[sugar] Question about clipboard service

[Greg Smith]

Hi Eben,

Interesting spec! Thanks for writing it up. If you want to deliver this 
in 9.1.0, can you put a link to it on the 9.1.0 page: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0

wherever you think it fits, possibly here: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/9.1.0#File_Management

A few comments and questions:
1 - Not to be pedantic, but can you explain why we need a clipboard? I 
want to define what problem it solves for the user.

2 - I can't tell the difference between clipping and object. Can you 
give more examples and spell out any specific differences in functionality?

3 - Can you link to documentation on the relevant APIs and .py scripts 
or any other information an activity would need to use this?

4 - Can you move something from the journal to the clipboard?

5 - Is drag and drop definitely supported or not?

6 - Should there be an option to copy and paste from a menu in 
activities or only via control-c/v and drag & drop.

7 - Is cut supported? How do you remove things from the clipboard? How 
many items can it hold?

8 - Are there any performance implications (e.g. when greater than 3 
items on clipboard XO runs low on RAM)?

9 - Can you include some workflow/use case examples? Here are two to get 
you warmed up:
a - User creates a document in write, then wants to upload it (or part 
of it) to a web site. What are the exact steps and how does the 
clipboard help?
b - User takes a picture, then uses paint to modify it then puts it in 
write to add text. What are the exact steps and how does the clipboard 
help?

10 - Are there any collaboration related uses for this? How does it work 
with collaboration, if at all?

11 - Does it do any conversion of formats? What happens if I try to put 
one type of file in an activity that doesn't understand it?

12 - Can you include more detail on the software design? e.g. How many 
lines of code, what code included where, how many hours work, where does 
the code fit in the overall architecture, what dependencies does it have 
and what other areas is it likely to affect? Is it fully backward 
compatible with existing activities or would activities need to be 
re-written, even if they don't want to use the new functinality?

13 - How does it fit with the journal? That is, when would a user pick 
things off the journal and when would they use the clipboard?

14 - Can you copy things directly to a USB drive?

I hope that's not too many questions. You don't need to address every 
one, just wanted to throw out some suggestions to get to the next level 
of detail.

I appreciate the specifying in advance and I think you are on the right 
track.

Since the journal abstracted the file system, its not easy to move files 
between activities. I think we need an overall strategy for file sharing 
between activities, HW elements (NAND, USB, SD card), computers (XO - 
XO, XO - PC), schools (XO <-> XS <-> XS) and beyond. Clipboard may be a 
key part of it.

Thanks,

Greg S

> Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 14:59:56 -0400
> From: "Eben Eliason" <eben.eliason at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [sugar] Question about clipboard service
> To: "Tomeu Vizoso" <tomeu at tomeuvizoso.net>
> Cc: devel at lists.laptop.org, sugar at laptop.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<948b197c0808041159n21f232f7tac136e05f8ae9191 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> There is a fairly comprehensive specification [1] for the clipboard on
> the wiki.  Most importantly it discusses the use of titles, icons,
> colors, and previews, which are the 4 elements of clippings that we
> need to support in various combination to make the clipboard
> successful.
> 
> This spec isn't word for word perfect anymore, as some minor details
> have changed, but it gives the high level picture of the API I want to
> support.  Please ask any questions you may have about what's there so
> far, and I'll try to clean up some details at some point soon.
> 
> - Eben
> 
> [1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Specifications/Clipboard
>