Project Name: olpc-bundler has been set up

[Eben Eliason]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:57 PM, Erik Garrison <erik at laptop.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 01:34:58PM -0400, Eben Eliason wrote:
>> For clarification, is this a tool meant to be used by content
>> providers on non-XO machines, or an activity for use in Sugar?
>>
>
> Content providers.
>
>> I ask because, ever since we first designed the Journal, we've been in
>> need of an activity (which should be called "Bundle") which is
>> specifically designed to manage a variety of archive formats (zip,
>> tar, gz, etc.).  This activity is designed to provide an interface
>> which allows organization of files and directories (in a hierarchical
>> tree view), and can open or create bundles of any kind, or
>> import/export individual items from the Journal.  It's meant to be
>> generic, so that any random bundle downloaded or copied to the XO can
>> be opened, but it could certainly be given some special buttons or
>> features which assist in the creation/editing of library/activity
>> bundles on the XO.
>
> For the past several days I've jokingly been describing a hypothetical
> activity called 'File', which subversively violates the design principle
> of nothing-is-a-file implied by our current data manipulation system
> (Journal) by allowing import and export of files from the datastore into
> the regular filesystem.
>
> Strangely, this is exactly what you are describing.  I will be happy to
> work on it following my return.  But it is not what olpc-bundler is;
> olpc-bundler is a repo for content-related scripts.

Well, that's not exactly what I'm describing.  I'm interested in a
particular activity which advertises support for archive formats, such
that a freshly downloaded zip archive from any given website can be
"opened" up, and its contents extracted directly to the Journal as new
entries (or vice versa) for later use.  That is, Bundle provides a way
to move things into and out of these Bundle objects which live in the
Journal, not a way to move them between the Journal and the
Filesystem.

It so happens that these structures frequently contain (and require)
internal hierarchy, but I want to retain the notion that each Bundle
instance is, effectively, a "box" with "stuff" in it.  This is
distinctly different, in my mind, from a general purpose file browser.

>> It's possible you're just talking about a much simpler, one-purpose
>> command-line script, which is fine as well, but perhaps this effort
>> could be catered toward the creation of this much needed activity?
>> Thoughts?
>
> I think it would be better to implement the File activity for these
> kinds of bundles, but at the moment just needed a public repo to store
> content manipulation code.

I think there is a separate place for a "File" activity, which
actually presents a true hierarchical view of the whole machine.  I
hope that future enhacements to the Journal expose the users documents
in such a way that they could be browsed in this fashion, without need
for import/export functionality.  We'll see.  olpcfs strives toward
this goal.

- Eben

> Erik
>
>> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:04 PM, Erik Garrison <erik at laptop.org> wrote:
>> > You throw a directory of content of some kind at it and it automates the
>> > creation of a library bundle.
>> >
>> > On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 05:03:07PM -0400, Bobby Powers wrote:
>> >> what will olpc bundler do?
>> >>
>> >> bobby
>> >>
>> >> 2008/8/13 Henry Edward Hardy <hhardy01 at gmail.com>:
>> >> > Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:48:10 -0400, Erik Garrison <erik at laptop.org> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> > May we please have a shared git repo named "olpc-bundler" for me (erik),
>> >> > sj, and mako?
>> >> >
>> >> > Done. Your tree is here:
>> >> > git+ssh://erik@dev.laptop.org/git/projects/olpc-bundler
>> >> >
>> >> > Please follow instructions here for importing your project:
>> >> > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Importing_your_project
>> >> >
>> >> > Let us know if you have any problems with your tree. Happy hacking.
>> >> >
>> >> > Cheers,
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > Henry Edward Hardy
>> >> > henry at laptop.org
>> >> >
>> >> >
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>