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

[Jim Simmons]

Bert,

That is the kind of feedback I was hoping to get, actually.  I figured
if I make a definite statement like "Every Activity needs at least
some Python" someone who knows better would correct me.  I will make a
more qualified statement in my next revision.

I am hoping that the book will be read by those who have not
programmed (maybe even older children) before so even though I know it
is possible to write an Activity that connects to DBus, etc. I'm not
planning to include examples of that in the book.  In fact, one of my
goals was to get through the whole book without mentioning DBus at
all.  I'd like to leave stuff out of the book if a person could write
an Activity without knowing it.  But I will definitely mention that
there are other ways to make an Activity than the one I'm writing
about.

Thanks again,

James Simmons


On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 10:49 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 :)
>
> - Bert -
>
>
>