Daniel, Since we've run into problems with creating ad-hocs networks on the XO 1.5 (1) (2), I've been thinking about this functionality, the change in UI behavior and perhaps the decrease in usability and I don't like it. I believe it is clunky to have children create their own networks..Who designates who creates the network? Why do I have to join that network? Why can't I make my own network and have them join me, etc.. All of this is aside from the technical limitations of which channel does my network get created on. Does the user specify channels 1, 6, or 11 when creating the network, or does the channel randomly get set? If randomly set, how do we avoid channel overlaps and interference.
To ease all of this and maintain a similar UI, what if we: -Create three faux "Mesh Channel #" icons in the Network view -When the child wants to join a mesh network they will select one of the networks -Upon selection: the XO will: 1. Scan to see if that ad-hoc network already exists and 2. if it does not exist the XO will create the network allowing other children to join it. The one pitfall of this idea, and I'm not sure how much of an issue this would be, is also the pitfall of ad-hoc networks...when the initiator of the ad-hoc network leaves the network fails. When the network has a respective name it is a bit more obvious when that person has left and the reason why the network has failed, this would not be the case given the anonymity of a "Mesh Network #." A more long term solution to this problem may be for the XO to sense the loss of the initiator and recreate the network. In this case, the first XO to sense the loss of the network after some period of time would check if another XO has already setup the network, if not the XO would create the network or join the new one if it already exists. Aside from the one pitfall, I think it would be really beneficial to maintain the same UI and appearance of functionality. Further development in this area may also help us get MPP back, at least at the software level. Your thoughts? Regards, Reuben (1) http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/9807 (2) http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/1604 _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
