Activity Launch Notification

[Eben Eliason]

>  What if the activity "hangs"?
>
>  I have seen that several times with Xaos fractal builder activity and
>  possibly others. I remember one case in Nepal where it took 20 minutes
>  to launch eToys.
>
>  I think the UI suggestion is great and will help prevent kids from
>  clicking on many activities while they wait for the first to launch.
>  Just want to cover the case where the first one takes a very long time
>  or doesn't launch at all. We need a way to abort (kill -9?) or go on
>  with other work if the activity is not coming up.

Well, there are two parts to this problem.

First, this launching screen will take the place of the activity zoom
level for the launching activity, before the activity window itself
appears. The Frame will remain available, allowing the kids to switch
away from the launch, in order to continue working in another
activity, launch additional activities, or browse the other zoom
levels.  As such, they'll never be "locked in".

Second, there's the issue of "force stopping" activities.  I brought
this up as something I'd like to support a while back, but found that
it is complicated by the manner in which activities are launched,
since we don't necessarily know the process ID it's running under
during launch (or something like that...Marco can clarify).  In any
case, if we can do it, we should, offering a "Stop" button in the
palette for the launching activity.  If we can't, it's still not a
showstopper, since it's possible to switch away, and the launch will
timeout eventually, preventing the pulsing icon from forever haunting
the Frame.

- Eben


>  On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 6:39 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>
>
> wrote:
>  > On 14 Apr 2008, at 15:04, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:
>  >
>  >  > Personal note:  Been running the "new look" Sugar/Joyride for a  >
>  > while.  [It does what you describe when an Activity is launched.]  >
>  > > I've now trained myself to notice the pulsing icon in the top left
>  > > hand corner -- but I think that is an easily-overlooked location  >
>  > (particularly since current notification icons have the same  >
>  > background color as the "border" in which they sit).
>  >
>  >  I also find the new 'activity launch notification' less than
>  > satisfying. Launching an activity is a very distinct action  taken by
>
>  > a user, and the current pulsing notification is not enough of an
>  > indication of the result. It's also odd if you do happen to have the
>  > frame open as you see 2 pulsing icons for the launching activity (one
>
>  > the notification and one in the actual frame).
>  >
>  >  I'd like to suggest, again, that the activity launching metaphor be
>  > one where:
>  >
>  >  1) Kid clicks on activity icon to launch
>  >  2) Sugar immediately opens a fullscreen canvas with just the large
>  > pulsing icon (i.e a activity zoom view)
>  >  3) Canvas is occupied by the activity once it has loaded
>  >
>
>
> That's pretty much what Eben asked me to implement. I don't know if he
>  just steals ideas from you or what! :)
>
>  Marco
>
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