[sugar] lots of scrolling in activities-list
Hello all, I finally had a chance to play with our B4s and build 648. Given that a number of additional activities are now available compared to previous builds I do find the scrolling in the activities list to be a bit tiresome. Especially when I think about these laptops being in use for several months, children having downloaded more activites, maybe additional activities will be deployed by local groups or ministries of education. That can easily result in upwards of 30 or 40 activities being installed on any given machine. Shouldn't we try to come up with a better (or at least offer an alternative) approach to handling these lists of activities? (How about a start button for example?;-) Maybe categories or something? What do you think? Cheers, Christoph (OLPC Austria) ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] lots of scrolling in activities-list
We have a completely new approach to this on the table, which will be discussed and hopefully placed into the roadmap soon. Once we've polished the ideas and the mockups I'm sure they will be available for everyone to provide feedback on. It won't be a start menu, though; I promise. ;-) - Eben On Dec 5, 2007 2:08 PM, Christoph Derndorfer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello all, I finally had a chance to play with our B4s and build 648. Given that a number of additional activities are now available compared to previous builds I do find the scrolling in the activities list to be a bit tiresome. Especially when I think about these laptops being in use for several months, children having downloaded more activites, maybe additional activities will be deployed by local groups or ministries of education. That can easily result in upwards of 30 or 40 activities being installed on any given machine. Shouldn't we try to come up with a better (or at least offer an alternative) approach to handling these lists of activities? (How about a start button for example?;-) Maybe categories or something? What do you think? Cheers, Christoph (OLPC Austria) ___ Devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] lots of scrolling in activities-list
We have a completely new approach to this on the table, which will be discussed and hopefully placed into the roadmap soon. In cyberspace, information is often stored in a hierarchy of directories (with the higher-level directories serving to organize access to the the information). OLPC is substituting a single-level Journal, with extensive filter capabilities to organize the view of (i.e., access to) the information according to the user's intent. Both approaches serve to exclude those items not pertinent to the current access purpose. If the activities-list were to be organized hierarchically, let me suggest a tabbed selection path: Let the user select a tab (e.g., card games), then select a specific activity shown within that tab (e.g. Klondike solitaire). [If need be, 'tabs' themselves can be hierarchical (card games tab within games tab). Think of 'tabs' as providing a _visual_ access filter. mikus p.s. I believe the purpose of organizing stored information is to facilitate subsequent access to that information. But sometimes the mechanics involved in specifying the organizing details can interfere with the thought process of the user who is adding the information. For example, in FireFox3 the action of 'bookmarking a page' will ask for meta-information to be used to locate that entry, although at that moment the user's main focus might simply be in marking that page, without being diverted into considering Why will I want to access this page again?. ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] lots of scrolling in activities-list
Eben, thanks a lot for the information! I'm very much looking forward to what you guys have thought of... :-) Cheers, Christoph -- Message: 5 Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 14:13:20 -0500 From: Eben Eliason [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: lots of scrolling in activities-list To: Christoph Derndorfer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], sugar@lists.laptop.org Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 We have a completely new approach to this on the table, which will be discussed and hopefully placed into the roadmap soon. Once we've polished the ideas and the mockups I'm sure they will be available for everyone to provide feedback on. It won't be a start menu, though; I promise. ;-) - Eben ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] lots of scrolling in activities-list
Not knowing what new design will replace the current activity frame, I think that not having so many activities pre-installed would help in this problem. Just like ubuntu does, provide a minimal set of most important programs, in this case focusing on learning and education, and then let the user add more from the wiki. I certainly think this is a good idea myself, regardless of how scalable the interface for displaying the activities is. I think that choosing a core set of 10 or so activities which will provide really rich functionality while keeping the number of entry points and the learning curve low is a good approach. In fact, from the standpoint of emphasizing the ability to obtain new activities from elsewhere, which should be an integral part of the system, limiting the default set to the basics makes sense. - Eben ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
[sugar] Multi-pane activities?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Dear confectioners, I have written an activity with a single main screen and a number of toolbars, selectable by tabs. I am considering adding some new features that would require one or more additional main screens. 0. Is this a bad idea? It sometimes seems like Sugar is designed to impede this, or that Sugar has a implied judgement that if your activity takes more than one screen, it's too much for one activity. 1. What is the recommended design? For example, the choice of main screen could easily be independent of the choice of toolbar. This might leave the user choosing from among two different sets of tabs, which sounds bad to me. On the other hand, tying the choice of main screen to the choice of toolbar might mean that the user can't do many actions without losing sight of her data. 2. How should I implement this? Do I need to hook into the ActivityToolbox and connect my own listeners to its buttons? - --Ben -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHV2I1UJT6e6HFtqQRAl1jAJ9HvMg/LpmDj9SpV6QqpRQPAikUjwCgkq12 +20JqrXvGqO7BRy5lI1nN+w= =oOHv -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] Multi-pane activities?
Another way to think about it would be to open the second window on another laptop... -walter On Dec 5, 2007 9:45 PM, Benjamin M. Schwartz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Dear confectioners, I have written an activity with a single main screen and a number of toolbars, selectable by tabs. I am considering adding some new features that would require one or more additional main screens. 0. Is this a bad idea? It sometimes seems like Sugar is designed to impede this, or that Sugar has a implied judgement that if your activity takes more than one screen, it's too much for one activity. 1. What is the recommended design? For example, the choice of main screen could easily be independent of the choice of toolbar. This might leave the user choosing from among two different sets of tabs, which sounds bad to me. On the other hand, tying the choice of main screen to the choice of toolbar might mean that the user can't do many actions without losing sight of her data. 2. How should I implement this? Do I need to hook into the ActivityToolbox and connect my own listeners to its buttons? - --Ben -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHV2I1UJT6e6HFtqQRAl1jAJ9HvMg/LpmDj9SpV6QqpRQPAikUjwCgkq12 +20JqrXvGqO7BRy5lI1nN+w= =oOHv -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar -- Walter Bender One Laptop per Child http://laptop.org ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] Multi-pane activities?
I am considering adding some new features that would require one or more additional main screens. In working on a non-laptop system with a not-large display, I find the ability to page among multiple panes to be invaluable. [I typically set up virtual desktops for this purpose - for me that is simpler than moving the focus between windows all on one screen.] I realize that OLPC is resource-limited (particularly main memory), but please try to keep in mind the desirability of a long-term goal being support of a human interface with multi-pane-capability. Especially in the browser, I think being able to 'flip viewing back and forth' between two previously accessed panes is preferable to only having 'go back' and 'go forward' buttons on a single pane. mikus ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
Re: [sugar] OLPC News 2007-12-01
Walter Bender wrote: [snipped...] 4. AC adapters: There has been a request for AC adapters that are rotated ninety degrees from the current configuration. In order to rotate the orientation of the prongs, the width of the adapter must be extended (to satisfy the safety requirement). As a result, six reoriented AC adapters will not fit abreast in the standard spacing of a six-plug power strip. Mary Lou Jepsen and Fuse are investigating further; if we can not resolve the issue, we will not make AC adapters with a rotated prong orientation. Not sure what the reason is for making rotated prong design, but will something like this address the spacing issue? http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-Power-Strip-Liberator/dp/B0009K98BS/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8s=electronicsqid=1196926216sr=8-3 Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Information Systems San Francisco State University San Francisco CA 94132 USA http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ ___ Sugar mailing list Sugar@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
