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

[Walter Bender]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 1:13 PM, Art Hunkins <abhunkin at uncg.edu> wrote:
> 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.

Hmm. I thought someone pushed it through. Will take care of it now. I
would like to sort a few things out with you regarding how to make all
of your activities a little more friendly to some of our younger
users. But that can happen sometime when we both have a bit more time.

-walter
>
> 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
>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sugar-devel mailing list
> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org