard and the Journal are two recommended mechanisms. I would
think that in the case of the Chart activity, the Journal would
generally be more appropriate: you gather/generate some data in one
activity, save to Journal, and then open the data file in Chart to
explore various visualizations. Chart might export a PNG file to the
Journal or clipboard, where it could be imported into Write or Turtle
Art (Portfolio) for a report.

Distance, which generates small, discrete chucks of data, exports
directly to the clipboard.

Of course, there are times when you would want to do the visualization
as part of the data gathering process, a la Measure.

Pipes we currently don't support.

-walter

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Wade Brainerd <wadetb at gmail.com> wrote:
> This whole thing brings to mind something that I've been curious about for
> awhile.
>
> What's the "recommended" way to transfer data between activities?
>
> Say, I record some data in Measure and want to import it into Chart.  Or I
> generate some data in Finance and want to import it into Chart.
>
> Is the Clipboard the way to do it?  IE, should we support specialize "copy
> as text/csv" (or whatever) and "paste text/csv" in our activities?
>
> Same goes for transferring of pictures.  If I take a picture in Record and
> want to paint over it in Colors!, is Copy in Record and then Paste in
> Colors! the way to go, or should I have Colors! open the Record Journal
> entry?
>
> Thanks,
> Wade
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> The Measure activity is another approach to consider: data collection
>> from multiple sources are shared and displayed in the same
>> visualization space.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:02 AM, Eben Eliason <eben at laptop.org> wrote:
>> > 2009/3/23 Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn at gmail.com>:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 8:44 AM, Garrison Benson
>> >> <Benson.Garrison at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Jameson Quinn wrote:
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Implementing a whole spreadsheet is a big enough chore. We do really
>> >>> > care
>> >>> > about collaboration, but I would advise you to limit your ambitions
>> >>> > to
>> >>> > something achievable, so worrying too much about collaboration right
>> >>> > now
>> >>> > is
>> >>> > not vital.
>> >>> >
>> >>>
>> >>> I don't plan to create a spreadsheet, just a graph/chart tool.
>> >>> Obviously a
>> >>> full-featured spreadsheet (with functions, formulas, etc.) would be
>> >>> great
>> >>> for Sugar, but I think a simple, user-friendly charting activity would
>> >>> be
>> >>> much more feasible and more likely to actually be used in a primary
>> >>> school/middle school environment. (Full spreadsheet applications are
>> >>> pretty
>> >>> daunting to learn.) I was just throwing out the idea of a
>> >>> spreadsheet-style
>> >>> interface as the most obvious (but not necessarily best) type of
>> >>> interface
>> >>> for this kind of program.
>> >>
>> >> OK, understood. I think that you're right, a spreadsheet-style
>> >> interface is
>> >> best - when you're doing charts by hand, you start with data tables.
>> >> Still,
>> >> I recommend that you plan your main deliverable as something that is
>> >> polished but without collaboration, and keep collaboration as something
>> >> that
>> >> you'll work on if you have the time. Collaboration is actually harder
>> >> to get
>> >> right than formulas, IMO.
>> >
>> > Agreed.  I'd simply encourage you to keep future collaboration in
>> > mind, such that large reorganization of the code isn't needed later on
>> > to add it.  You might also look into
>> > http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Groupthink, which could be a potential
>> > solution to adding collaboration in the long run.
>> >
>> > - Eben
>> >
>> >>
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>> >>
>> >>
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>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> _______________________________________________
>> Sugar-devel mailing list
>> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org