[Etoys] Smaller onion skin for painting

[subbukk]

On Saturday 29 September 2007 6:44 pm, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> > Since Etoys is all about encouraging kids to assemble widgets,
> > shouldn't the
> > default size be reduced? I tried various sizes and found 320x300 to
> > be a nice
> > default. It leaves enough of the screen estate visible (for picking
> > colors)
> > while giving enough area to draw small objects.
> >
> > defaultPaintingExtent
> > 	^320 @ 300
>
> Interesting thought, in particular since we still have the full-
> screen drawing capability for the background (the World's paint halo-
> handle).
The onion skin is resizable so advanced squeakers can adapt it to their needs. 
It is just that a large skin encourages beginners to use Etoys like a 
painting program. The skin should act as a mould ("build a new part") and not 
a canvas.

Unfortunately, the Etoy demo reinforces the canvas metaphor by painting wheels 
separately on the car :-(. Instead, a wheel could have been painted once and 
made into a stamp, and then stamped four times around the car.

Regards .. Subbu