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

[Eben Eliason]

Seconding Walter...more inline.

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?

I don't think we should be adding specific data formats to the copy
action, if we can avoid it.  This is better suited to the "Keep as..."
(some other format) action. However, I do think that basic copy/paste
within a given activity, or between activities, should be strongly
encouraged. Sugar adds a visual, multi-item clipboard (with
forthcoming previews/descriptions) in order to make even better suited
to this task.

It should never be _necessary_ to save something to the Journal in
order to move data into another activity, for common image/text/media
formats.

> 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?

I'm in support of adding "import" buttons for particular media formats
which make sense within the context of an activity. However, this
shouldn't be confused with "open" buttons.  The difference there is
that importing an image should place an image file onto the canvas; it
shouldn't replace the canvas, or change the canvas size, etc.

In your specific example, taking a photo in Record already results in
a Journal entry, so I think it's perfectly natural to say that one
should go to that photo and resume it with Colors! in order to modify
it there.

I should also mention that I'd like to see the OS provided file
chooser dialogs grow basic recording functionality, so that an "insert
image" button could quickly snap a photo from the camera, and an
"insert audio" button record a quick audio snippet, etc. This would
prevent need for saving data to the Journal OR copying it from another
activity, in some cases.

- Eben

> 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
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>
>