[Sugar-devel] FAQ on Sugarizer
Tony Anderson
tony_anderson at usa.net
Wed May 16 20:46:29 EDT 2018
At the cited meeting, I was prepared to update the status of activities
on ASLO and github. However, there was
no interest.
A quick summary: There are 514 activities divided into three groups:
83 which have the current version from github installed on aslo
(http://activities.sugarlabs.org/activities/)
104 which are in github but not installed on aslo (and hence not
available to our users)
324 which are installed in ASLO but not in github
The primary problem with the 104 activities is the failure to update the
version number. This appears to result from an
erroneous instruction that the update to the version should be made by
the mythical maintainer. This is contrary to Sugar practice
over the past 10+ years. The practice has been for the
developer/maintainer to update the version number when releasing a change.
As an example, the version number of Turtle Blocks (Art) is 216. Only
the person making the changes knows when the implementation is
complete and ready for release and so must commit the version number change.
It would be a simple matter to update the version numbers (I have for
the school server aslolite). As a result, our users on Ubuntu may have
access to 187 activities.
It is amazing when we are worried about code coverage to find several
activities in github that do not have setup.py. Certainly, whoever is
posting changes to github can take the time to run python setup.py.
There were three activities where setup.py failed due to errors in po.
In two cases, the file contained duplicate entries - this was trivial to
fix. In another, setup.py crashed in genpot!
Along with wanting Music Blocks in Sugarizer, it would be nice to find
it in ASLO. Without a specific release, the user is left to find out
whether the current code is in a stable state. This, of course, is the
reason for version numbers. It separates tested releases from ongoing
development versions.
A essential element of the github process is to mark versions as
released so that real maintainers can reproduce the environment in a bug
report.
Reports from users would be more likely if they were given serious
attention instead of the normal handwaving. My report on the version
problem with HelloWorld - chosen as a simple example of the problem -
was to remove it from public view!
What we have needed for a long time is a system like the one Adam Holt
created at OLPC - a help at sugarlabs.org monitored by a volunteer team
that would respond and try to find a solution to the problems (support
gang).
Tony
On Thursday, 17 May, 2018 05:25 AM, Walter Bender wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, May 16, 2018 at 5:09 PM James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org
> <mailto:quozl at laptop.org>> wrote:
>
> On Wed, May 16, 2018 at 10:27:59PM +0200, Lionel Laské wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I've read on a recent sugar-meeting questions regarding Sugarizer
> > packaging.
> > Because I've just released version 1.0,
>
> Thanks for the reminder; I've rebased the Sugar Labs clone of your
> Sugarizer repository.
>
> > I think it's the right time to build a Sugarizer FAQ. I'm answering
> > below on questions asked during this meeting but I will be please to
> > add to this future FAQ all questions you're interested to ask. Don't
> > be shy :-)
>
> My remaining question at the end of my mail.
>
>
> I'll post my questions at the end as well.
>
>
> > Who is responsible of the packaging of Sugarizer ? Who choose
> > activities distributed inside Sugarizer ?
> >
> > I'm choosing all activities integrated into the Sugarizer package.
> >
> > It's an editorial choice. It's also a way to simplify use of
> > Sugarizer by non technical guys.
> >
> > Finally it's a way to ensure a good quality: I spent lot of time
> > before each release to test each activity on each supported platform
> > (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, EDGE, Android, iOS, ChromeOS, Windows 10).
>
> Thanks. This is the same strategy I use for OLPC OS on Fedora and
> Ubuntu, and for Sugar Live Build. The results are;
>
> - completeness,
>
> - complementary activities, due to careful selection,
>
> - reduced software defects distributed, due to full testing.
>
> I've done this because the individual activity model only worked
> when there was a feedback path from the end-user to an activity
> maintainer. Without activity maintainers, I've had to take most of
> that role myself. Without feedback, fatal bugs have gone undetected
> for months to years at a time.
>
>
> As a sometimes activity maintainer, my biggest issue is that I get
> zero feedback from the deployments about bugs or anything else for
> that matter. This is true for both Sugar and Sugarizer.
>
>
> > BTW all deployment is free to change (add/remove) activities
> > packaged in Sugarizer - see below.
> >
> >
> >
> > Is it possible to change activities package into Sugarizer ?
> >
> > Because each activities has it's own directory in Sugarizer, It's
> > easy to change the packaging. See here:
> > https://github.com/llaske/Sugarizer# activities for more.
> >
> > On Sugarizer application (Android, iOS, Windows 10) it's not
> > possible to install/remove dynamically a new activity. It's today a
> > technical limitation: all downloads must be sandboxed.
>
> Thanks for confirming that. One of my customers was under the
> impression that activities could be downloaded and installed within
> Sugarizer, but I was sure it wasn't a supported deployment model.
>
> Another customer liked the idea of a child _not_ being allowed to
> download unauthorised activities, akin to not allowing wireless on
> Sugar, or providing boundary router blocking at a school. Some of
> the schools I've worked with have such filtering that they may as well
> not be considered as connected to the internet. ;-)
>
> > So to change packaging for Sugarizer application, you will need to
> > rebuild the Cordova package. See here:
> >
> https://github.com/llaske/Sugarizer#build-application-for-android-ios-or-windows-10
> > for more.
> >
> > Note also than Sugarizer Server Dashboard allow each deployment to
> > choose favorite activities (on the home view by default). Just click
> > on Activities button and change favorite state in the dashboard. You
> > could also change activities order.
> >
> >
> >
> > Is the Sugarizer library close to matching the Sugar activities
> library ?
> >
> > Sugar activities library is very huge: I've counted more than 1000
> > activities.
>
> But as we have seen from Tony, very few of them work; now a two-digit
> number.
>
> > It's difficult to imagine to port all activities: activities should
> > be rewritten (no direct translation from Python/Gtk to
> > JavaScript/HTML). Plus, not all are really used on the field.
> >
> > So my porting strategy was:
> >
> > ● G1G1 activities: Record, Calculate, Memory, Chat, Maze, Paint,
> > Speak, Moon, Clock, Physics, Abacus, Turtle, Scratch, Etoys,
> > Pippy (Jappy), …
> > ● Most used activities in deployment: Fototoon, Labyrinth, Tuxmath
> > (Tank Operation), …
> > ● Activity asked by OLPC France deployments: Video Viewer (Khan
> > Academy, Canope), Shared Notes, QRCode, …
> > ● Other activities proposed by contributors: Gears, ColorMyWorld,
> > Game Of Life, …
> >
> > I'm hearing from you to adapt priority and to port some specific
> > activities that could be useful on the field.
>
> Thanks for following up on the meeting questions. I've two more.
>
> 1. for Sugar activities that are written in JavaScript/HTML, yours is
> a hostile fork; unilateral, without consultation, and without code
> changes shared between the forks after the split. We could be adding
> Sugarizer's activities to Sugar, and this would benefit both Sugar and
> Sugarizer; more eyes on code, more users of the activities. What are
> your plans on this aspect?
>
> 2. schools who have chosen to use Linux have no download option for
> Sugarizer; why is that? Are you expecting those schools to use Sugar
> instead?
>
> >
> > Best regards.
> >
> > Lionel.
>
> --
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.netrek.org/
> _______________________________________________
> Sugar-devel mailing list
> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> <mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org>
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>
> 1. How do I keep, for example, Turtle Blocks current within Sugarizer.
> Since there are local patches being made, it is not easy for me as a
> developer to keep things current. I've reached out on occasion to
> Michael for help, but it seems really awkward from outside looking in
> to keep the Sugarizer version up to date. Perhaps git-subtree [1]
> could be considered?
>
> 2. Do you have a plan for reconciling the licensing issue [2]? The
> issue is marked as Wont Fix, but I don't think that is adequate. In
> addition, there has been a lot of unilateral re-licensing of GPL and
> AGPL content to Apache. This is not OK. We could ask the SFC for their
> advice as to how to proceed.
>
> 3. While I agree with many of the criteria that you and James are
> using for your packaging decisions, I would think it would be in all
> of our interests to discuss these decisions more broadly. There are a
> number of community members with a great deal of experience in both
> pedagogy and deployments whom we could learn from. Perhaps an
> occasional open meeting to discuss this?
>
> 3A. What is the process by which I can lobby to get Music Blocks included?
>
> [1]
> http://alistra.ghost.io/2014/11/30/git-subtree-a-better-alternative-to-git-submodule/
> [2] https://github.com/llaske/sugarizer/issues/48
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
>
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> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
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