Tony, I own an XO laptop from the first Give One Get One promotion, so I know what it can do. I've used the Terminal Activity and I wrote the Sugar Commander Activity because I thought that the original design of Sugar, which made your thumb drive look like the Journal, was not such a hot idea. In my opinion files and directories should look like files and directories and the Journal should look like the Journal. I know that some of the newer XO's can switch to a GNOME desktop.
I never tried developing Activities on an XO because I never had to. It is definitely easier to do things the way I do it, and for someone living in the U.S. with reliable internet it's pretty cheap. I agree that this is not the case for all the students, or even most of them. It's a case of "to those who have, more shall be given." I had the same situation when I wrote *E-Book Enlightenment*. Free e-books in English are plentiful, other languages not so much. I had to write chapters on making e-books, figuring out what is in the public domain, photographing book pages, building a device to hold books in place for being photographed, doing optical character recognition, donating books to PG and archive.org, etc. Maybe MYOSA needs a chapter on using the XO for developing applications, installing Git and using it locally, etc. My own XO has been in a drawer for a couple of years. James Simmons On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 12:46 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_ander...@usa.net> wrote: > Hi, James > > If you go to activities.sugarlabs.org, you can register via the register > link at the top right. This is not registration for Sugarlabs but for ASLO. > > As I understand the github repository, access with the ability to commit > changes is closely held. The enables proposed changes to be vetted before a > commit. > However, the web page has a sign in link which gives limited access > (create pull requests and comment on them, for example). That same two-step > process is used for ASLO. The developer submits the change which puts it > into a sandbox pending review. > > Actually Sugar has files, directories and a command shell (Terminal > activity). It is relatively easy to switch activities via the Frame. I say > this from several years of experience developing on the XO (easier than > using usb flash keys to move code to the XO to test). The fact that Browse > does not support flex and the unique XO screen makes testing on an XO > essential if that is the target. > > The process of making changes via github to the Sugar core is certainly > reasonable. However, nothing in this procedure interferes with a developer > modifying and testing a change on an installed Sugar independently of the > internet. Access to the internet being needed only to submit the change. > > The issue is not to use Sugar for everything, it is to use the available > computer for everything (XO). In general, the XO is the first computer our > users have used and, aside from an Android device, the only computer > available. While used desktops and laptops are available, the $100+ funds > are not available. > > The 'current setup' you mention depends on ready access to the internet, > something not available for at least 2/3 of our users. It is a strength of > Sugar that the source code is immediately available to the user without > need of a repository (except access to activities not installed - a need > supplied by a schoolserver). This allows learners to get into programming > in a meaningful way using only what is installed on the XO. > > Tony > > > On 03/14/2017 11:25 PM, James Simmons wrote: > > All, > > I only meant to make the manual actually tell where we currently put our > code repositories, without rewriting the whole chapter. (I had hoped that a > Google Code-In mentee might do that, but it didn't happen). The one piece > of information that is still lacking is how to have your account added to > the sugarlabs organization. That happened so long ago that I forgot how it > happened. If someone could remind me I'll add that information to the note. > > I haven't done any Sugar development in years but I do program computers > for a living and I use Git in my day job. > > Sugar has some good Activities to teach programming, but I don't think it > is a great Activity development platform. For that you really need files > and directories and a command shell, the ability to run Sugar as more than > one user at a time, etc. > > I understand the desire to use Sugar for everything, but I think it would > always get in the way. You wouldn't expect to be able to develop an iphone > app on an iphone, or at least I wouldn't. > > If I wanted to teach Activity development to children I'd get some > reconditioned desktop computers and install Fedora and Sugar on them. I > have used nothing but reconditioned computers myself for years. It is > amazing to me what you can get reconditioned on Amazon and elsewhere for > around a hundred bucks. This is basically my price range for a "new" > computer, and for that I can get a Lenovo or other quality brand with more > than adequate disk space and memory. These computers are built for use in > offices and have many years of life left in them. In Fedora you can run > Sugar as a desktop environment as well as in a window. You can hook them up > to a TV or a projector (something I remember many people wanted to do with > the XO). > > I don't see ASLO being separate from Git as a problem. I think of it like > the production environment at work. If it's good enough to use it goes on > ASLO. If not, it stays in Git, but I might push my code to the central > repository so others could fool around with it. > > Part of teach a child programming should be teaching him good work habits, > and I think our current setup promotes that. > > James Simmons > > On Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 9:28 AM, Laura Vargas <la...@somosazucar.org> > wrote: > >> >> >> 2017-03-14 7:13 GMT-05:00 Walter Bender < <walter.ben...@gmail.com> >> walter.ben...@gmail.com>: >> >>> >>> >>> On Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 12:45 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_ander...@usa.net> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On 03/14/2017 12:03 PM, Alex Perez wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> I would think ASLO could simply be made to inspect the contents of an >>>> activity, upon upload, (since it’s just a zip file), and look for the >>>> necessary string within activity.info, such that it could be displayed >>>> under a “details” section of an Activity, within ASLO. >>>> >>>> >>>> What I propose is that the ASLO page have a link to the github >>>> repository. See the attached screenshot which shows a link to home page. I >>>> would see this link being added here. >>>> >>> >>> +1. But that can be done if (1) we include the repo path in the info >>> file and (2) do the work on ALSO to display it (I think alsroot was looking >>> into this). >>> >> >> +1 to add the repository link field on ASLO. >> >> This is an example where we all agree that something needs to be done. >> >> Now, how do you propose we get it done? >> >> >>> You proposal has no bearing on where the repo is hosted, as it should >>> not. >>> >>>> >>>> Tony >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Sugar-devel mailing list >>>> Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org >>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Walter Bender >>> Sugar Labs >>> http://www.sugarlabs.org >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Sugar-devel mailing list >>> Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org >>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Laura V. >> * I&D SomosAZUCAR.Org* >> >> “No paradox, no progress.” >> ~ Niels Bohr >> >> Happy Learning! >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Sugar-devel mailing list >> Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel >> >> > >
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