Read ETexts Activity

[Edward Cherlin]

On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 1:39 PM, James Simmons
<jim.simmons at walgreens.com> wrote:
> Edward,
>
>  I was not planning on anything so fancy.

Not a problem. Others can pick up where you have left off.

> Basically, I was frustrated
>  that I had a device that would be wonderfully suited to reading
>  Gutenberg etexts and no suitable program to do it with.  I have written
>  such an Activity and am putting the finishing touches on it.  As I see
>  it, the selling points of the Activity will be that it can display
>  etexts one page at a time in a readable proportional font and remember
>  what page you were on when you resume the activity.  The child can find
>  his book using the Gutenberg site, save the Zip file version to the
>  Journal, rename it, resume it, and start reading.  It will also be good
>  sample code for new Activity developers to look at, even children,
>  because it is easy to understand yet it does something that is actually
>  useful.  I have written another Activity which lets you browse through a
>  bunch of image files stored in a Zip file, and it also would be good
>  sample code for a new developer, as well as being useful.
>
>  I have been programming professionally for almost 30 years and I still
>  had a hard time learning everything I needed to know to make an
>  Activity.  Once you know it, it's simple, but collecting that knowledge
>  a bit at a time is frustrating.  The existing tutorials seem to quit
>  just when things are getting interesting.

Have you added your hard-won knowledge to the Wiki pages on Sugar and
Sugarizing?

>  I don't see myself competing with the Read activity or trying to teach
>  anyone to read.  I wouldn't know how.

Well, we are talking about putting TTS and karaoke-style text marking
in Read. Presumably nearly the same code would work in your activity.
Or we could fold your code for handling Zip files and Gutenberg's lack
of formatting into Read. And we have plenty of pedagogues here to
consult.

> I might be of use teaching
>  children to write simple computer programs.

I started a document on the Wiki, Programming for Children
(activities), and another, Programming with Children (tutorials). Your
input would be most welcome. See the OLPC Publications page for more
suggestions and invitations.

>  James Simmons
>
>
>
>
>  Edward Cherlin wrote:
>
>  >Will it include Text-to-Speech, for the purposes we have discussed on
>  >this list? If so, could we get some sort of cursor or coloring effect
>  >to show the illiterate or semi-literate where they are in the text?

-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay