[IAEP] Sugar on Android via HTML5

[Manuel Quiñones]

Hi Sameer,

2013/9/10 Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu>:
> On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 7:51 PM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi...
>>
>> I have also been waiting patiently (well, not really very patiently) for
>> some news about Sugar coming to Android. So far, I have heard nothing new.
>> So I guess it isn't too late to throw my educator's opinion into the mix...
>> One of the things that makes Sugar the ideal learning platform for
>> children (and youth) is the wonderful compatibility of so many of the
>> Activities ... both from Activity to Activity and from student to student.
>> This facilitates the sort of learning we are all hoping to see more of...
>> creative problem solving, project based learning and cooperative learning.
>> Without this ability to integrate parts of projects, it would just be
>> another collection of apps.
>> Thanks for "listening"
>> Caryl
>>
>
> Hi Caryl,
>
> Thanks for writing back. I am a bit surprised that I got more off-list
> responses than on-list ones. I did not want to muddy the picture by
> injecting my own viewpoint, but now that I've heard from others (on and off
> list) it is clear that the split is driven by the role they play in the
> ecosystem.
>
> Most technologists have come up with reasons why they don't think a complete
> Sugar experience would work on Android. Therefore, activities must run like
> any other app on Android. On the other hand, as Caryl said, "Without this
> ability to integrate...it would just be a collection of apps".
>
> Somewhat knowing the limitations of what can be done with Sugar stuff on
> Android, but disregarding that for a minute, I would say that Sugar as a
> *platform* is an experience. It has a UI. It has a UX. Everything from the
> Zoom interface to the activities to the Journal is Sugar. We have taken the
> original "Sugar on the OLPC XO" experience and replicated that to the
> classmate PC, SoaS, and other spins and distros, but in none of these cases
> did we break the holistic Sugar experience. Now, along comes a popular OS,
> and because the tech parts don't fit, we are advocating breaking up the
> pieces and taking whatever flies. Memorize will become one of the few
> hundred thousand apps on Android.
>
> I disagree.
>
> It's like saying we'll do the cat sprite from Scratch, but nothing else.
> It's like saying we'll do the birds and pigs from Angry Birds, but not the
> slingshot. Sugar, without all its pieces isn't worth the trouble. How it
> will get done (if it will get done) is another story, and I wish we would
> hear more about it onlist.
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
>
>> ________________________________
>> From: sverma at sfsu.edu
>> Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2013 13:14:59 -0700
>> To: iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org; devel at lists.laptop.org
>> Subject: [IAEP] Sugar on Android via HTML5
>>
>>
>> So, I've been mulling this for some time now. At work we are looking into
>> using FireFoxOS as a platform for HTML5 apps in some of our courses. It's
>> exciting that there is some momentum on the HTML5 activities in Sugar.
>>
>> What I'm unsure about is the implementation. Outside of the classic Sugar
>> shell and activities (say, on a XO), are we envisioning the whole Sugar
>> experience on Android, UI and all, or are we looking to have Sugar
>> activities running on Android (with appropriate mods) but as yet another
>> app?
>>
>> Has there been any conversation on this that I missed?

We are slowly getting closer to Sugar Android.  We are working as a
community in a best-effort basis, and all depends on how many people
gets involved.  So thanks for joining the discussion. We reached some
goals already:

- we have web activities running over Sugar GTK as first-class citizens.

- we are documenting as we go http://developer.sugarlabs.org/

- and today I published a first draft of the API
http://markable.in/file/fe27c384-1a38-11e3-b539-984be164924a/ that is
implemented in GTK to allow web activities, and which needs to be
implemented in Android to allow the same.

Cheers,

-- 
.. manuq ..