Handling TamTam Resources...

[Eben Eliason]

>  Olivier Bélanger wrote:
>  | Is there a way to let all TamTam activities have access to a common
>  | directory?
>
>  No.  Activities are untrusted code.  The security design assumes that
>  every Activity is a trojan horse, unless the user specifically requests
>  otherwise.
>
>
>  | How do think this stuff should be implemented?
>
>  The easiest solution, and the one I recommend, is to make the TamTam
>  activities into a single activity.  There is no need to have 4 distinct
>  activities.  Switching between screens within one activity seems much more
>  reasonable than running multiple distinct TamTam activities.  I cannot
>  keep track of which one is which.

Actually, I specifically recommend against this model, myself.  The
activities each focus on very different overall tasks.  One is for
composing, another is for performing, yet another is for
constructing/editing sounds.  I wholeheartedly agree that we need to
make them work together as seamlessly as possible, but the "do one
thing and do it well" mantra is one that applies here, I believe.
Each interface should be as clean and intuitive as possible, without
the need to shuffle around a bunch of different toolbars and views.
That's the reason the activity model exists as it does, fullscreen and
with identifying icons for each activity.

Moreover, keeping them all together emphasizes their interoperability
at the expense of generating objects that are available for use in all
of sugar.  I should be able to make a sound in SynthLab and import
that into my Slideshow.  I shoul dbe able to record a sound in the
Record activity and import that into my TamTamJam session.  etc.
Finding the correct way to let these activities share objects is
crucial to creating the environment we *need* to reach with Sugar as a
whole.

>  If the activities must be separate, I recommend using the P_DOCUMENT_RO
>  model.  Whenever SynthLab creates a new sound, it should be added to the
>  datastore as a new entry.  TamTamEdit can then run with P_DOCUMENT_RO
>  permission, scan the datastore for all sounds created so far, and load
>  them all.

This is the method I strongly recommend as well, as it has the
advantages I spoke of above.  If these objects are created an placed
into the Journal, then they can be shared, copied, edited, etc, with
any activity that supports their type.

- Eben