gmane.linux.laptop.olpc.sugar

[sugar] 0.84 goals

Hello,

I started working on the goals for 0.84 in the wiki:

http://sugarlabs.org/go/ReleaseTeam/Roadmap/0.84#Goals

Here is what I have so far.

* Next generation journal
* File sharing
* Collaboration scalability
* Responsive UI
* Stable activities API
* Official Sugar LiveCD
* Compatibility with desktop applications
* Quality and reliability

Each of them points to a separate page in the wiki. I'll be working on 
several of these pages in the next weeks, writing down requirements, 
designs and thoughts about resourcing. Help wanted!

As you can see the scope is very large. The plan is to narrow down each 
item to more concrete action items and then probably punt some of the 
high level goals. But I really want to get a bunch of stuff done this 
cycle!!!

I know it's very vague for now. But if something is obvious missing 
please let me know or edit directly.

Thanks,

(Continue reading)

headers

Gary C Martin | 14 Aug 23:44

[sugar] 0.84 goals

On 14 Aug 2008, at 22:08, Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:

> Here is what I have so far.
>
> * Next generation journal
> * File sharing
> * Collaboration scalability
> * Responsive UI
> * Stable activities API
> * Official Sugar LiveCD
> * Compatibility with desktop applications

Well regarding that last one, my experiences with the latest Firefoxs  
in Joyride on a real XO, have been horrific to say the least, system  
lockups, UI so slow it took 5min+ to show the frame, not able to quit  
(usually have to hard power off). So I'd rather folks focus on elegant  
and needed sugar activities, that are designed for the environment and  
audience, rather than some hard core, geek hacker driven, Linux  
workstation.

> * Quality and reliability

--- snip ---

> I know it's very vague for now. But if something is obvious missing
> please let me know or edit directly.

I'm not sure where this one goes, but I'd love to see the home views  
activity icons and palettes represent the latest N journal entries for  
said activities. I think this will be a great way to leverage the

(Continue reading)

headers

Marco Pesenti Gritti | 15 Aug 00:00

[sugar] 0.84 goals

Gary C Martin wrote:
> I'm not sure where this one goes, but I'd love to see the home views 
> activity icons and palettes represent the latest N journal entries for 
> said activities. I think this will be a great way to leverage the 
> Journal benefits by reducing new activity cruft, encouraging folks to 
> resume using the home views:
>
>     http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Activity_management-07.jpeg
Added here:

http://sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/0.84/Next_generation_journal

Thanks!

Marco

headers

Mikus Grinbergs | 15 Aug 13:26

[sugar] 0.84 goals

> I'm not sure where this one goes, but I'd love to see the home views
> activity icons and palettes represent the latest N journal entries for
> said activities. I think this will be a great way to leverage the
> Journal benefits by reducing new activity cruft, encouraging folks to
> resume using the home views:
> 
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Activity_management-07.jpeg

I'm confused about what_which_screen_is_used_for.  I had thought:

  *  Home screen - to LAUNCH a new instance of an Activity ("verb")
     without specifying the object that Activity would be accessing.

  *  Journal screen - to RESUME accessing a specific object ("noun").

--------

To provide the user more information about what it is that is being 
resumed, the Journal entries allow entering an individual 
description of that particular entry.  And in the new Design an 
'Activity view' is to be available in the Journal, which if it had a 
sort capability would organize the same information as the Image 
cited above.  Plus the Journal "marks" objects by when they were 
accessed, and allows optional tagging to further assist remembering.

Since the Journal provides all these facilities, I had thought that 
the __Journal__ would be the ideal screen from which to resume 
Activities.  Is the intent of the Image cited above to provide a 
"short cut" for users uncomfortable with the Journal ?

(Continue reading)

headers

Walter Bender | 15 Aug 15:10

[sugar] 0.84 goals

> Why not let accessing of *deferred* Activities be handled by Journal ?

Because it involves an extra step or two that in practice people don't
take. Personally, I would even go to the extreme that the Home View
should by default open the most recent Journal entry ("noun").

This is clearly something we should test explicitly in the field.

-walter

headers

Mikus Grinbergs | 15 Aug 16:56

[sugar] 0.84 goals

>> Why not let accessing of *deferred* Activities be handled by Journal ?
> 
> Because it involves an extra step or two that in practice people don't
> take. Personally, I would even go to the extreme that the Home View
> should by default open the most recent Journal entry.

I'll be the first to admit that the current implementation of 
Journal is cumbersome.  But if it is possible to add palette entries 
to Activity icons on Home view (for resuming something), it ought to 
be possible to add similar "short cuts" on the Journal screen.

I can get to the Home view by pressing the 'Home view' key on the 
keyboard.  I can get to Journal by pressing the 'Journal' key on the 
keyboard.  For me, going to the Journal takes no more steps than 
going to Home View.  [And since Home view provides alternate ways of 
presenting its information, why oughtn't Journal provide alternate 
ways of presenting *its* information (including a clickable "short 
cut" listing of the most recently saved Activities) ?]

I was speaking from the point of view of *defining* the purpose of 
the Home view.  If 'resume' is there, should 'erase' be there also 
-- what if the user mis-positions his click ?

--------

I'm a procedure-oriented person, not an object-oriented person.  So 
it has taken me effort to mentally construct a role for the Journal. 
If "short cuts" to the most-recent uses of the Activities are 
provided elsewhere, why bother having a Journal in the first place ?

(Continue reading)

headers

Walter Bender | 15 Aug 18:22

[sugar] 0.84 goals

>  If 'resume' is there, should 'erase' be there also
> -- what if the user mis-positions his click ?

I don't think erase should be accessible from the Home View.

> it has taken me effort to mentally construct a role for the Journal.
> If "short cuts" to the most-recent uses of the Activities are
> provided elsewhere, why bother having a Journal in the first place ?

I hope that over time, people spend more time in the Journal, using it
as a place for reflection as much as for initiating actions. I think
of the Home View as a simplified Journal View; for verbs, as you
suggest.

-walter

headers

Gary C Martin | 15 Aug 19:00

[sugar] 0.84 goals

On 15 Aug 2008, at 15:57, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:

>>> Why not let accessing of *deferred* Activities be handled by  
>>> Journal ?
>>
>> Because it involves an extra step or two that in practice people  
>> don't
>> take. Personally, I would even go to the extreme that the Home View
>> should by default open the most recent Journal entry.
>
> I'll be the first to admit that the current implementation of
> Journal is cumbersome.  But if it is possible to add palette entries
> to Activity icons on Home view (for resuming something), it ought to
> be possible to add similar "short cuts" on the Journal screen.
>
> I can get to the Home view by pressing the 'Home view' key on the
> keyboard.  I can get to Journal by pressing the 'Journal' key on the
> keyboard.  For me, going to the Journal takes no more steps than
> going to Home View.  [And since Home view provides alternate ways of
> presenting its information, why oughtn't Journal provide alternate
> ways of presenting *its* information (including a clickable "short
> cut" listing of the most recently saved Activities) ?]
>
> I was speaking from the point of view of *defining* the purpose of
> the Home view.  If 'resume' is there, should 'erase' be there also
> -- what if the user mis-positions his click ?
>
> --------
>
> I'm a procedure-oriented person, not an object-oriented person.  So

(Continue reading)

headers

Eben Eliason | 15 Aug 19:56

[sugar] 0.84 goals

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Mikus Grinbergs <mikus at bga.com> wrote:
>>> Why not let accessing of *deferred* Activities be handled by Journal ?
>>
>> Because it involves an extra step or two that in practice people don't
>> take. Personally, I would even go to the extreme that the Home View
>> should by default open the most recent Journal entry.

I think that improvement to the Journal will make it a place people
*want* to go to.  It should be friendly.  It should expose previews up
front to make browsing easier.  *Everything* should have a preview
(right now it's often pretty barren).  We need to encourage naming so
that meaningful titles can be read and searched.  We need to get
better collaboration, and for more activities, so that the Journal
fill sup with a wide palette of colors.  All of these things should
make it a place rich in info and pleasurable to peruse.

That said, we also do have the design for allowing one to resume the
most recent Journal entry for any given favorite activity in Home
view, as well.

> I'll be the first to admit that the current implementation of
> Journal is cumbersome.  But if it is possible to add palette entries

You're too late!  I was first! :-P

> to Activity icons on Home view (for resuming something), it ought to
> be possible to add similar "short cuts" on the Journal screen.
>
> I can get to the Home view by pressing the 'Home view' key on the
> keyboard.  I can get to Journal by pressing the 'Journal' key on the

(Continue reading)

headers

David Farning | 15 Aug 19:04

[sugar] 0.84 goals

On Thu, 2008-08-14 at 23:08 +0200, Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I started working on the goals for 0.84 in the wiki:
> 
> http://sugarlabs.org/go/ReleaseTeam/Roadmap/0.84#Goals
> 
> Here is what I have so far.
> 
> * Next generation journal
> * File sharing
> * Collaboration scalability
> * Responsive UI
> * Stable activities API
> * Official Sugar LiveCD

I think that we can leave this goal to the distributions.  They are much
better at packaging, rolling, spinning, and distributing cds then we
are;)

> * Compatibility with desktop applications
> * Quality and reliability
> 
> Each of them points to a separate page in the wiki. I'll be working on 
> several of these pages in the next weeks, writing down requirements, 
> designs and thoughts about resourcing. Help wanted!

Thanks for getting this going.

> As you can see the scope is very large. The plan is to narrow down each

(Continue reading)

headers

Simon Schampijer | 20 Aug 11:04

[sugar] 0.84 goals

Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I started working on the goals for 0.84 in the wiki:
> 
> http://sugarlabs.org/go/ReleaseTeam/Roadmap/0.84#Goals
> 
> Here is what I have so far.
> 
> * Next generation journal
> * File sharing
> * Collaboration scalability
> * Responsive UI
> * Stable activities API
> * Official Sugar LiveCD
> * Compatibility with desktop applications
> * Quality and reliability
> 
> Each of them points to a separate page in the wiki. I'll be working on 
> several of these pages in the next weeks, writing down requirements, 
> designs and thoughts about resourcing. Help wanted!
> 
> As you can see the scope is very large. The plan is to narrow down each 
> item to more concrete action items and then probably punt some of the 
> high level goals. But I really want to get a bunch of stuff done this 
> cycle!!!
> 
> I know it's very vague for now. But if something is obvious missing 
> please let me know or edit directly.
>

(Continue reading)