[Sugar-devel] Physics activity development

[Brian Jordan]

Bert's 8.2-767 VMWare Fusion image is a nice OS X option (at least for
the trial period)
http://croquetweak.blogspot.com/2008/12/emulating-latest-stable-olpc-xo.html

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Lucian Branescu
<lucian.branescu at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm in the same situation (well, I will be when I get my macbook back).
>
> I do see a lot of talk towards making Sugar and activities behave more
> like standard applications. Perhaps Sugar will work on OS X natively
> some day.
>
> 2009/5/27 Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>:
>> Hi Asaf,
>>
>> On 27 May 2009, at 05:00, Asaf Paris Mandoki wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I would like to get started adding the play/pause button and the pin
>>> button. Probably the next step is to integrate the activity with the
>>> journal. The only problem is that I haven't been able to get my
>>> development environment working. It seems there are some open issues
>>> with ubuntu. My plan right now is to wait until the Ubuntu issues
>>> are fixed. Any suggestions for a better setup? The only thing I have
>>> working now is a virtualbox environment where i've been testing the
>>> activity and found some bugs. I saw a commit with the "joystick"
>>> feature removed. Is the base code ready to start adding the minor
>>> button changes?
>>

I'm fine with you working on mainline or cloning it using
http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/physics/repos/mainline/new .  Either
way, go for it!


Brian

>> As for my part I'll hold off making any changes for now. Too many
>> cooks, but a nice situation to be in :-)
>>
>> Other than recommending, A) trying to keep in the habit of working in
>> your own git branch and then merging back to master when stable; or B)
>> use Gitorious to just clone the repository and work there, then make a
>> merge request when your done (this option is more visible as folks can
>> see what you doing as you commit changes and you can also give your
>> branch a nice visible name).
>>
>> Have a chat and co-ordinate with Brian and see what his current plans
>> are; the other usual way to communicate would be to create trac
>> tickets (dev.sugarlabs.org) for the bugs/features you want to work on,
>> assign it to yourself, and cc: the others involved (bjordan and myself
>> at the moment) – unfortunately the Physics component has not yet been
>> added (and there is no temporary 'other') so you'll need to email/chat
>> just for now.
>>
>> Regarding development environments; I have a Mac here, so spend most
>> time in VirtualBox with Fedora 10 and sugar-jhbuild, though I'd have a
>> much simpler Activity development set-up if I could just use a recent
>> Sugar distro in VirtualBox, but the distros are all still a little too
>> 'pre-release' to want to rely on just now – running a Mac, running
>> VirtualBox, running sugar-jhbuild, running Sugar is rather a wasteful
>> and large stack of code I hope to avoid at some point :-)
>>
>> Regards,
>> --Gary
>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Asaf
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 2:17 AM, Brian Jordan <bcjordan at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Gary C Martin
>>> <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
>>> > Hi Brian,
>>> >
>>> > On 24 May 2009, at 18:36, Brian Jordan wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> Hey all,
>>> >>
>>> >> Gary -- when you get a chance, can you add me as a committer on
>>> >> git.sl.o?  I'd like to help clean things up!
>>> >
>>> > You're added! :-)
>>> >
>>> > Can I request we try and make small clean commits and try to let
>>> others know
>>> > what we are doing. If you want to hack, Gitorious supports quite a
>>> nice
>>> > 'Clone repository' and then 'Request merge' process (no commit
>>> rights needed
>>> > for the main project). The alternative, if you know what you are
>>> doing, is
>>> > just make your own local git branch to hack on, so you can take
>>> care of any
>>> > merge/conflict issues yourself when you fold it back into the
>>> current
>>> > master.
>>> >
>>> > I'm far from a git expert, but I can recommend some bed time
>>> reading at:
>>> >
>>> >        http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/
>>> >
>>> > and/or
>>> >
>>> >        http://gitready.com/
>>> >
>>>
>>> Thank you, will devote some to that!  Need to learn to keep my crazy
>>> features in branches.
>>>
>>> > I'd like to get on with Labyrinth work, if you're willing to have
>>> an initial
>>> > clean up of the Physics source in the next few days... so what was
>>> > 'joysitck' feature all about? ;-)
>>>
>>> This would probably be best to describe on the wiki page, the idea was
>>> to make a UI for assigning keys on the XO-1 to impulses or changes on
>>> certain objects, so simple 2 player physics based games could be made
>>> from within Physics.
>>>
>>> Agreed, though, I will rid that from the code so we have a nice base
>>> line for crazy-feature branches.
>>>
>>> > Once the dev.sugarlabs.org component is added we should add the
>>> > features/bugs in there to keep them all together. FWIW, from a UI
>>> point of
>>> > view I had in mind:
>>> >
>>> > 1) remove/disable 'joysitick' feature as I have no idea what it
>>> was meant to
>>> > be ;-)
>>> > 2) build tool buttons correctly using RadioToolButton so they
>>> display state
>>> > correctly
>>> > 3) use set_accelerator to define visible keyboard shortcuts for
>>> the tools
>>> >
>>> >> Asaf -- do you have a http://git.sugarlabs.org account yet?
>>> >>
>>> >> This is some feedback from Asaf (these could fit as enhancements in
>>> >> http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ ):
>>> >>
>>> >>> While playing with the activity I found a "pause" button to stop
>>> time
>>> >>> could be very useful. It's complicated to build elaborate
>>> contraptions
>>> >>> if everything keeps falling. Maybe while everything is paused,
>>> >>> positions an velocities of objects could be modified.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> A minor modification I suggest is to create a separate button for
>>> >>> adding push pins. It is not intuitive to add them using the link
>>> tool.
>>> >>> If there are plans about creating tutorial levels this isn't that
>>> >>> necessary although I don't see any harm on adding it.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> An other thing I think could be grate is to be able to create
>>> >>> attractors an repulsors. With stuff like this it gets pretty
>>> >>> interesting, we could have objects orbiting around the attractors.
>>> >
>>> > Yes, all good stuff, there's also a list on
>>> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Physics_%28activity%29 as well, but I'd
>>> vote for
>>> > cleaning up what we have first, perhaps adding a play/pause, and
>>> keeping
>>> > Journal state so kids can actually keep their Physics creations
>>> (and send
>>> > them to friends when using sugar 0.84).
>>>
>>> +1 +1 +1
>>>
>>> Brian
>>>
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> > --Gary
>>> >
>>> >> Thanks
>>> >>
>>> >> Brian
>>> >>
>>> >> On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com
>>> >
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Hey Brian,
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On 24 May 2009, at 13:57, Brian Jordan wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> Hey Gary,
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> First, I'm attaching Asaf Paris Mandoki, who contacted me last
>>> week
>>> >>>> with an interest in developing on the Physics activity, and has
>>> great
>>> >>>> ideas of things to add.  This is a great opportunity!  :)
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> I can handle getting Physics on gitorious, the bug tracker and
>>> a.sl.o.
>>> >>>> I will try to complete this by the end of today.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Having chatted with Alex Levenson, I've already kicked off the
>>> migration
>>> >>> for
>>> >>> Physics (rep is now in Gitorious, trac request is in, and I've
>>> started to
>>> >>> poke at the code, running well at least in sugar-jhbuild and
>>> sugar 0.84).
>>> >>> X2o is next on my hit list once Physics is in a reasonable state.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> The things I can use some help with are (1) integrating proper
>>> >>>> localization to the activity and
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Yep, I'm going to do a pass at the code and tidy up some partially
>>> >>> implemented / broken UI stuff, before requesting it's addition
>>> to pootle
>>> >>> (best to start with a reasonably stable set of strings). Would
>>> also like
>>> >>> to
>>> >>> get/text resolution independence (for non XO hardware) and get
>>> the scene
>>> >>> state saving to Journal...
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Want to get the basics out the way first before we break it
>>> again with
>>> >>> exciting new features ;-)
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> (2) figuring out a good way to include the pybox2d source in
>>> the git
>>> >>>> repository, while including an
>>> >>>> F9-compatible binary on a.sl.o (this was brought up w.r.t.
>>> Pippy a
>>> >>>> couple of times on the fedora devel lists, but I don't remember
>>> seeing
>>> >>>> a clear way of how to handle it).
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Yea I was worried this might be an issue needing resolved, it's
>>> not my
>>> >>> area
>>> >>> of speciality, I'll need to take a deeper look at the source.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> Thanks for the ping and your help!!
>>> >>>
>>> >>> No, thank you! I was expecting a wall of silence :-)
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Regards,
>>> >>> --Gary
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> Brian
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com
>>> >
>>> >>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Hi Guys,
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> I'm making contact to see if any of you are still interested in
>>> >>>>> developing
>>> >>>>> your great Physics activity? Most of the active activity
>>> development
>>> >>>>> has
>>> >>>>> now
>>> >>>>> moved over to Sugar Labs infrastructure, and we've been
>>> getting some
>>> >>>>> requests for localising Physics.
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> We have a Gitorious based source repository (there's no admin
>>> request
>>> >>>>> procedure, you can just register an account and migrate/create a
>>> >>>>> project):
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>      http://git.sugarlabs.org/
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Our bug-tracker trac is at:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>      http://dev.sugarlabs.org/
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> For activity distribution, Sugar Labs is customising Mozilla
>>> addon's
>>> >>>>> web
>>> >>>>> front/back end (we're trying to encourage activity developers
>>> to post
>>> >>>>> there
>>> >>>>> activity bundles here), it's still a little ugly but the theme/
>>> UI is
>>> >>>>> still a
>>> >>>>> work in progress :-)
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>      http://activities.sugarlabs.org/
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> If no one is available to help, I'd be happy to migrate
>>> Physics over to
>>> >>>>> the
>>> >>>>> Sugar Labs infrastructure, get it added to pootle so we can
>>> start
>>> >>>>> localisation and make sure bundles get released for easy
>>> download and
>>> >>>>> inclusion in images/distrobutions. If someone finds they have
>>> some time
>>> >>>>> to
>>> >>>>> come back later just ping me and I can easily add extra
>>> commiters;
>>> >>>>> though
>>> >>>>> with Gitorious, any one can branch anything, hack a bit, then
>>> submit a
>>> >>>>> merge
>>> >>>>> request (great workflow for dipping in and out of projects).
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Kind Regards,
>>> >>>>> Gary C Martin
>>> >>>>> Sugar Labs Activity Team
>>> >>>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity_Team
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Brian Jordan
>>> OLPC Learning Team Technical Contractor
>>> Mobile Phone: +250 0783864924
>>> Skype: bcjordan
>>>
>>
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