[sugar] A Sugar TODO List, of Sorts

[Eben Eliason]

>  >   • Make notifications "slide into" or "out of" the Frame
>  Which notifications slide in or out?
>  >   • Create notification API (delay, type (in|out|remain))
>  Can you specify how the different types of notifications behave?

There are three basic types of notifications, which appear according
to the action they represent.  A notification may indicate one of (a)
an object is being added to the frame (eg. made a clipping, started an
activity, buddy joined, plugged in storage device) or (b) an object is
being removed from the frame (eg. buddy left an activity, unplugged
storage device, etc.) or (c) an object which is represented within the
frame needs attention, but is neither being added nor removed (eg. a
running activity has something to say, the battery is low, etc.)

The behaviors for these are as follows:

(a) Notification appears in the corresponding corner, pulses, and then
slides off screen in the direction of the corresponding edge after
delay.
(b) Notification slides onto the screen from the corresponding edge,
pulses, and disappears after delay.
(c) Notification slides onto screen from the corresponding edge,
pulses, and then slides back off after delay.

>  >   • Add clipping previews (related to above)
>  Which clipping types can be previewed? Just images and text?

These are certainly the most straightforward, but I would leave it to
the activity to provide a meaningful clipping as it considers
appropriate.  For instance, TamTam might desire to represent a sound
as a waveform preview.

>  >   • Color copy/paste buttons in activities
>  Which colors should take? Just the local colors?

We have tickets for this.  We want to color the copy button in the
color of the activity being copied from.  Ideally, we'd color the
paste button in the color of the selected clipping on the clipboard.
(#3692, #3693)  We could allow the activity to override the color of
the copy button, if they wish to provide fine grained support for
coloring it based on the author of the current selection.

>  >   • Fix visual style for drag'n'drop
>  Can you specify?

Please refer to the last few slides at
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Frame.  The plan is to continue
using the standard cursor while dragging, but placing an icon
representation (or a graphical one?) centered under the cursor.  When
the cursor is placed over an object that can accept the drop, it
should turn into the modified cursor with the '+'.  When the cursor is
placed over an object that accepts drops, but not of the type provided
(or not at all?) it should turn into the modified cursor with the
'N/A' symbol instead.  Where applicable (toolbars, frames, trays), it
would be great to highlight the item (or region) accepting the drop
with the black hover effect.  Note the difference between a tray that
accepts a drop (such as the clipboard, or the people tray) and an
object that accepts a drop (such as a running activity, or a storage
device).

>  >   • Expose an avatar property for buddies in PS?
>  svg? any pixbuf? which size limit?

This is one of those "just for fun" features, which would be helpful
to have at some point in the future, if not now, for identity
purposes.  It would require, of course, adding a "take a photo" step
to the intro sequence and the control panel.  I imagine that a small,
static, 256px (square) image would suffice here.  It would be a
pixbuf, I imagine.  The possibility of creating SVG avatars (which
could still use XO colors) is intriguing, but we don't yet have an SVG
editor for Sugar anyway.

>  >   • Expose the activity name, activity preview in PS
>  Activity preview is doable? Which screen size? Which maximum size for
>  transfer in the mesh?

The hope would be to use the same code that creates the Journal
preview for this purpose, so an activity would only have to worry
about generating a preview in one way.  The preview would be passed
around at the same size, and potentially only when requested (for
instance, only when a child hovers to reveal the secondary palette.)
A placeholder could appear while the image loads in.

>  >   • Make activity zoom level button cycle active activities?
>  What's the doubt here?

Not much really.  I wanted to see other's opinions on it, I guess,
though it seems quite reasonable.  It effectively retains precisely
its current behavior, and adds a potentially useful function to it.

>  >   • Tweak "battery fully charged" behavior
>  What needs tweaking?

It continually tells me my battery is fully charged even though the
meter isn't maxed out.  I don't care so much about fixing the
underlying code which calculates this....simply make sure that if we
report that it's full, we ignore the actual reading and fill up the
meter to be internally consistent in what we show the kids.

>  >   • Implement white vs. colored battery style
>  When is one or the other?

I have more detailed mockups of the device icons somewhere.  The basic
idea is that the colored icons represent when a device is active, and
a white when inactive.  An inactive battery is one which is charging,
instead of discharging.  An inactive speaker is muted.  Etc.  We
should apply this logic consistently across the devices for which it
makes sense.

>  >   • Add device notifications (battery, storage, etc.)
>  Can you specify each of those?

I can make this more clear in tickets or the wiki later.  To summarize:

- when external devices get plugged in, removed
- when wireless devices connect/disconnect
- when any device needs attention (low battery, weak wireless, etc.)

>  >   • Identify the school server visually in the mesh
>  Ok. Which actions contains the palette?
>  >   • Attach "register" option to the school server icon
>  Ok

For starters, let's offer "connect" (just like APs should have), and
"register".   Perhaps we'll have other services available in the
future.

>  >   • Add list view, group people under activities
>  Do we have mockups?

Not yet, working on them. They will appear very similar to the
activities list in home.  The big difference is that we might have
grouping for all of these, with activities in home grouped by
"identity threads", and the other views revealing participants lists
under the activity icons.

>  >   • Add modal alert before destructive changes (eg. change channel)?
>  From where can the channel be changed?

Well, as far as I understand it, choosing an AP on a given channel
will destroy any communications on the current mesh channel.  If the
selection of an AP would break communications, we'd want to indicate
this.

>  >   • Refactor visualization of Groups, according to designs
>  Do we have mockups in the wiki?
>  >   • Provide basic support for creating groups, inviting people to groups
>  Can you specify?

I'm not sure we do yet, apart from the MoMA demo videos.  We need to
flesh this out in some static screens in the near future anyway.  The
current thought is to make groups almost identical to Neighborhood,
but with a slightly different toolbar, and of course the zoomed-in
look.

>  >   • Add list view, group people under activities
>  Mockups?

Same as Neighborhood....design forthcoming.

>  >   • Implement basic launcher service for search field
>  Can you specify?

The launcher as designed offers to start an activity, resume matching
recent entries, or jump into the journal with the current search term.
  Ideally we would be able to offer the first and last of these to
make the presence of the search useful in Home.

>  >   • Add grouping (by "identity thread") to activities list
>  Pending on ongoing discussions about bundle signing.

Indeed.  This seems to be a pretty core part of the (future)
experience, so we need to make sure we're all on the same page here.

>  >   • New activity launch behavior
>  Needs to be specified.
>
>  >   • Remove activity toolbar, add non-modal naming notification?
>  Needs to be specified.
>
>  >   • New toolbar design?
>  Needs to be specified.

All of these probably need a review in a design call before we move
them forward.

>  >   • Fix startup sequence colors, etc.
>  Can you detail more?

For the  most part, we want to ensure that the boot sequence
integrates smoothly with the new design. This will mean changing the
boot frames to a white background with a gray outlined XO, and
removing the stages which reveal the ring and frame themselves, which
are no longer part of Home.

>  >   • Create a sane color picker
>  Mockups?
>  >   • Improve object picker design, add search/filters
>  Can you specify?

In progress.

>  >   • Use new visual style for list
>  Do we have mockups?

Yup.  Basically, we want to apply the visual treatment show here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Journal#03 until we get around to
the full Journal redesign with the action/object separation.

>  >   • Add palettes to activity icons
>  Ok, with which items?

The palette should contain some reasonable subset of:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Journal#04. If we start using
previews ubiquitously, we'll want to add that too.  I'll refine this
palette mockup.

>  >   • Add "anyone"" filter
>  Not so sure about this. Will need PS changes plus maybe DS changes.

Bah!  OK.

>  >   • Fix appearance of icons in "anything" filter
>  Can you specify?

They should appear as white strokes with transparent fills.

>  >   • Reconfigure detail layout
>  Mockups?

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Journal#12

>  >   • Add "no results" screen
>  Mockup?

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Journal#11

>  >   • Add "no entries" screen
>  Mockup?

Not posted, but it will look almost identical to the "No results"
screen, but have a "back" (to home) button instead.