[Etoys] Another Etoys on XO testemonial

[Greg Smith]

Hi Bert,

The cursor control is much improved in releases after build 656 (e.g. in 
release 8.2 = build 767). So getting people upgraded off 656 is a quick 
win in terms of reducing cursor jumpiness.

That said, there is new hardware coming and we believe it will reduce 
the occurrence of this issue even more.

In terms of when the new touchpad will be available, I don't know the 
exact date. I believe its a matter of some weeks from now but I don't 
have the final word.

BTW, what I'm suggesting on the cursor size is to allow the user to pick 
it. In my primitive view, everything in Etoys (or is it Squeak?) can be 
changed via tweaking variables (objects?). Make the cursor size and 
maybe a variable which is easily accessible and documented and you can 
pass the buck to the user :-)

Thanks,

Greg S

Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> 
> On 20.11.2008, at 13:50, Greg Smith wrote:
> 
>> Hi All,
>>
>> FYI here is another link I saw recently about people using eToys with
>> the XO. Interestingly, they used the tutorials on your web site to great
>> effect.
>>
>> http://blog.laptopmag.com/olpc-mali-collaboration-emerges-as-the-program-winds-down 
>>
> 
> Nice :)
> 
>> I see one feature requests in there about allowing people to change the
>> size of the cursor. Since everything can be modified on the fly, I
>> imagine that is possible already. If so you may want to document it
>> somewhere and if not you may want to add it.
> 
> 
> Well, there actually is a preference indeed to enable the big cursor, 
> and it is of course enabled on the XO for its 200 dpi screen (the 
> regular 16 pixels-tall cursor is *tiny*). We already made the cursor 
> quite a bit smaller and pointier than Eben's Sugar default cursor. But 
> maybe it's still too large ...
> 
> Takashi, what do you think?
> 
>> I'm not sure what version of the XO they had in Mali but I would guess
>> that its an old one with cursor control problems which have been
>> minimized in later releases.
> 
> Well, the touchpad seems to be the single biggest annoyance of the 
> current hardware. I noticed that the Waveplace pilots in the Carribean 
> actually provided USB mice to children. Any idea when the new touchpad 
> goes into production?
> 
> - Bert -
> 
> 
>