[Sugar-devel] updates and testing SocialCalc on the Sugar Live CD

Mon Sep 7 06:15:12 EDT 2009

Edward,

Thank you for your feedback on SocialCalc. Appreciate it.

On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 8:17 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks. I believe that you are right in your comments below, that the
> Open Document spec, manuals for other software, and your video will
> enable us to create an excellent manual at FLOSSManuals.net. Would you
> like to join us when we do the Book Sprint?
>
>
Could you please let us know about the date of the Book Sprint. Would ask
our team members to participate in it.

> I am thinking about what we might add to the Help in SocialCalc,
> allowing for the tradeoff between space and completeness. Adding links
> to existing documentation will provide a sufficient backstop, but I
> think that there are several places where just a few words will make
> all the difference for beginning SocialCalc users, particularly for
> harried teachers. I don't want to make them learn too much themselves,
> or to have to tell children to rely too much on external resources.
>
> I'm sure that we can find a suitable balance on these questions.
>

Yes. It would be great if we could arrive at a list where we get this
feeling.

>
> > (I think there is a reported issue that SocialCalc's IF
> > function only takes the 3 argument form, not the 2 argument form. It also
> > evaluated all arguments unlike many other IF functions.)
> >
> > The toolbar buttons, including the two types of move and swap colors, as
> > well as the sheet settings, names, and more are explained in a video I
> > created. The 54 minute Flash video, created with Camtasia, goes over many
> of
> > the features of the main SocialCalc engine that the Sugar version of
> > SocialCalc is built upon. (For example, that version does not have the
> > Sugar-specific graphing tab.) You can view the video at:
> >
> > http://www.peapodcast.com/sgi/socialtext/sctraining1/
>
> Perfect. I'll report on that soon.
>

Thank you.

Regards,

Manu

>
> > Edward Cherlin wrote:
> >
> > I ran through all of the basic functions of SocialCalc, including
> > every icon on every tab. I have tested some but not all of the 109
> > functions provided, with good results so far. Although there are
> > functions I could wish for, the only real deficiency I have found is
> > in the documentation.
> >
> > I have created a page for elements of Sugar that children are not
> > likely to discover on their own,
> > http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/The_undiscoverable. I recommend it to
> > developers who want to think about whether more of Sugar can be made
> > discoverable, or whether we need to write lesson plans for the
> > features that cannot be made obvious to the novice. I will put in a
> > section for SocialCalc. These are not bugs in the sense of incorrect
> > behavior or missing explanations, so I omit them here.
> >
> > Here is a summary of the other issues I have encountered.
> >
> > o The database functions are severely underdocumented. What database?
> > What are databaserange, fieldname, criteriarange?
> >
> > o Where does Paste Formats get its formats from?
> >
> > o What does Swap Colors do?
> >
> > o The financial and statistical function definitions in the Help might
> > be clear to one who uses other spreadsheets a lot, but certainly are
> > not to a beginner.
> >
> > o More explanation is needed on angles in degrees and radians.
> >
> > o I understand Move From and Move Paste, but not Move Insert.
> >
> > o I see how to set names, but not what to use them for or how.
> >
> > o I don't see the Sheet setting control on the Format tab that the
> > Help refers to.
> >
> > o I found the OK and Sort... buttons on the Sort tab confusing. It has
> > since become clear to me. Perhaps OK should be renamed Set Range.
> >
> > Not bad for a beta.
> >
> > On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Manusheel Gupta<manu at laptop.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear community members,
> >
> > We are preparing for the next release of SocialCalc on Sugar.
> Localization
> > infrastructure, canonicalization of the save format and collaboration
> will
> > be the key features available in the next release. We are also looking
> > forward to develop interoperability between SocialCalc format and a
> number
> > of other spreadsheet formats like .wk3/.wk4/csv/excel/open office
> > spreadsheet. We have recently received a number of requests on developing
> > interoperability between SocialCalc and .wk3/.wk4 format, which has been
> a
> > challenging problem to work on. Hope to get this feature ready before the
> > next release.
> >
> > Lately, I have been testing SocialCalc on the Sugar Live CD, and have run
> > into issues. I can't seem to get SocialCalc to start.  I fired up the
> Sugar
> > LiveCD, and opened up the USB icon in my journal.  I can see the file
> > SocialCalc.xo on my USB stick.  When I click on it, I get a start button,
> > but then nothing happens.  Below is a gears image, which starts something
> > that looks like a developer interface. Not sure, where I have been going
> > wrong. Any help on this issue is highly appreciated.
> >
> > Please visit the SocialCalc on Sugar page at
> > http://seeta.in/j/products-and-services/socialcalc-on-sugar.html. The
> > activity is available for download both from the SEETA website
> > (http://seeta.in) and from activities.sugarlabs.org. If you have any
> > questions, or would like to add suggestions/comments/feature requests,
> > please do so here.
> >
> > Thank you for your continued support.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Manu
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sugar-devel mailing list
> > Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
> --
> Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
> http://earthtreasury.org/
>
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