[Sugar-devel] annotation support in abiword (was Fwd: uwog - r29358 - in abiword/trunk: . plugins/collab/backends/service/xp plugins/collab/core/packet/xp plugins/collab/core/plugin/xp plugins/collab/core/session/xp plugins/opendocument plugins/opendocument/exp/xp

[forster at ozonline.com.au]

> ** Ideally we should try harder to better layer complexity in the   
> Write, Calculate, et al UIs so that you need to drill down to the   
> more complex features while the common/novice features are exposed   
> early at the top level — but it seams there's only so far you can   
> take this (Write and Calculate being on the cusp of this cliff edge).

Maybe this question would be better on IAEP or SUR because its about  
pedagogy more than technology?

More features just for features sake is not a good idea, Sugar is an  
educational tool not an office productivity tool, not all new office  
features need to be included. I would like to hear from teachers on  
this question. They might, for example,  like annotation in a  
paperless classroom as a way of marking essays.

I agree, we should try harder to layer complexity, in line with the  
goal of low entry and high ceiling.

I think that children handle complexity and incomplete information  
much better than adults so its not necessary to give them cut down  
versions of Activities. As long as they can ignore features that they  
do not need and still get unobstructed access to the simplified  
features they are happy. Adults however are more likely to get  
stressed if presented with too many features.

I looked at Calculate again. I am happy with the features. You can  
still do 9+1=10 by ignoring the extra features. None of the menus  
obscure simple calculator operation. If you select hexadecimal then  
9+1=0xa but quitting and resuming reverts to decimal operation so it  
seems experimenting is likely to be harmless to simple calculator use.

I share some responsibility for encouraging feature creep on  
TurtleArt. Maybe complexity could be layered better but I dont thinks  
it needs a version with it disabled. The goal should be that basic  
blocks, repeat, forward, right, are the ones most obviously presented  
to the learner and no amount of random clicking should make them not  
discoverable. Maybe the pallettes can be reordered to emphasise  
beginner blocks.

With write, the goal would be to emphasise the beginner tools and  
deemphasise the advanced features, and make recovery from random  
clicking easy.

Tony