On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 10:43 AM, Walter Bender <walter.ben...@gmail.com> wrote: > === Sugar Digest === > > Baselines, Part 1: A few months ago, Tomeu Vizoso set a baseline for > the Sugar "view source" functionality that had largely gone unrealized > in most Activities. In the upcoming (March) release of Sugar, the > default behavior of all Activities will be to have their source code > opened inside of Pippy, the Python editor written by Chris Ball and > maintained by C. Scott Ananian. (This is already the default behavior > of Chat—try it, you'll like it.) > > While this is a baseline, it is clear that for many Activities, it is > not sufficient. In some Activities, such as Browse, view source is > geared towards the content being browsed, rather than the Browser > itself. In a manner similar to the Mosaic web browser—and most > browsers built since—view-source shows the HTML content from which the > page is created. Browse puts a copy of the HTML content into the > Journal from where it can be viewed and modified by the Write > Activity. > > It has often been argues by me (and many others) that view source is > what made the web transparent and enabled any consumer of web content > to become a producer. Indeed, this was the threshold through which a > generation has passed—remix is a part of our culture, not just > something for Trekkies and other fringe groups as observed by Henry > Jenkins in the mid 1980s. > > I have been thinking about view source within the content of Turtle > Art lately. I had gotten immersed in Turtle Art when some teachers on > the Sur list began asking for some extensions. At the time I tried to > get them to make the extensions themselves, but the floor was too > high. I jumped in in order to document the process of modifying an > Activity and also to try to understand first hand where the > difficulties laid. My early attempts are described in the wiki > ([[Patching_Turtle_Art|Patching Turtle Art]]).
Thanks. The code seems to contain many Magic Numbers, as in 'sqrt': (('num',True,0,20),('num',False,42,20)), Are they documented anywhere? > Between Bill Kerr's subsequent questions > ([[Talk:Patching_Turtle_Art|Talk:Patching Turtle Art]]) and my own > experiences, I was awakened to the fact that we have a long ways to go > in terms of making view source meaningful to the teacher, the student, > and the potential Sugar contributor. I added some questions. http://sugarlabs.org/go/Talk:Patching_Turtle_Art#Earth_Treasury > View source was central to the discussion I had with Bill Kerr and > Tony Forster last week in Melbourne. We agreed that it worthwhile > exploring the impact of the addition of some more steps between using > an Activity and viewing the project's Python code; indeed, it would be > necessary if any but the most dedicated would venture forth. That's what I am planning for a book on teaching with Turtle Art. > Tony has > braved the GNU/Linux shell to try to modify Turtle Art; he has been > documenting his efforts ([http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/ Tony > Forster blog]) Previously I had added an export function to Turtle Art > so that the psuedo Logo generated in the graphical interface could be > viewed inside a text-based, fully featured Logo environment—a one-way > path towards more sophisticated programming concepts. What would it take to provide the return path? > As a result of the Melbourne discussion, I decided to take a slightly > different approach. I have added two new blocks to Turtle Art > (actually, at the moment, just to Turtle Art Portfolio, a fork of > Turtle Art). > > One block lets you try Python code directly into it. It can be used > for simple, in-line extensions, such as added new functions from the > math library. It uses a simple set of assumptions: there is one input > (int or float) and one output (float), e.g., typing sin(x) into the > block turns the block into the sine function. It is similar to the > programmable extensions found in may environments, such as > [http://rupert.id.au/schoolgamemaker/morethan.htm Gamemaker]. While I > expect that this will satisfy the needs of many of those who are > looking for simple extensions to the Turtle Art environment, I don't > think it addresses the question of how to provide a stepping stone > towards modifying Turtle Art itself—in fact, it may discourage many > from every bothering to view the source code because they can make > changes without having to "look under the hood." I'm going to see about explaining the transition and encouraging people to take it up. > I have higher hopes for the second block I introduced. Internally it > calls a Python procedure, myblock, that is currently a "nop"—it simply > returns without executing any code. The idea is that myblock, which is > loaded as a separate module, will be modified by the end user. When > Turtle Art Portfolio is launched for the first time, it makes a copy > of myblock in the Journal. It can be opened in Pippy, where it can be > modified and saved back to the Journal. From within Turtle Art, you > can reload the myblock module by selecting a new module from the > Journal. > > I've put some commented-out examples of what you can do with myblock > into the Python code: a dotted line; some string manipulations; and > the extension of the Turtle Art color space to include chroma (gray) > in addition to hue and value. > > In using myblock, my typical work cycle is to switch between Turtle > Art Portfolio, Pippy, and Log Viewer (so that I can see the error > messages from the Python interpreter—I make a lot of mistakes as I > code). The major limitation I face in the current implementation is > that within Pippy I don't have access to the Turtle Art environment. I > need all but rudimentary syntactic debugging in Turtle Art itself and > I need to know what resources are available within that environment, > which I can only find out by looking at more of the source code. (I am > hoping that enough examples will help in regard to the latter issue.) > Nonetheless, I hypothesize that the barrier to entry into making real > modifications to Turtle Art is much lower now. I cannot wait to get > feedback from the field to see if I am heading down the right path. > > I am hoping that other Activity developers go beyond the baseline set > by Tomeu. I am sure that there are many creative ways to engage in the > appropriation of the tools we are creating. There are, indeed. -- Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name And Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination. http://earthtreasury.net/ (Edward Mokurai Cherlin) _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep