[Sugar-devel] Fw: [REQUEST] ChimePlay-1

[Art Hunkins]

I'd appreciate a reviewer taking the time to review my new activity, 
ChimePlay. It has been in the queue for several weeks now (originally the 
queue contained 13 activities; it still does, FWIW).

In case it matters, I've included here my response to Walter's request in 
regard to ChimePlay. (My response wasn't originally addressed to this list 
or to Walter personally.) Perhaps someone was waiting for me to address it?

In any case, thanks for your support.

Art Hunkins

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Art Hunkins" <abhunkin at uncg.edu>
To: <activities at sugarlabs.org>
Cc: <aslo at lists.sugarlabs.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2012 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [REQUEST] ChimePlay-1


> Hello, Walter,
>
> Thanks so much for your on-going help and encouragement for and with my 
> Sugar activities. Without it, and similar counsel from other seasoned 
> Sugar activity developers, I'd still be stuck in the "Sugar starting 
> gate."
>
> Your observations here can apply just as well to my previous 7 activities. 
> Indeed, perhaps it is ironic that in ChimePlay there is the *least* amount 
> of displayed verbiage of any of my activities; I've done my best to keep 
> it down. (For my last three activities, which urge children to create 
> their own audio samples, most of my commentary is included in a ReadMe.txt 
> file. Only "immediately relevent" material is presented on-screen.)
>
> Some context: I am a professional art music composer, whose main 
> "electronic" language is Csound. All my Sugar activities are spinoffs of 
> live-performance Csound works composed for adults (please see my website, 
> www.arthunkins.com, where these relationships are clear enough). At the 
> urging of Richard Boulanger, I was led into OLPC, Sugar and the XO, to 
> offer some of my work to at least the older children of the world. As an 
> exclusively Windows person, Linux has been a strange new world - also 
> inhabited by Sugar, Python, PyGTK, git, Inkscape - all equally new and 
> strange.
>
> ChimePlay almost didn't get written; I thought that SamplePlay was my last 
> activity. However, inspired by a couple of chime sets at the St. Francis 
> Springs Prayer Center (Stoneville, NC, USA) and my life-long fascination 
> with chimes and bells, ChimePlay manifested and here we are. In the 
> future, I intend no more activities; I'll simply maintain and continue to 
> test the 8 activities I have so that hopefully they remain useful. 
> Hopefully you can humor me this one last time. I also hope my work points 
> the way for other Csound artists to become involved with Sugar with an 
> equally limited investment of time and technology. (Though I admit the 
> requirements of my doing *anything* in Linux/Sugar was infinitely beyond 
> any investment I'd anticipated. It's been an incredibly difficult and 
> arduous learning curve. For example, I just spent three intense and 
> frustrating days relearning Inkscape in order to create a passable icon 
> for ChimePlay.)
>
> Early in my activity work, I found some Python/GTK code structures that I 
> could reasonably understand and continue to use in all my activites. I've 
> intentionally limited the depth of tech work I've exposed myself to, and 
> only bugged other developers, like yourself, with issues I considered 
> crucial. I've dealt with others (such as on-screen text, the limit to 
> English, the treatment of MIDI device insertion/detection) in 
> "non-Sugar-like" ways, which were understandable by "low/non-tech" me. I 
> did this to protect myself and my sanity - as well as to complete 
> anything.
>
> I'm well aware that most children will not have access to MIDI devices. 
> For live Csound work in the adult world, however, MIDI devices are 
> universally required. (In my recent activity ReadMe's, I've indeed 
> recommended certain inexpensive devices to children and their teachers, 
> especially the Korg nanoKontrol.) It seems to me that for any performance 
> activity with Csound (such as for the XO or Sugar), classrooms might well 
> opt to invest in a few MIDI devices, such as keyboard controllers. My 
> activities allow for a very wide range of devices.
>
> In previous activities, I've made alternate versions which used only the 
> ASCII keyboard. However, I've found these versions awkward and 
> counterintuitive, as well as requiring considerable additional written 
> explanation. I never use them for my own demonstrations. (They also are a 
> pain to program.) Instead, in ChimePlay, I've paired one live-performance 
> MIDI version with an auto-play incarnation, which requires no controller 
> at all. Just (optionally) adjust the presets, press START and instant 
> chimes (your choice of two chime sets).
>
> Once again, thanks for your most valuable help and advice - and the spirit 
> and tone in which it has been given - over several years.
>
> Art Hunkins
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Sugar Labs Activities" <activities at sugarlabs.org>
> To: <abhunkin at uncg.edu>
> Cc: <aslo at lists.sugarlabs.org>
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 11:03 PM
> Subject: [REQUEST] ChimePlay-1
>
>
>>A Sugar Labs Activities Editor requested further information from you 
>>regarding version 1 of your activity ChimePlay.
>>
>> Walter Bender wrote:
>>
>> "I wonder if the bulk of the explanatory text could be under an about 
>> button? Also, could you look for the midi device on launch and display an 
>> error message if it is not detected? Alas, I doubt too many Sugar users 
>> have a midi device :("
>>
>>
>> Please reply to this e-mail or join #sugar on chat.freenode.net.
>>
>> Sugar Labs Activities
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org
>>
>