[sugar] alt-tabbing to the Journal

[Martin Dengler]

On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 11:31:48AM -0400, Eben Eliason wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Martin Dengler <martin at martindengler.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 12:21:23PM +0200, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> > > have we reached any consensus on [alt-tabbing to the Journal]?
> >
> > [some pros and cons]
> 
> You missed one of my biggest reservations in the cons:
> 
> 3. The Journal wouldn't appear beneath the XO at boot.

Would you disagree that

1) prescribing a special place for the Journal on boot is treating it
_very_unlike_ every other activity; and

2) the Journal always appearing below the XO icon is a feature
separate enough from the keyboard-, Alt-Tab-, and frame-accessibility
of the Journal that we can seriously consider the notion that those
features might apply differently to the Journal than they do to every
other activity

...?

> It's important to me that the Journal be one click (yes, click; not
> just keystroke) away when the child boots the laptop.

I will not whinge (nor feel the desire to) that that be changed.

> The current activity gets positioned here under the XO, so in the
> current paradigm this happens implicitly.

This is a happy coincidence of getting the behavior you want (Journal
always shows under XO man at start) due to another set of directives
(the first activity launched shows under and you've dictated that the
Journal launches first) rather than a justification for the set of
directives.  Or, put another way, that's an implementation detail: the
goal is that you want the Journal under the XO, not that a) the journal
should be the first activity launched and that b) the current activtity should
show under the XO so thus you just happen to get the journal there at
boot; if you were to change one of a) or b) you would not happily give
up the Journal-under-XO-at boot.

> Also:
> 
> 4. The zoom level metaphor is specifically meant to convey the idea of
> physical spaces.
[...]
> The Journal, as a "place for storing things"

I think there is no disagreement, or you're saying a "physical space"
is different than "place for storing things".  Otherwise it sounds
like the Journal, as a "place [in which, thus a "space",] for storing
things", fits quite nicely within the zoom level metaphor.  I also
convince myself of that by seeing how I react to the intuition that I
"zoom" from Neighborhood --> Friends --> Self --> Desk/Activity -->
inside the previous level [Desk].  Zooming inside my desk/activity/XO
to see the Journal seems unjarring a transition to be making.

Martin
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