[Server-devel] [sugar] sugar roadmap

[Bryan Berry]

Martin: I have cc'd you because I think Moodle is the right tool for
relating activities in a logical narrative, i.e. a 'lesson' or a
'tutorial'

>  >  7. Need graphical activity manager for removing and adding
activities
>>
>>  Could you detail the requirements for this? Perhaps in the wiki?

>This is a good point.  The activity list in Home is intended to take
>care of this.  Tomeu, we should probably add little delete buttons at
>the right of each entry in the list to make this a simple process.  A
>non-modal alert should appear to confirm the deletion, of course.
>This should be relatively easy to add.

Being able to remove activities w/ an option from the activity list is a
good short term option. Long term we quite need a activity/package
manager. Right now it is more important to have a good media player than
a great activity/package manager.

Ben Schwartz wrote:
>They present a window saying "You are
>downloading a file of type "PDF".  Would you like to open it using
>"Document Viewer"?"  They also offer a drop-down list of alternative
>applications.

This sounds good to me. One problem kids will access file types from
many sources, such as their local Moodle server or a regular Internet
site. It will be annoying if they have to confirm that they want to
launch an activity each time. It would be good if they could choose the
default action to launch activities from the local moodle server but
this decision shouldn't apply to files of the same type on non-trusted
servers -- ugh this could get complicated.


Another issue related to the Roadmap . . .

==The Problem of Building an Open-Source community around Sugar==

I foresee problems building an open-source community around Sugar
because most successful open-source projects are ones that allow
programmers to "scratch their own itch" that is build or improve tools
they themselves use. Sugar will primarily be used kids and adults w/ low
literacy. I can't see programmers using it as their own desktop. A good
case in point is GCompris which addresses a critical need of millions
(basic math and English) but has very few contributors from what I can
tell. Contrast this w/ something like git or the gnu utilities. I
believe that Sugar will need longterm financial support to be viable.
Perhaps that could come from some of the more enlightened pilot
countries once they are heavily invested in Sugar.

Another option would be to create a version of Sugar that appeals to
programmers. But I can't imagine creating such a version that wouldn't
require a lot of programming resources.