Difference between revisions of "Sugar Platform Stack"
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| + | :'''Note:''' Most of this page was copied from [[OLPC:Developers/Stack#Activity Development Stacks]], so most of the links refer to pages in the OLPC wiki, [[olpc:The OLPC Wiki|http://wiki.laptop.org]]. | ||
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The [[Sugar Platform Stack]] describes the core part of the [[Sugar Application Stack]]: between an operating system and the individual activities are the Sugar Framework ("Glucose") and the Sugar Software Stack (the upper part of "Ribose"). | The [[Sugar Platform Stack]] describes the core part of the [[Sugar Application Stack]]: between an operating system and the individual activities are the Sugar Framework ("Glucose") and the Sugar Software Stack (the upper part of "Ribose"). | ||
The Sugar Platform Stack is a versioned implementation of [[Development_Team/Architecture]]. | The Sugar Platform Stack is a versioned implementation of [[Development_Team/Architecture]]. | ||
| − | = Sugar Framework = | + | == Sugar Framework == |
The Sugar Framework ("Glucose") consists of the packages sugar-base, sugar-toolkit, sugar-datastore, sugar-presence-service, sugar-artwork and hulahop. Its latest release is as a part of the Sugar Platform release [[{{Current Stable Release}}]]. | The Sugar Framework ("Glucose") consists of the packages sugar-base, sugar-toolkit, sugar-datastore, sugar-presence-service, sugar-artwork and hulahop. Its latest release is as a part of the Sugar Platform release [[{{Current Stable Release}}]]. | ||
| − | = Sugar Software Stack = | + | == Sugar Software Stack == |
The Sugar Software Stack (the upper part of "Ribose") is defined by the Sugar Platform release by its external dependencies and their minimum versions - the latest one is [[0.86/Platform Components]]. This is currently roughly equivalent to GNOME Mobile. | The Sugar Software Stack (the upper part of "Ribose") is defined by the Sugar Platform release by its external dependencies and their minimum versions - the latest one is [[0.86/Platform Components]]. This is currently roughly equivalent to GNOME Mobile. | ||
| − | = Interfaces provided to activity developers = | + | == Interfaces provided to activity developers == |
This section attempts to describe the major activity development stacks available in the Sugar environment. | This section attempts to describe the major activity development stacks available in the Sugar environment. | ||
| − | == Smalltalk/Etoys == | + | === Smalltalk/Etoys === |
| − | [[Etoys]] is a kids application written in Squeak an open-source Smalltalk development environment. Smalltalk is one of the first object-oriented languages, that is, it has been in use for decades, and as a result has a huge body of components and pre-built content and resources that can be used to create new activities. | + | [[olpc:Etoys|Etoys]] is a kids application written in Squeak an open-source Smalltalk development environment. Smalltalk is one of the first object-oriented languages, that is, it has been in use for decades, and as a result has a huge body of components and pre-built content and resources that can be used to create new activities. |
The Etoys environment is easily scripted via GUI interactions, and components have access to all of the special hardware features on the laptop. You can often create fascinating projects and useful demonstrations with just a few mouse clicks and a bit of simple logic. | The Etoys environment is easily scripted via GUI interactions, and components have access to all of the special hardware features on the laptop. You can often create fascinating projects and useful demonstrations with just a few mouse clicks and a bit of simple logic. | ||
| − | See: [[Smalltalk Development on XO]] to start using Squeak to develop for the OLPC. | + | See: [[olpc:Smalltalk Development on XO|Smalltalk Development on XO]] to start using Squeak to develop for the OLPC. |
| − | == Browser == | + | === Browser === |
| − | Sugar includes a Mozilla-Firefox-derived (Gecko) [[Web|Web Browser]] Activity. This browser includes HTML, XHTML, Javascript and SVG support. You can set up simple web-servers on a laptop using Python, or children may access an application hosted on a public web server (but keep in mind that children often have very poor connectivity). | + | Sugar includes a Mozilla-Firefox-derived (Gecko) [[olpc:Web|Web Browser]] Activity. This browser includes HTML, XHTML, Javascript and SVG support. You can set up simple web-servers on a laptop using Python, or children may access an application hosted on a public web server (but keep in mind that children often have very poor connectivity). |
You can develop for this platform with no particular hardware or setup, and can test using regular Firefox during initial stages. It is easy to port work from elsewhere into this stack, and easy to export your work for use outside of the OLPC project. The environment is, however, rather constrained, without access to most of the special hardware or software components on the laptop. | You can develop for this platform with no particular hardware or setup, and can test using regular Firefox during initial stages. It is easy to port work from elsewhere into this stack, and easy to export your work for use outside of the OLPC project. The environment is, however, rather constrained, without access to most of the special hardware or software components on the laptop. | ||
| − | === Browser Component === | + | ==== Browser Component ==== |
The built-in Browser is actually just a thin wrapper around the Gecko control. You can use the Gecko control yourself and create web-browser derived activities, either using XUL or Python/PyGTK to instantiate the browser. This gives your Activity access to system services and hardware, at the cost of considerably more complexity. | The built-in Browser is actually just a thin wrapper around the Gecko control. You can use the Gecko control yourself and create web-browser derived activities, either using XUL or Python/PyGTK to instantiate the browser. This gives your Activity access to system services and hardware, at the cost of considerably more complexity. | ||
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See: ??? to start using XULRunner/Web Control to develop for the OLPC. | See: ??? to start using XULRunner/Web Control to develop for the OLPC. | ||
| − | == Python/PyGTK == | + | === Python/PyGTK === |
Python and GTK based activities are the "standard" way to write software for the OLPC. Using Python and PyGTK is strongly encouraged so that the "View Source" button will normally show the same language wherever the user invokes it. The use of the same language throughout also means that code can often be factored out of one project to be shared with another. | Python and GTK based activities are the "standard" way to write software for the OLPC. Using Python and PyGTK is strongly encouraged so that the "View Source" button will normally show the same language wherever the user invokes it. The use of the same language throughout also means that code can often be factored out of one project to be shared with another. | ||
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The support for writing activities provided by the core Sugar system (which is itself largely written in Python) is almost always exposed first through Python libraries. On the Sugar platform, PyGTK has access to the following major libraries: | The support for writing activities provided by the core Sugar system (which is itself largely written in Python) is almost always exposed first through Python libraries. On the Sugar platform, PyGTK has access to the following major libraries: | ||
| − | * [[Cairo]] -- high performance postscript-like library for drawing vector graphics, with the RSVG SVG-rendering library | + | * [[olpc:Cairo|Cairo]] -- high performance postscript-like library for drawing vector graphics, with the RSVG SVG-rendering library |
| − | * [[Pango]] -- flexible text layout system capable of dealing with complex internationalization issues | + | * [[olpc:Pango|Pango]] -- flexible text layout system capable of dealing with complex internationalization issues |
| − | * [[D-BUS]] -- inter-process communications | + | * [[olpc:D-BUS|D-BUS]] -- inter-process communications |
* Telepathy -- inter-machine RPC and presence management with network traversal and discovery logic (activities are encouraged to use Telepathy's Tubes where practical) | * Telepathy -- inter-machine RPC and presence management with network traversal and discovery logic (activities are encouraged to use Telepathy's Tubes where practical) | ||
* [http://numpy.scipy.org/ NumPy] -- standard high performance numeric analysis and array-handling module | * [http://numpy.scipy.org/ NumPy] -- standard high performance numeric analysis and array-handling module | ||
| − | * [[CSound]] -- acoustically modelled sound-synthesis engine (seen in the [[TamTam]] activity) | + | * [[olpc:CSound|CSound]] -- acoustically modelled sound-synthesis engine (seen in the [[olpc:TamTam|TamTam]] activity) |
| − | * [[GStreamer]] -- general purpose media streaming platform, used for accessing the video camera and playing media | + | * [[olpc:GStreamer|GStreamer]] -- general purpose media streaming platform, used for accessing the video camera and playing media |
| − | * [[IPython]] -- enhanced interactive Python interpreter with syntax highlighting, command-completion and the like | + | * [[olpc:IPython|IPython]] -- enhanced interactive Python interpreter with syntax highlighting, command-completion and the like |
GTK Controls: | GTK Controls: | ||
| − | * [[Web]] Browser Control ([[HulaHop]]) -- Gecko 1.9 web browser as a simple embeddable control with Python DOM access | + | * [[olpc:Web|Web]] Browser Control ([[olpc:HulaHop|HulaHop]]) -- Gecko 1.9 web browser as a simple embeddable control with Python DOM access |
| − | * [[Write|AbiWord]]/AbiCollab Control -- AbiWord word processor as an embeddable control with the ability to collaboratively edit with another user | + | * [[olpc:Write|AbiWord]]/AbiCollab Control -- AbiWord word processor as an embeddable control with the ability to collaboratively edit with another user |
** This version of AbiWord also includes support for syntax-colouring collaborative source-code editing | ** This version of AbiWord also includes support for syntax-colouring collaborative source-code editing | ||
| − | * [[Evince]] Control -- PDF and EBook-reading control | + | * [[olpc:Evince|Evince]] Control -- PDF and EBook-reading control |
* [[#OLPCGames|Pygame]] -- game development engine based on SDL (see OLPCGames), not exactly a control, but close... | * [[#OLPCGames|Pygame]] -- game development engine based on SDL (see OLPCGames), not exactly a control, but close... | ||
in addition to the Python standard library, which includes rather a lot of built-in functionality. One key standard library module is the SQLite database engine, which provides a basic single-user SQL database which can be used by activities for storage. | in addition to the Python standard library, which includes rather a lot of built-in functionality. One key standard library module is the SQLite database engine, which provides a basic single-user SQL database which can be used by activities for storage. | ||
| − | See: [[API | + | See: [[olpc:API reference|API reference]] for a more exhaustive set of pointers to libraries available with links to their documentation |
| − | See: [[Activity tutorial]] to develop in Python (with PyGTK) for the OLPC. | + | See: [[olpc:Activity tutorial|Activity tutorial]] to develop in Python (with PyGTK) for the OLPC. |
Activities can use common Python extensions which are installed into their Activity directory. You may also consider rewriting areas that profiling say are problems in your activity as [[#Low Level|C extensions]]. This can save both processor load and memory depending on the nature of the extension. Keep in mind, though, that premature optimization is generally not a good idea; code first, optimize later. You can also use extensions to wrap already-existing activities (those not normally Sugar or Python based) by creating a GTK control wrapping your activity's core. | Activities can use common Python extensions which are installed into their Activity directory. You may also consider rewriting areas that profiling say are problems in your activity as [[#Low Level|C extensions]]. This can save both processor load and memory depending on the nature of the extension. Keep in mind, though, that premature optimization is generally not a good idea; code first, optimize later. You can also use extensions to wrap already-existing activities (those not normally Sugar or Python based) by creating a GTK control wrapping your activity's core. | ||
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See: [[#Low Level]] for a discussion of extensions lower-level programming-language issues | See: [[#Low Level]] for a discussion of extensions lower-level programming-language issues | ||
| − | === OLPCGames === | + | ==== OLPCGames ==== |
| − | [[Pygame]] is a high-level wrapper around the C [[SDL]] library, which provides low-level support for developing games. Pygame allows you to easily create raster (pixel-based) graphics for games with reasonable performance thanks to SDL. | + | [[olpc:Pygame|Pygame]] is a high-level wrapper around the C [[olpc:SDL|SDL]] library, which provides low-level support for developing games. Pygame allows you to easily create raster (pixel-based) graphics for games with reasonable performance thanks to SDL. |
| − | [[OLPCGames]] is a Python package which allows you to create Sugar Activities using Pygame with access to the special features of the laptop. This includes the Telepathy presence and communications infrastructure and the Pango/Cairo graphics capabilities. | + | [[olpc:OLPCGames|OLPCGames]] is a Python package which allows you to create Sugar Activities using Pygame with access to the special features of the laptop. This includes the Telepathy presence and communications infrastructure and the Pango/Cairo graphics capabilities. |
| − | See: [[Game development HOWTO]] to start using Python, Pygame and OLPCGames to develop for the OLPC. | + | See: [[olpc:Game development HOWTO|Game development HOWTO]] to start using Python, Pygame and OLPCGames to develop for the OLPC. |
| − | See: [[Game templates]] for a set of simple templates intended to allow students to create "genres" of games easily | + | See: [[olpc:Game templates|Game templates]] for a set of simple templates intended to allow students to create "genres" of games easily |
| − | == Flash == | + | === Flash === |
| − | Sugar includes the [[Gnash]] engine by default, and the [[Adobe Flash]] playing engine can be installed. At the moment we do not have a Flash authoring tool that can be distributed on the laptops, however. If you have Flash-based content, it may be possible to simply run it on Gnash on Sugar. | + | Sugar includes the [[olpc:Gnash|Gnash]] engine by default, and the [[olpc:Adobe Flash|Adobe Flash]] playing engine can be installed. At the moment we do not have a Flash authoring tool that can be distributed on the laptops, however. If you have Flash-based content, it may be possible to simply run it on Gnash on Sugar. |
| − | == Low Level == | + | === Low Level === |
| − | Being a regular Fedora 7 Linux machine, the OLPC-XO can run regular Linux i386 executables. However, integration with the Sugar shell is currently a non-trivial exercise. It is often easier to wrap your C/C++/Assembly/Whatever activity in a (normally Python) wrapper than to attempt to implement the entire [[Low-level Activity API]] yourself. | + | Being a regular Fedora 7 Linux machine, the OLPC-XO can run regular Linux i386 executables. However, integration with the Sugar shell is currently a non-trivial exercise. It is often easier to wrap your C/C++/Assembly/Whatever activity in a (normally Python) wrapper than to attempt to implement the entire [[Development_Team/Low-level_Activity_API|Low-level Activity API]] yourself. |
| − | See: [[Low-level Activity API]] for the most extensive and up-to-date available discussion of how to integrate a low-level activity manually | + | See: [[Development_Team/Low-level_Activity_API|Low-level Activity API]] for the most extensive and up-to-date available discussion of how to integrate a low-level activity manually |
| − | See: [[Sugarizing]] for a (somewhat fragmentary) discussion of how to wrap an existing native-code executable/library with a Python wrapper. | + | See: [[olpc:Sugarizing|Sugarizing]] for a (somewhat fragmentary) discussion of how to wrap an existing native-code executable/library with a Python wrapper. |
See: [http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=users/albert/sugarize;a=tree;f=xlogo.activity;hb=HEAD Sugarize Demo] for a shared library loader hack that provides much of the X11-level functionality for general X11 activities, allowing them to be run largely unchanged on the XO. Most of the special features of the laptop will not be available, but this approach allows for quick porting/testing of activities. | See: [http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=users/albert/sugarize;a=tree;f=xlogo.activity;hb=HEAD Sugarize Demo] for a shared library loader hack that provides much of the X11-level functionality for general X11 activities, allowing them to be run largely unchanged on the XO. Most of the special features of the laptop will not be available, but this approach allows for quick porting/testing of activities. | ||
| Line 94: | Line 101: | ||
When coding in Python, you will occasionally want access to a C or C++ extension, either one already written, or one written to optimize some part of your activity. You can build these extensions for use under Sugar by using the normal Python distutils with GCC tool chain. | When coding in Python, you will occasionally want access to a C or C++ extension, either one already written, or one written to optimize some part of your activity. You can build these extensions for use under Sugar by using the normal Python distutils with GCC tool chain. | ||
| − | Make sure that you are aware (and respect) the [[Geode instruction set]]. It is about the same as the original Athlon instruction set. See the Geode data book linked in the [[Geode instruction set]] page. | + | Make sure that you are aware (and respect) the [[olpc:Geode instruction set|Geode instruction set]]. It is about the same as the original Athlon instruction set. See the Geode data book linked in the [[olpc:Geode instruction set|Geode instruction set]] page. |
The best (most reliable and compatible) approach is generally to compile on an official image, using Yum to install the tools required. Doing this on an actual XO, however, is probably '''not''' a good idea, as compilation will tend to cause lots of writes to the disk and reduce the longevity of your flash storage chip. | The best (most reliable and compatible) approach is generally to compile on an official image, using Yum to install the tools required. Doing this on an actual XO, however, is probably '''not''' a good idea, as compilation will tend to cause lots of writes to the disk and reduce the longevity of your flash storage chip. | ||
| − | See: [[Developers/Setup#Emulation for Compilation/Experiments|Emulation for Compilation]] for a tip on how to compile using emulation | + | See: [[olpc:Developers/Setup#Emulation for Compilation/Experiments|Emulation for Compilation]] for a tip on how to compile using emulation |
Revision as of 12:17, 22 March 2010
- Note: Most of this page was copied from OLPC:Developers/Stack#Activity Development Stacks, so most of the links refer to pages in the OLPC wiki, http://wiki.laptop.org.
The Sugar Platform Stack describes the core part of the Sugar Application Stack: between an operating system and the individual activities are the Sugar Framework ("Glucose") and the Sugar Software Stack (the upper part of "Ribose").
The Sugar Platform Stack is a versioned implementation of Development_Team/Architecture.
Sugar Framework
The Sugar Framework ("Glucose") consists of the packages sugar-base, sugar-toolkit, sugar-datastore, sugar-presence-service, sugar-artwork and hulahop. Its latest release is as a part of the Sugar Platform release 0.121.
Sugar Software Stack
The Sugar Software Stack (the upper part of "Ribose") is defined by the Sugar Platform release by its external dependencies and their minimum versions - the latest one is 0.86/Platform Components. This is currently roughly equivalent to GNOME Mobile.
Interfaces provided to activity developers
This section attempts to describe the major activity development stacks available in the Sugar environment.
Smalltalk/Etoys
Etoys is a kids application written in Squeak an open-source Smalltalk development environment. Smalltalk is one of the first object-oriented languages, that is, it has been in use for decades, and as a result has a huge body of components and pre-built content and resources that can be used to create new activities.
The Etoys environment is easily scripted via GUI interactions, and components have access to all of the special hardware features on the laptop. You can often create fascinating projects and useful demonstrations with just a few mouse clicks and a bit of simple logic.
See: Smalltalk Development on XO to start using Squeak to develop for the OLPC.
Browser
Sugar includes a Mozilla-Firefox-derived (Gecko) Web Browser Activity. This browser includes HTML, XHTML, Javascript and SVG support. You can set up simple web-servers on a laptop using Python, or children may access an application hosted on a public web server (but keep in mind that children often have very poor connectivity).
You can develop for this platform with no particular hardware or setup, and can test using regular Firefox during initial stages. It is easy to port work from elsewhere into this stack, and easy to export your work for use outside of the OLPC project. The environment is, however, rather constrained, without access to most of the special hardware or software components on the laptop.
Browser Component
The built-in Browser is actually just a thin wrapper around the Gecko control. You can use the Gecko control yourself and create web-browser derived activities, either using XUL or Python/PyGTK to instantiate the browser. This gives your Activity access to system services and hardware, at the cost of considerably more complexity.
See: ??? to start using XULRunner/Web Control to develop for the OLPC.
Python/PyGTK
Python and GTK based activities are the "standard" way to write software for the OLPC. Using Python and PyGTK is strongly encouraged so that the "View Source" button will normally show the same language wherever the user invokes it. The use of the same language throughout also means that code can often be factored out of one project to be shared with another.
The support for writing activities provided by the core Sugar system (which is itself largely written in Python) is almost always exposed first through Python libraries. On the Sugar platform, PyGTK has access to the following major libraries:
- Cairo -- high performance postscript-like library for drawing vector graphics, with the RSVG SVG-rendering library
- Pango -- flexible text layout system capable of dealing with complex internationalization issues
- D-BUS -- inter-process communications
- Telepathy -- inter-machine RPC and presence management with network traversal and discovery logic (activities are encouraged to use Telepathy's Tubes where practical)
- NumPy -- standard high performance numeric analysis and array-handling module
- CSound -- acoustically modelled sound-synthesis engine (seen in the TamTam activity)
- GStreamer -- general purpose media streaming platform, used for accessing the video camera and playing media
- IPython -- enhanced interactive Python interpreter with syntax highlighting, command-completion and the like
GTK Controls:
- Web Browser Control (HulaHop) -- Gecko 1.9 web browser as a simple embeddable control with Python DOM access
- AbiWord/AbiCollab Control -- AbiWord word processor as an embeddable control with the ability to collaboratively edit with another user
- This version of AbiWord also includes support for syntax-colouring collaborative source-code editing
- Evince Control -- PDF and EBook-reading control
- Pygame -- game development engine based on SDL (see OLPCGames), not exactly a control, but close...
in addition to the Python standard library, which includes rather a lot of built-in functionality. One key standard library module is the SQLite database engine, which provides a basic single-user SQL database which can be used by activities for storage.
See: API reference for a more exhaustive set of pointers to libraries available with links to their documentation
See: Activity tutorial to develop in Python (with PyGTK) for the OLPC.
Activities can use common Python extensions which are installed into their Activity directory. You may also consider rewriting areas that profiling say are problems in your activity as C extensions. This can save both processor load and memory depending on the nature of the extension. Keep in mind, though, that premature optimization is generally not a good idea; code first, optimize later. You can also use extensions to wrap already-existing activities (those not normally Sugar or Python based) by creating a GTK control wrapping your activity's core.
See: #Low Level for a discussion of extensions lower-level programming-language issues
OLPCGames
Pygame is a high-level wrapper around the C SDL library, which provides low-level support for developing games. Pygame allows you to easily create raster (pixel-based) graphics for games with reasonable performance thanks to SDL.
OLPCGames is a Python package which allows you to create Sugar Activities using Pygame with access to the special features of the laptop. This includes the Telepathy presence and communications infrastructure and the Pango/Cairo graphics capabilities.
See: Game development HOWTO to start using Python, Pygame and OLPCGames to develop for the OLPC.
See: Game templates for a set of simple templates intended to allow students to create "genres" of games easily
Flash
Sugar includes the Gnash engine by default, and the Adobe Flash playing engine can be installed. At the moment we do not have a Flash authoring tool that can be distributed on the laptops, however. If you have Flash-based content, it may be possible to simply run it on Gnash on Sugar.
Low Level
Being a regular Fedora 7 Linux machine, the OLPC-XO can run regular Linux i386 executables. However, integration with the Sugar shell is currently a non-trivial exercise. It is often easier to wrap your C/C++/Assembly/Whatever activity in a (normally Python) wrapper than to attempt to implement the entire Low-level Activity API yourself.
See: Low-level Activity API for the most extensive and up-to-date available discussion of how to integrate a low-level activity manually
See: Sugarizing for a (somewhat fragmentary) discussion of how to wrap an existing native-code executable/library with a Python wrapper.
See: Sugarize Demo for a shared library loader hack that provides much of the X11-level functionality for general X11 activities, allowing them to be run largely unchanged on the XO. Most of the special features of the laptop will not be available, but this approach allows for quick porting/testing of activities.
When coding in Python, you will occasionally want access to a C or C++ extension, either one already written, or one written to optimize some part of your activity. You can build these extensions for use under Sugar by using the normal Python distutils with GCC tool chain.
Make sure that you are aware (and respect) the Geode instruction set. It is about the same as the original Athlon instruction set. See the Geode data book linked in the Geode instruction set page.
The best (most reliable and compatible) approach is generally to compile on an official image, using Yum to install the tools required. Doing this on an actual XO, however, is probably not a good idea, as compilation will tend to cause lots of writes to the disk and reduce the longevity of your flash storage chip.
See: Emulation for Compilation for a tip on how to compile using emulation