Journal Suggestion

[James Simmons]

I, too have suggestions for the Journal:

1).  The Journal should show, as a percentage perhaps, how much disk 
space is free in the Journal, or in whatever removeable media (SD card, 
Thumb drive) the user is currently looking at.  It should give some kind 
of warning cue when the disk space is dangerously low.  The Freevo PVR 
project does something like this.  A full Journal drive can make the XO 
unbootable.
2).  The problem with custom metadata like page numbers not being saved 
across a reboot should be fixed.
3).  Metadata should be saved when the user is loading data from 
removeable media.  For instance, if I keep books on my SD card or thumb 
drive, I should be able to return to the saved page number, and also see 
a screenshot of the page I left off on.
4).  It should be possible to specify for certain Activities that they 
should *not* create Journal entries, ever.  I'm thinking of the Terminal 
activity and the Log Viewer activity specifically.  The entries for 
these activities don't preserve the state of when they were last used 
(and probably should not do so) so there isn't much point in making 
Journal entries for them.  Resuming them is no different that launching 
them anew from the menu.  We already have a way of specifying that an 
Activity not appear in the menu.  This would be an extension of that idea.
5).  For extra credit, make the Journal able to do something with 
read-only removeable media like CDs and DVDs.  I'm thinking for instance 
of letting the user copy a file from a CD into a new Journal entry.  
Obviously not needed for the XO, but if Sugar was to become a product 
separate from the XO but aimed at the same audience (poor children 
needing education) this would be a useful feature.

I think Jacob's suggestion has some merit as well.

James Simmmons

>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:16:26 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Jacob Haddon <thaesa at yahoo.com>
>Subject: journal suggestion
>To: devel at lists.laptop.org
>Message-ID: <875647.73488.qm at web52011.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>Hello, 
>
>First, forgive the suggestion if it is thought up, or implemented or just plain a bad idea. I am still running 652 so i can be of help to other G1G1 users. 
>
>One thing that strikes me is multiple journal entires. for example, if i am reading a book, each time I open the book, there will be an entry in the journal. (and the journal doesn't remember what page I was on, grrr)
>
>What would make more sense to me would be a single entry for "read" and "this book" where the information was stored in that entry. Then if i wanted an earlier session, for example an older Tam Tam session, instead of the latest one, entries could be listed on the side from previous dates. 
>
>The reason for the suggestion is how long my journal has gotten, just from simple things such as reading a book. 
>
>-j
>  
>