[IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03 addendum

[Walter Bender]

I forgot to mention yesterday that we will be applying to Google
Summer of Code this year. We need project ideas and mentors. Please
add your ideas to [1] and let me know if you are interested in
mentoring. (As far as I know, GSOC participants need to be enrolled in
university but there is no restriction on whom can be a mentor. I am
hoping that some of our GCI contestants, too young to participate in
GSOC, might be interested in mentoring.)

Detailed schedule is [2].

-walter

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

[1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2013
[2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03

[Walter Bender]

On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 11:10 AM, James Simmons  wrote:
> Walter,
>
> I'd like to fix my Activities to work with an on-screen keyboard.  Is there
> any way to simulate having one of these for desktop testing?

Not sure. But we should make a test environment.

>  Also, a few of
> my Activities use the arrow keys for paging and scrolling.  The numeric pad
> arrow keys map to one of the gaming controls on my XO-1 so you can use that
> control to page through books when the XO-1 when it is in "tablet" mode.
> Will there be a similar control on the XO-4?

Should be the same.

-walter
>
> James Simmons
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 11:15 AM, Walter Bender 
> wrote:
>>
>> == Sugar Digest ==
>>
>> 1. It has been crazy busy. With the upcoming XO4 launch, Sugar with
>> touch support will be making its debut. The developer team has done a
>> great job but we are lagging behind a bit on the activity level:
>> Activities that use keyboard input need to be modified to use the
>> on-screen keyboard; and now that tablet mode will be used more often,
>> we need to better attend to the issue of screen rotation.
>>
>> In order to adapt to the on-screen keyboard, there are two adjustments
>> that need to be made: (1) use either a GTK Entry or TextView instead
>> of directly querying the keyboard; and (2) make sure that the Entry is
>> visible when the keyboard is visible. To address both issues, I have
>> been mostly using GTK Fixed in order to re-position the Entry
>> appropriately. But also, I have been using a strategy of moving the
>> Entry to the top of the activity.
>>
>> There are two issues with dealing with landscape vs portrait mode. One
>> is to make sure that the work area of an activity accommodates the
>> change in size and aspect ration. Perhaps the easiest way to do this
>> is simply to define a square work are inside of a scrolling window.
>> There are times when this strategy won't work, such as with Paint, but
>> for the most part, it is a simple solution.
>>
>> The toolbars are another matter. It is often the case that not all of
>> the elements fit when in portrait mode. The default behavior of Sugar,
>> to make a list on a palette that displays on the edge of the screen is
>> somewhat lacking, both in that many toolbar items are either not shown
>> or inoperable in that form. And aesthetically, it is not very
>> Sugar-like. I've been experimenting with some different approaches to
>> generating palettes, and also moving some toolbar elements around
>> (e.g., moving some buttons to secondary toolbars). Alas, none of these
>> solutions are idea or completely generalizable. But I think there are
>> harbingers of a solution.
>>
>> Another issue with touch is that Gtk2 ComboBoxes don't work. The
>> problem has been fixed in the Gtk3 version of the Sugar tool-kit, but,
>> not being a fan of Combo Boxes to begin with, I see it as an
>> opportunity to minimize their use. For example, using bigger/smaller
>> buttons is arguably an easier way to adjust font size using touch.
>>
>> Ultimately, we'll want to add more gesture support as well. Many
>> activities could readily support panning and zooming. And a "long"
>> press can replace the un-Sugar-like reliance of right-click that some
>> activities are using.
>>
>> I've packaged many of these ideas into some experimental (and
>> production) versions of some activities (Please see [1-7]). Feedback
>> most welcome.
>>
>> 2. It occurred to me that the Web Services framework that Raul and I
>> developed a few weeks ago might make a nice home for a simple
>> classroom service: handing in homework assignments and receiving back
>> comments from the teacher and fellow students. Such a service could be
>> dropped right into the same framework we built for Facebook, so in the
>> Journal, there would be a Share with (or Copy to) Teacher and comments
>> would appear in the Journal detail view (and be directly integrated in
>> the Portfolio). Simple, but potentially quite useful.
>>
>> === Tech Talk ===
>>
>> 3. Adam Holt reported on the School Server Hack Sprint held in Toronto
>> (See [8]).
>>
>> 4. Daniel Narvaez has been making great progress on "Agora", his
>> attempt to achieve the goals of the Sugar Learning Platform using the
>> web technologies (See [9]).
>>
>> === Sugar Labs ===
>>
>> Visit our planet [10] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> ---
>>
>> [1] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Abacus-47.1.xo
>> [2] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chart-9.1.xo
>> [3] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chat-78.1.xo
>> [4] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Labyrinth-14.4.xo
>> [5] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Portfolio-41.2.xo
>> [6] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Speak-44.6.xo
>> [7]
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addons/versions/4027#version-173
>> (TurtleBlocks-173.xo)
>> [8]
>> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2013-February/006258.html
>> [9]
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-

Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03

[James Simmons]

Walter,

I'd like to fix my Activities to work with an on-screen keyboard.  Is there
any way to simulate having one of these for desktop testing?  Also, a few
of my Activities use the arrow keys for paging and scrolling.  The numeric
pad arrow keys map to one of the gaming controls on my XO-1 so you can use
that control to page through books when the XO-1 when it is in "tablet"
mode.  Will there be a similar control on the XO-4?

James Simmons


On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 11:15 AM, Walter Bender wrote:

> == Sugar Digest ==
>
> 1. It has been crazy busy. With the upcoming XO4 launch, Sugar with
> touch support will be making its debut. The developer team has done a
> great job but we are lagging behind a bit on the activity level:
> Activities that use keyboard input need to be modified to use the
> on-screen keyboard; and now that tablet mode will be used more often,
> we need to better attend to the issue of screen rotation.
>
> In order to adapt to the on-screen keyboard, there are two adjustments
> that need to be made: (1) use either a GTK Entry or TextView instead
> of directly querying the keyboard; and (2) make sure that the Entry is
> visible when the keyboard is visible. To address both issues, I have
> been mostly using GTK Fixed in order to re-position the Entry
> appropriately. But also, I have been using a strategy of moving the
> Entry to the top of the activity.
>
> There are two issues with dealing with landscape vs portrait mode. One
> is to make sure that the work area of an activity accommodates the
> change in size and aspect ration. Perhaps the easiest way to do this
> is simply to define a square work are inside of a scrolling window.
> There are times when this strategy won't work, such as with Paint, but
> for the most part, it is a simple solution.
>
> The toolbars are another matter. It is often the case that not all of
> the elements fit when in portrait mode. The default behavior of Sugar,
> to make a list on a palette that displays on the edge of the screen is
> somewhat lacking, both in that many toolbar items are either not shown
> or inoperable in that form. And aesthetically, it is not very
> Sugar-like. I've been experimenting with some different approaches to
> generating palettes, and also moving some toolbar elements around
> (e.g., moving some buttons to secondary toolbars). Alas, none of these
> solutions are idea or completely generalizable. But I think there are
> harbingers of a solution.
>
> Another issue with touch is that Gtk2 ComboBoxes don't work. The
> problem has been fixed in the Gtk3 version of the Sugar tool-kit, but,
> not being a fan of Combo Boxes to begin with, I see it as an
> opportunity to minimize their use. For example, using bigger/smaller
> buttons is arguably an easier way to adjust font size using touch.
>
> Ultimately, we'll want to add more gesture support as well. Many
> activities could readily support panning and zooming. And a "long"
> press can replace the un-Sugar-like reliance of right-click that some
> activities are using.
>
> I've packaged many of these ideas into some experimental (and
> production) versions of some activities (Please see [1-7]). Feedback
> most welcome.
>
> 2. It occurred to me that the Web Services framework that Raul and I
> developed a few weeks ago might make a nice home for a simple
> classroom service: handing in homework assignments and receiving back
> comments from the teacher and fellow students. Such a service could be
> dropped right into the same framework we built for Facebook, so in the
> Journal, there would be a Share with (or Copy to) Teacher and comments
> would appear in the Journal detail view (and be directly integrated in
> the Portfolio). Simple, but potentially quite useful.
>
> === Tech Talk ===
>
> 3. Adam Holt reported on the School Server Hack Sprint held in Toronto
> (See [8]).
>
> 4. Daniel Narvaez has been making great progress on "Agora", his
> attempt to achieve the goals of the Sugar Learning Platform using the
> web technologies (See [9]).
>
> === Sugar Labs ===
>
> Visit our planet [10] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
>
> -walter
>
> ---
>
> [1] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Abacus-47.1.xo
> [2] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chart-9.1.xo
> [3] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chat-78.1.xo
> [4] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Labyrinth-14.4.xo
> [5] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Portfolio-41.2.xo
> [6] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Speak-44.6.xo
> [7]
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addons/versions/4027#version-173
> (TurtleBlocks-173.xo)
> [8]
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2013-February/006258.html
> [9]
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-February/041847.html
> [10] http://planet.sugarlabs.org
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@list

Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03

[Gerald Ardito]

Stephen,
Feel free to have Justin get in touch with me if we can help.
Gerald
On Mar 3, 2013 12:41 PM, "STEPHEN JACOBS"  wrote:

>  new round of the RIT HFOSS Class begins tomorrow.  While I'm not teaching
> it Justin Sherrill, included in on it, will be.
> It might be possible to have those students test such a homework service
> as well.
> On Mar 3, 2013, at 12:19 PM, Gerald Ardito wrote:
>
> Walter,
>
> The homework service you described would be incredibly useful.
> I would be happy to help test, I'd needed.
> Gerald
> On Mar 3, 2013 12:15 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
>
>> == Sugar Digest ==
>>
>> 1. It has been crazy busy. With the upcoming XO4 launch, Sugar with
>> touch support will be making its debut. The developer team has done a
>> great job but we are lagging behind a bit on the activity level:
>> Activities that use keyboard input need to be modified to use the
>> on-screen keyboard; and now that tablet mode will be used more often,
>> we need to better attend to the issue of screen rotation.
>>
>> In order to adapt to the on-screen keyboard, there are two adjustments
>> that need to be made: (1) use either a GTK Entry or TextView instead
>> of directly querying the keyboard; and (2) make sure that the Entry is
>> visible when the keyboard is visible. To address both issues, I have
>> been mostly using GTK Fixed in order to re-position the Entry
>> appropriately. But also, I have been using a strategy of moving the
>> Entry to the top of the activity.
>>
>> There are two issues with dealing with landscape vs portrait mode. One
>> is to make sure that the work area of an activity accommodates the
>> change in size and aspect ration. Perhaps the easiest way to do this
>> is simply to define a square work are inside of a scrolling window.
>> There are times when this strategy won't work, such as with Paint, but
>> for the most part, it is a simple solution.
>>
>> The toolbars are another matter. It is often the case that not all of
>> the elements fit when in portrait mode. The default behavior of Sugar,
>> to make a list on a palette that displays on the edge of the screen is
>> somewhat lacking, both in that many toolbar items are either not shown
>> or inoperable in that form. And aesthetically, it is not very
>> Sugar-like. I've been experimenting with some different approaches to
>> generating palettes, and also moving some toolbar elements around
>> (e.g., moving some buttons to secondary toolbars). Alas, none of these
>> solutions are idea or completely generalizable. But I think there are
>> harbingers of a solution.
>>
>> Another issue with touch is that Gtk2 ComboBoxes don't work. The
>> problem has been fixed in the Gtk3 version of the Sugar tool-kit, but,
>> not being a fan of Combo Boxes to begin with, I see it as an
>> opportunity to minimize their use. For example, using bigger/smaller
>> buttons is arguably an easier way to adjust font size using touch.
>>
>> Ultimately, we'll want to add more gesture support as well. Many
>> activities could readily support panning and zooming. And a "long"
>> press can replace the un-Sugar-like reliance of right-click that some
>> activities are using.
>>
>> I've packaged many of these ideas into some experimental (and
>> production) versions of some activities (Please see [1-7]). Feedback
>> most welcome.
>>
>> 2. It occurred to me that the Web Services framework that Raul and I
>> developed a few weeks ago might make a nice home for a simple
>> classroom service: handing in homework assignments and receiving back
>> comments from the teacher and fellow students. Such a service could be
>> dropped right into the same framework we built for Facebook, so in the
>> Journal, there would be a Share with (or Copy to) Teacher and comments
>> would appear in the Journal detail view (and be directly integrated in
>> the Portfolio). Simple, but potentially quite useful.
>>
>> === Tech Talk ===
>>
>> 3. Adam Holt reported on the School Server Hack Sprint held in Toronto
>> (See [8]).
>>
>> 4. Daniel Narvaez has been making great progress on "Agora", his
>> attempt to achieve the goals of the Sugar Learning Platform using the
>> web technologies (See [9]).
>>
>> === Sugar Labs ===
>>
>> Visit our planet [10] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> ---
>>
>> [1] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Abacus-47.1.xo
>> [2] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chart-9.1.xo
>> [3] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chat-78.1.xo
>> [4] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Labyrinth-14.4.xo
>> [5] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Portfolio-41.2.xo
>> [6] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Speak-44.6.xo
>> [7]
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addons/versions/4027#version-173
>> (TurtleBlocks-173.xo
>> )
>> [8]
>> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2013-February/006258.html
>> [9]
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/a

Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03

[STEPHEN JACOBS]

 new round of the RIT HFOSS Class begins tomorrow.  While I'm not teaching it 
Justin Sherrill, included in on it, will be. 
It might be possible to have those students test such a homework service as 
well.
On Mar 3, 2013, at 12:19 PM, Gerald Ardito wrote:

> Walter,
> 
> The homework service you described would be incredibly useful.
> I would be happy to help test, I'd needed.
> Gerald
> 
> On Mar 3, 2013 12:15 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:
> == Sugar Digest ==
> 
> 1. It has been crazy busy. With the upcoming XO4 launch, Sugar with
> touch support will be making its debut. The developer team has done a
> great job but we are lagging behind a bit on the activity level:
> Activities that use keyboard input need to be modified to use the
> on-screen keyboard; and now that tablet mode will be used more often,
> we need to better attend to the issue of screen rotation.
> 
> In order to adapt to the on-screen keyboard, there are two adjustments
> that need to be made: (1) use either a GTK Entry or TextView instead
> of directly querying the keyboard; and (2) make sure that the Entry is
> visible when the keyboard is visible. To address both issues, I have
> been mostly using GTK Fixed in order to re-position the Entry
> appropriately. But also, I have been using a strategy of moving the
> Entry to the top of the activity.
> 
> There are two issues with dealing with landscape vs portrait mode. One
> is to make sure that the work area of an activity accommodates the
> change in size and aspect ration. Perhaps the easiest way to do this
> is simply to define a square work are inside of a scrolling window.
> There are times when this strategy won't work, such as with Paint, but
> for the most part, it is a simple solution.
> 
> The toolbars are another matter. It is often the case that not all of
> the elements fit when in portrait mode. The default behavior of Sugar,
> to make a list on a palette that displays on the edge of the screen is
> somewhat lacking, both in that many toolbar items are either not shown
> or inoperable in that form. And aesthetically, it is not very
> Sugar-like. I've been experimenting with some different approaches to
> generating palettes, and also moving some toolbar elements around
> (e.g., moving some buttons to secondary toolbars). Alas, none of these
> solutions are idea or completely generalizable. But I think there are
> harbingers of a solution.
> 
> Another issue with touch is that Gtk2 ComboBoxes don't work. The
> problem has been fixed in the Gtk3 version of the Sugar tool-kit, but,
> not being a fan of Combo Boxes to begin with, I see it as an
> opportunity to minimize their use. For example, using bigger/smaller
> buttons is arguably an easier way to adjust font size using touch.
> 
> Ultimately, we'll want to add more gesture support as well. Many
> activities could readily support panning and zooming. And a "long"
> press can replace the un-Sugar-like reliance of right-click that some
> activities are using.
> 
> I've packaged many of these ideas into some experimental (and
> production) versions of some activities (Please see [1-7]). Feedback
> most welcome.
> 
> 2. It occurred to me that the Web Services framework that Raul and I
> developed a few weeks ago might make a nice home for a simple
> classroom service: handing in homework assignments and receiving back
> comments from the teacher and fellow students. Such a service could be
> dropped right into the same framework we built for Facebook, so in the
> Journal, there would be a Share with (or Copy to) Teacher and comments
> would appear in the Journal detail view (and be directly integrated in
> the Portfolio). Simple, but potentially quite useful.
> 
> === Tech Talk ===
> 
> 3. Adam Holt reported on the School Server Hack Sprint held in Toronto
> (See [8]).
> 
> 4. Daniel Narvaez has been making great progress on "Agora", his
> attempt to achieve the goals of the Sugar Learning Platform using the
> web technologies (See [9]).
> 
> === Sugar Labs ===
> 
> Visit our planet [10] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
> 
> -walter
> 
> ---
> 
> [1] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Abacus-47.1.xo
> [2] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chart-9.1.xo
> [3] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chat-78.1.xo
> [4] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Labyrinth-14.4.xo
> [5] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Portfolio-41.2.xo
> [6] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Speak-44.6.xo
> [7] 
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addons/versions/4027#version-173
> (TurtleBlocks-173.xo)
> [8] http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2013-February/006258.html
> [9] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-February/041847.html
> [10] http://planet.sugarlabs.org
> 
> 
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/

Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03

[Gerald Ardito]

Walter,

The homework service you described would be incredibly useful.
I would be happy to help test, I'd needed.
Gerald
On Mar 3, 2013 12:15 PM, "Walter Bender"  wrote:

> == Sugar Digest ==
>
> 1. It has been crazy busy. With the upcoming XO4 launch, Sugar with
> touch support will be making its debut. The developer team has done a
> great job but we are lagging behind a bit on the activity level:
> Activities that use keyboard input need to be modified to use the
> on-screen keyboard; and now that tablet mode will be used more often,
> we need to better attend to the issue of screen rotation.
>
> In order to adapt to the on-screen keyboard, there are two adjustments
> that need to be made: (1) use either a GTK Entry or TextView instead
> of directly querying the keyboard; and (2) make sure that the Entry is
> visible when the keyboard is visible. To address both issues, I have
> been mostly using GTK Fixed in order to re-position the Entry
> appropriately. But also, I have been using a strategy of moving the
> Entry to the top of the activity.
>
> There are two issues with dealing with landscape vs portrait mode. One
> is to make sure that the work area of an activity accommodates the
> change in size and aspect ration. Perhaps the easiest way to do this
> is simply to define a square work are inside of a scrolling window.
> There are times when this strategy won't work, such as with Paint, but
> for the most part, it is a simple solution.
>
> The toolbars are another matter. It is often the case that not all of
> the elements fit when in portrait mode. The default behavior of Sugar,
> to make a list on a palette that displays on the edge of the screen is
> somewhat lacking, both in that many toolbar items are either not shown
> or inoperable in that form. And aesthetically, it is not very
> Sugar-like. I've been experimenting with some different approaches to
> generating palettes, and also moving some toolbar elements around
> (e.g., moving some buttons to secondary toolbars). Alas, none of these
> solutions are idea or completely generalizable. But I think there are
> harbingers of a solution.
>
> Another issue with touch is that Gtk2 ComboBoxes don't work. The
> problem has been fixed in the Gtk3 version of the Sugar tool-kit, but,
> not being a fan of Combo Boxes to begin with, I see it as an
> opportunity to minimize their use. For example, using bigger/smaller
> buttons is arguably an easier way to adjust font size using touch.
>
> Ultimately, we'll want to add more gesture support as well. Many
> activities could readily support panning and zooming. And a "long"
> press can replace the un-Sugar-like reliance of right-click that some
> activities are using.
>
> I've packaged many of these ideas into some experimental (and
> production) versions of some activities (Please see [1-7]). Feedback
> most welcome.
>
> 2. It occurred to me that the Web Services framework that Raul and I
> developed a few weeks ago might make a nice home for a simple
> classroom service: handing in homework assignments and receiving back
> comments from the teacher and fellow students. Such a service could be
> dropped right into the same framework we built for Facebook, so in the
> Journal, there would be a Share with (or Copy to) Teacher and comments
> would appear in the Journal detail view (and be directly integrated in
> the Portfolio). Simple, but potentially quite useful.
>
> === Tech Talk ===
>
> 3. Adam Holt reported on the School Server Hack Sprint held in Toronto
> (See [8]).
>
> 4. Daniel Narvaez has been making great progress on "Agora", his
> attempt to achieve the goals of the Sugar Learning Platform using the
> web technologies (See [9]).
>
> === Sugar Labs ===
>
> Visit our planet [10] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
>
> -walter
>
> ---
>
> [1] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Abacus-47.1.xo
> [2] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chart-9.1.xo
> [3] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chat-78.1.xo
> [4] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Labyrinth-14.4.xo
> [5] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Portfolio-41.2.xo
> [6] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Speak-44.6.xo
> [7]
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addons/versions/4027#version-173
> (TurtleBlocks-173.xo)
> [8]
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2013-February/006258.html
> [9]
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-February/041847.html
> [10] http://planet.sugarlabs.org
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> ___
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

[IAEP] Sugar Digest 2013-03-03

[Walter Bender]

== Sugar Digest ==

1. It has been crazy busy. With the upcoming XO4 launch, Sugar with
touch support will be making its debut. The developer team has done a
great job but we are lagging behind a bit on the activity level:
Activities that use keyboard input need to be modified to use the
on-screen keyboard; and now that tablet mode will be used more often,
we need to better attend to the issue of screen rotation.

In order to adapt to the on-screen keyboard, there are two adjustments
that need to be made: (1) use either a GTK Entry or TextView instead
of directly querying the keyboard; and (2) make sure that the Entry is
visible when the keyboard is visible. To address both issues, I have
been mostly using GTK Fixed in order to re-position the Entry
appropriately. But also, I have been using a strategy of moving the
Entry to the top of the activity.

There are two issues with dealing with landscape vs portrait mode. One
is to make sure that the work area of an activity accommodates the
change in size and aspect ration. Perhaps the easiest way to do this
is simply to define a square work are inside of a scrolling window.
There are times when this strategy won't work, such as with Paint, but
for the most part, it is a simple solution.

The toolbars are another matter. It is often the case that not all of
the elements fit when in portrait mode. The default behavior of Sugar,
to make a list on a palette that displays on the edge of the screen is
somewhat lacking, both in that many toolbar items are either not shown
or inoperable in that form. And aesthetically, it is not very
Sugar-like. I've been experimenting with some different approaches to
generating palettes, and also moving some toolbar elements around
(e.g., moving some buttons to secondary toolbars). Alas, none of these
solutions are idea or completely generalizable. But I think there are
harbingers of a solution.

Another issue with touch is that Gtk2 ComboBoxes don't work. The
problem has been fixed in the Gtk3 version of the Sugar tool-kit, but,
not being a fan of Combo Boxes to begin with, I see it as an
opportunity to minimize their use. For example, using bigger/smaller
buttons is arguably an easier way to adjust font size using touch.

Ultimately, we'll want to add more gesture support as well. Many
activities could readily support panning and zooming. And a "long"
press can replace the un-Sugar-like reliance of right-click that some
activities are using.

I've packaged many of these ideas into some experimental (and
production) versions of some activities (Please see [1-7]). Feedback
most welcome.

2. It occurred to me that the Web Services framework that Raul and I
developed a few weeks ago might make a nice home for a simple
classroom service: handing in homework assignments and receiving back
comments from the teacher and fellow students. Such a service could be
dropped right into the same framework we built for Facebook, so in the
Journal, there would be a Share with (or Copy to) Teacher and comments
would appear in the Journal detail view (and be directly integrated in
the Portfolio). Simple, but potentially quite useful.

=== Tech Talk ===

3. Adam Holt reported on the School Server Hack Sprint held in Toronto
(See [8]).

4. Daniel Narvaez has been making great progress on "Agora", his
attempt to achieve the goals of the Sugar Learning Platform using the
web technologies (See [9]).

=== Sugar Labs ===

Visit our planet [10] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.

-walter

---

[1] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Abacus-47.1.xo
[2] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chart-9.1.xo
[3] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Chat-78.1.xo
[4] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Labyrinth-14.4.xo
[5] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Portfolio-41.2.xo
[6] http://people.sugarlabs.org/~walter/Speak-44.6.xo
[7] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addons/versions/4027#version-173
(TurtleBlocks-173.xo)
[8] http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2013-February/006258.html
[9] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-February/041847.html
[10] http://planet.sugarlabs.org


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