[Sugar-devel] Physics activity development

[Edward Cherlin]

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 4:52 AM, Lucian Branescu
<lucian.branescu at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm in the same situation (well, I will be when I get my macbook back).
>
> I do see a lot of talk towards making Sugar and activities behave more
> like standard applications. Perhaps Sugar will work on OS X natively
> some day.

Anybody who would like to port it to BSD and integrate it with the
Apple GUI is more than welcome to speak up. Sugar is making its way
into all major Linux distributions. BSD has some differences in
filesystem layout and libraries that would require some work. I don't
know how much.

> 2009/5/27 Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>:
>> Hi Asaf,
>>
>> On 27 May 2009, at 05:00, Asaf Paris Mandoki wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I would like to get started adding the play/pause button and the pin
>>> button. Probably the next step is to integrate the activity with the
>>> journal. The only problem is that I haven't been able to get my
>>> development environment working. It seems there are some open issues
>>> with ubuntu. My plan right now is to wait until the Ubuntu issues
>>> are fixed. Any suggestions for a better setup? The only thing I have
>>> working now is a virtualbox environment where i've been testing the
>>> activity and found some bugs.

You are welcome to try any of the VirtualBox setups that I have
documented at [[Emulator image files]].

>>> I saw a commit with the "joystick"
>>> feature removed. Is the base code ready to start adding the minor
>>> button changes?

>> As for my part I'll hold off making any changes for now. Too many
>> cooks, but a nice situation to be in :-)
>>
>> Other than recommending, A) trying to keep in the habit of working in
>> your own git branch and then merging back to master when stable; or B)
>> use Gitorious to just clone the repository and work there, then make a
>> merge request when your done (this option is more visible as folks can
>> see what you doing as you commit changes and you can also give your
>> branch a nice visible name).
>>
>> Have a chat and co-ordinate with Brian and see what his current plans
>> are; the other usual way to communicate would be to create trac
>> tickets (dev.sugarlabs.org) for the bugs/features you want to work on,
>> assign it to yourself, and cc: the others involved (bjordan and myself
>> at the moment) – unfortunately the Physics component has not yet been
>> added (and there is no temporary 'other') so you'll need to email/chat
>> just for now.
>>
>> Regarding development environments; I have a Mac here, so spend most
>> time in VirtualBox with Fedora 10 and sugar-jhbuild, though I'd have a
>> much simpler Activity development set-up if I could just use a recent
>> Sugar distro in VirtualBox, but the distros are all still a little too
>> 'pre-release' to want to rely on just now – running a Mac, running
>> VirtualBox, running sugar-jhbuild, running Sugar is rather a wasteful
>> and large stack of code I hope to avoid at some point :-)
>>
>> Regards,
>> --Gary
>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Asaf
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 2:17 AM, Brian Jordan <bcjordan at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Gary C Martin
>>> <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
>>> > Hi Brian,
>>> >
>>> > On 24 May 2009, at 18:36, Brian Jordan wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> Hey all,
>>> >>
>>> >> Gary -- when you get a chance, can you add me as a committer on
>>> >> git.sl.o?  I'd like to help clean things up!
>>> >
>>> > You're added! :-)
>>> >
>>> > Can I request we try and make small clean commits and try to let
>>> others know
>>> > what we are doing. If you want to hack, Gitorious supports quite a
>>> nice
>>> > 'Clone repository' and then 'Request merge' process (no commit
>>> rights needed
>>> > for the main project). The alternative, if you know what you are
>>> doing, is
>>> > just make your own local git branch to hack on, so you can take
>>> care of any
>>> > merge/conflict issues yourself when you fold it back into the
>>> current
>>> > master.
>>> >
>>> > I'm far from a git expert, but I can recommend some bed time
>>> reading at:
>>> >
>>> >        http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/
>>> >
>>> > and/or
>>> >
>>> >        http://gitready.com/
>>> >
>>>
>>> Thank you, will devote some to that!  Need to learn to keep my crazy
>>> features in branches.
>>>
>>> > I'd like to get on with Labyrinth work, if you're willing to have
>>> an initial
>>> > clean up of the Physics source in the next few days... so what was
>>> > 'joysitck' feature all about? ;-)
>>>
>>> This would probably be best to describe on the wiki page, the idea was
>>> to make a UI for assigning keys on the XO-1 to impulses or changes on
>>> certain objects, so simple 2 player physics based games could be made
>>> from within Physics.
>>>
>>> Agreed, though, I will rid that from the code so we have a nice base
>>> line for crazy-feature branches.
>>>
>>> > Once the dev.sugarlabs.org component is added we should add the
>>> > features/bugs in there to keep them all together. FWIW, from a UI
>>> point of
>>> > view I had in mind:
>>> >
>>> > 1) remove/disable 'joysitick' feature as I have no idea what it
>>> was meant to
>>> > be ;-)
>>> > 2) build tool buttons correctly using RadioToolButton so they
>>> display state
>>> > correctly
>>> > 3) use set_accelerator to define visible keyboard shortcuts for
>>> the tools
>>> >
>>> >> Asaf -- do you have a http://git.sugarlabs.org account yet?
>>> >>
>>> >> This is some feedback from Asaf (these could fit as enhancements in
>>> >> http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ ):
>>> >>
>>> >>> While playing with the activity I found a "pause" button to stop
>>> time
>>> >>> could be very useful. It's complicated to build elaborate
>>> contraptions
>>> >>> if everything keeps falling. Maybe while everything is paused,
>>> >>> positions an velocities of objects could be modified.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> A minor modification I suggest is to create a separate button for
>>> >>> adding push pins. It is not intuitive to add them using the link
>>> tool.
>>> >>> If there are plans about creating tutorial levels this isn't that
>>> >>> necessary although I don't see any harm on adding it.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> An other thing I think could be grate is to be able to create
>>> >>> attractors an repulsors. With stuff like this it gets pretty
>>> >>> interesting, we could have objects orbiting around the attractors.
>>> >
>>> > Yes, all good stuff, there's also a list on
>>> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Physics_%28activity%29 as well, but I'd
>>> vote for
>>> > cleaning up what we have first, perhaps adding a play/pause, and
>>> keeping
>>> > Journal state so kids can actually keep their Physics creations
>>> (and send
>>> > them to friends when using sugar 0.84).
>>>
>>> +1 +1 +1
>>>
>>> Brian
>>>
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> > --Gary
>>> >
>>> >> Thanks
>>> >>
>>> >> Brian
>>> >>
>>> >> On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com
>>> >
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Hey Brian,
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On 24 May 2009, at 13:57, Brian Jordan wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> Hey Gary,
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> First, I'm attaching Asaf Paris Mandoki, who contacted me last
>>> week
>>> >>>> with an interest in developing on the Physics activity, and has
>>> great
>>> >>>> ideas of things to add.  This is a great opportunity!  :)
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> I can handle getting Physics on gitorious, the bug tracker and
>>> a.sl.o.
>>> >>>> I will try to complete this by the end of today.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Having chatted with Alex Levenson, I've already kicked off the
>>> migration
>>> >>> for
>>> >>> Physics (rep is now in Gitorious, trac request is in, and I've
>>> started to
>>> >>> poke at the code, running well at least in sugar-jhbuild and
>>> sugar 0.84).
>>> >>> X2o is next on my hit list once Physics is in a reasonable state.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> The things I can use some help with are (1) integrating proper
>>> >>>> localization to the activity and
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Yep, I'm going to do a pass at the code and tidy up some partially
>>> >>> implemented / broken UI stuff, before requesting it's addition
>>> to pootle
>>> >>> (best to start with a reasonably stable set of strings). Would
>>> also like
>>> >>> to
>>> >>> get/text resolution independence (for non XO hardware) and get
>>> the scene
>>> >>> state saving to Journal...
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Want to get the basics out the way first before we break it
>>> again with
>>> >>> exciting new features ;-)
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> (2) figuring out a good way to include the pybox2d source in
>>> the git
>>> >>>> repository, while including an
>>> >>>> F9-compatible binary on a.sl.o (this was brought up w.r.t.
>>> Pippy a
>>> >>>> couple of times on the fedora devel lists, but I don't remember
>>> seeing
>>> >>>> a clear way of how to handle it).
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Yea I was worried this might be an issue needing resolved, it's
>>> not my
>>> >>> area
>>> >>> of speciality, I'll need to take a deeper look at the source.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> Thanks for the ping and your help!!
>>> >>>
>>> >>> No, thank you! I was expecting a wall of silence :-)
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Regards,
>>> >>> --Gary
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> Brian
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com
>>> >
>>> >>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Hi Guys,
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> I'm making contact to see if any of you are still interested in
>>> >>>>> developing
>>> >>>>> your great Physics activity? Most of the active activity
>>> development
>>> >>>>> has
>>> >>>>> now
>>> >>>>> moved over to Sugar Labs infrastructure, and we've been
>>> getting some
>>> >>>>> requests for localising Physics.
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> We have a Gitorious based source repository (there's no admin
>>> request
>>> >>>>> procedure, you can just register an account and migrate/create a
>>> >>>>> project):
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>      http://git.sugarlabs.org/
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Our bug-tracker trac is at:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>      http://dev.sugarlabs.org/
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> For activity distribution, Sugar Labs is customising Mozilla
>>> addon's
>>> >>>>> web
>>> >>>>> front/back end (we're trying to encourage activity developers
>>> to post
>>> >>>>> there
>>> >>>>> activity bundles here), it's still a little ugly but the theme/
>>> UI is
>>> >>>>> still a
>>> >>>>> work in progress :-)
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>      http://activities.sugarlabs.org/
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> If no one is available to help, I'd be happy to migrate
>>> Physics over to
>>> >>>>> the
>>> >>>>> Sugar Labs infrastructure, get it added to pootle so we can
>>> start
>>> >>>>> localisation and make sure bundles get released for easy
>>> download and
>>> >>>>> inclusion in images/distrobutions. If someone finds they have
>>> some time
>>> >>>>> to
>>> >>>>> come back later just ping me and I can easily add extra
>>> commiters;
>>> >>>>> though
>>> >>>>> with Gitorious, any one can branch anything, hack a bit, then
>>> submit a
>>> >>>>> merge
>>> >>>>> request (great workflow for dipping in and out of projects).
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Kind Regards,
>>> >>>>> Gary C Martin
>>> >>>>> Sugar Labs Activity Team
>>> >>>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity_Team
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Brian Jordan
>>> OLPC Learning Team Technical Contractor
>>> Mobile Phone: +250 0783864924
>>> Skype: bcjordan
>>>
>>
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-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)