On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 11:10 AM, James Simmons <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> > 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!) >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > > -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) 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