Beyond Hello World

[James Simmons]

Eduardo,

This sounds fine to me.  Your document has an Activity bundle section 
with a Hello Kids app which doesn't do anything with the Journal.  
*Every* tutorial I've seen stops at that point.  My page is an attempt 
to fill in the missing information so a developer could learn how to 
write an application that works with the Journal.  That information, 
though trivial, was *very* hard for me to find.  The only document that 
explained it was the Pydoc for Sugar Activity, which was damned hard to 
find, especially since I didn't know I was looking for it.

I'm leery of editing a age that someone else has worked on.  I don't 
want to wreck anything.  On the other hand, I don't much care what 
happens to my own page, as long as the information in it is preserved 
somehow or other.  Link to it, copy and paste from it, whatever.

I have some reservations about the "Hacking Sugar" page.  First, the 
name could be improved.  To me, "Hacking" implies making something do 
things it was not designed to do.  "Use your XO laptop to control your 
garage door opener" and the like.  It implies going outside the rules 
and doing stuff that voids the warranty.  The general public has its own 
ideas about what "hacking" is, which are even worse.  I know that one of 
the goals is getting children to make their own Activities, so you need 
a title that won't scare their teachers.  I would suggest something like 
"Making Your Own Activities".

Second, you are mixing links to content with actual content.  In my 
experience with Wikis there is a finite size you can make a page, and 
you want pages that are a good size to print out.  If I was doing your 
page it would be all links with short abstracts, like most of it is 
already.  I'd move the Activity bundle example to its own page.  My page 
could be chapter 2, as Edward Cherlin suggested.  My EtextReader 
Activity, when it is hosted, could be the sample for that chapter.

James Simmons


Eduardo Silva wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Some months ago, I was working in a document called: Hacking Sugar,
>which can be a place to push information about "how to develop for the
>sugar environment". Simon (SJ) was agree and he was working and trying
>to merge different existent resources in the wiki into hacking sugar.
>Maybe would be good to continue this job and avoid to make separate
>efforts to this need. The URL is:
>
>http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hacking_Sugar
>
>Hope it helps...
>
>best.
>
>Eduardo Silva
>http://edsiper.linuxchile.cl
>
>
>
>
>2008/2/20 James Simmons <jim.simmons at walgreens.com>:
>  
>
>> All,
>>
>> As threatened, I have created a Wiki page called "Beyond Hello World" where
>>I put what I know about writing Sugar Activities.  It isn't much, but there
>>is information on that page I had an awful time figuring out, so maybe it
>>will be of use to someone.  I am sure that at least some of the things I
>>wrote are not as correct as they could be.  My feeling is if these things
>>are true they're worth knowing, and if not hopefully somebody will correct
>>them before too many get led astray.
>>
>> The URL is http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Beyond_Hello_World
>>
>> I link to this page from only one place:
>>
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developers
>>
>> If the consensus is that the page is of some use, I or others can link to
>>it from more places.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> James Simmons
>>
>>
>> Edward Cherlin wrote:
>> On Feb 15, 2008 9:12 AM, James Simmons <jim.simmons at walgreens.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Edward,
>>
>>I browsed through the links on your Programming For Children pages and
>>came across the Activity Tutorial
>>(http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_tutorial). Like the other tutorials
>>I've seen it quits just as things are getting interesting.
>>
>> Just so.
>>
>>
>>
>> It gave me
>>an idea for a new page, which I'd like to call "Beyond Hello World"
>>which would be on writing an Activity that actually does something
>>useful. I would cover such topics as how Sugar activities deal with
>>files, how to use meta data with Sugar activities, how to create a
>>standalone Python app that can easily be Sugarized, debugging tips,
>>etc. I would use code snippets from my own Activities for sample code.
>>I would link to it from the "Sugar" page.
>>
>> Excellent. Just what I was hoping for. Hello, World can be chapter 1,
>>and your contribution chapter 2. Then we shall see what you inspire
>>others to contribute.
>>
>>We also need more information on Sugarizing non-Python apps.
>>
>>
>>
>> I need to finish my own Activities before I write this, but I think it
>>would be a way to put my "hard won" knowledge in the Wiki without
>>messing up anything that's already there. Also, anything I get wrong
>>could be corrected by others.
>>
>> You don't need to worry about messing up pages. It all stays there in
>>the history and is easy to bring back. But it is also no problem if
>>you add a section of your own to a page without disturbing what is
>>there.
>>
>>
>>
>> James Simmons
>>
>>Edward Cherlin wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>    
>>