[Sugar-devel] [support-gang] Several chapters of "Make Your Own Sugar Activities!" ready for review, feedback

[Walter Bender]

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Great idea to add a section on using sugar to read -- if you include
> browsing webpages and offline snapshots, it's by far the 1st or 2nd
> most common use of Sugar in most homes and classrooms, and still far
> from obvious.

I would love to see some data that backs up that assertion.

-walter

> SJ
>
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Jim Simmons <nicestep at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Samuel,
>>
>> I agree that in addition to the beginner's manual I'm putting together
>> there is a need for a more advanced book covering topics like
>> sugarizing existing programs, using languages other than Python, etc.
>> I'd be interested in reading such a book but I would not be qualified
>> to write it.  In fact, I'm learning new things (and documenting them)
>> as a result of writing this book.
>>
>> If I do another book after this one it might be on using Sugar to read
>> free e-books.  Where to get them, what formats are available,
>> advantages of each, descriptions with screenshots on how to use Read,
>> Read Etexts, View Slides, Get IA Books, Get Books, how to download
>> books with Browse, working with e-books in the Journal, etc.  I still
>> have to get through the current book, and that will take awhile.
>>
>> James Simmons
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 11:21 PM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Jim, a thought:
>>>
>>> I'd like to see an "Activity Guide" similar to this one, which
>>> describes how to make software for a great activity for children and
>>> talks primarily about form, method, audience, and functionality.
>>> Something suitable for a general Sugar SDK, and an audience of
>>> programmers who have made lots of software before.
>>>
>>> It should have a section on Sugar that says "here's how to make sure
>>> your activity runs well within the Sugar environment", but most of the
>>> sugar design principles should be in the earlier parts of the guide.
>>> (and details such as "USE PYTHON" should be optional subsets of the
>>> Sugar-specific guidelines)
>>>
>>> It would also include details on making a good activity that could be
>>> part of (for instance) a  Gnome desktop, for devs who want their Gnome
>>> app to become a default for XO builds.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 11:49 AM, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
>>>> On 12.01.2010, at 16:43, Jim Simmons wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://objavi.flossmanuals.net/books/ActivitiesGuideSugar-en-2010.01.11-23.05.32.pdf
>>>>
>>>> Very nice, Jim!
>>>>
>>>> It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Sugar activity should be written in Python.
>>>>
>>>> However, there are other means to go about that, and special circumstances may lead a developer to consider alternatives.
>>>>
>>>> In "WHAT IS A SUGAR ACTIVITY?" you make it sound like Python was a necessary ingredient for all Sugar activities. That is not true, an activity *can* be written without any bit of Python code. Not even "Python bindings" are needed. See
>>>>
>>>>        http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Low-level_Activity_API
>>>>
>>>> "Activities can be written in any language, as long as it can connect to D-Bus and provide an X11 interface."
>>>>
>>>> While it's most convenient and also encouraged to write new activities in Python, it is not mandatory. The Sugar API was carefully designed to allow activity development in any language. There are a couple of non-Python activities, most prominently Etoys which is even part of the Sugar platform, emphasizing it is *not* Python-only. It would be nice if you could rephrase that introductory section.
>>>>
>>>> Other than that, very nice book. I love your style :)
>>>
>>> Ditto.
>>>
>>> SJ
>>>
>>
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-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org