Sugar Labs - User contributions [en]

Development Team/Project Ideas

2009-02-18T18:27:05Z

Mick: added accessibility feature

== About ==

This is a dumping ground for crazy ideas. Suitable for farming out to interns, Google SoC folks, or eager community members.

* Adding hooks between Browse / Write / Google Docs to provide a killer offline mode for Google Docs. Google Gears allegedly makes this easy.
* A better, more fun, Paint option for small children - One way - Use eToys - http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/etoys/2008-November/002770.html

* See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:GSoC_proposals

== Core Software ==

=== Accessibility Support ===
Sugar currently doesn't have anything available for the visually impaired.

=== Speech Synthesis integration into Sugar ===
Integrate speech synthesis with all activities, not just [[Speak]], and provide for karaoke coloring. See [[User:Mokurai|Mokurai]]'s [http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html article] on adapting [[Same Language Subtitling]] for literacy to the XO.

Desirable Features for Sugar Speech Synthesis Plugin:

* Provide Sugar Speech Synthesis Configuration Management Tool
* Karaoke Style Coloring in Sugar Environment
* UI for configuration Control
* Accent gets set on the basis of locale

=== Java ===
Package and integrate the IcedTea open source bootstrap of OpenJDK Java with browser plugin for the XO. Deliverables would include:
* Binary, source and rpm dependencies for icedtea and icedtea browser plugin
* Java enabled xo os image
* Integration of packages into autobuild branch

=== Print Support ===
Print support in Sugar would be useful in many scenarios. The ideal project deliverables would include
* Integration of a printing infrastructure (CUPS ??) into the XO-1 software images
* Modification of Sugar Control Panel to set up the printer (add/select default printer?)
* Modification of at least one activity (Write ?) to support printing
* Making a printing activity, that follows sugar GUI guidelines?

:I am highly interested in working on this project. Would the project leader mind contacting me at bmw.stx@gmail.com?

=== JavaScript-Python Communication ===
JavaScript Python Communication through the following strategies: PyXPCom, hulahop, and xulrunner. Ideally, develop a demo activity which could be used as a template for sugarizing javascript activities.

== Activities ==
=== VideoChat activity ===
telepathy-python has support for audio and video streaming and has recently gained support for using gstreamer, which means that we could easily do efficient videoconferencing using fully open source codecs.

So a really nice project would be to do a proper Sugar activity for video conferencing.

=== Language Trainer ===
A language trainer with text to speech support would be very nice. Something that could start with letters and then teach words.

=== Thesaurus ===
Working together with openthesaurus -- someone could create a thesaurus for kids to learn different words (synonyms and antonyms)

=== Improved Read activity ===
Use Gecko to implement a reader for [http://www.openebook.org/ epub] format ebooks. This is superior to PDF because such books can be reflowed to better fit the screen and user preferences. Also, (although it would break the standard) it would make it very simple to include AJAX-style active features to books.

Extra credit if you support textual and graphical annotation.

=== KDEEdu ===

Sugarize any [http://edu.kde.org/ KDEEdu] activity, especially the ones which have no corresponding Sugar activity.

== Some ideas for improving Sugar Activities ==
*See [[MarketingTeam/Events/Sugarcamp_Boston_2008/Minutes#Items_from_the_roadmap_brainstorm|a list of project ideas]] from a brainstorming session at Sugar Camp.

== More of your ideas ==

=== Preeti's list ===

Hi, I am Preeti, from New Delhi. I would like to get myself involved in this very interesting aspect of the OLPC software development. I have jotted some of my views on the same at:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User_talk:59.178.99.172

Regards
Preeti

Development Team/Project Ideas

2009-02-18T16:54:13Z

Mick: added language trainer and thesaurus ideas

== About ==

This is a dumping ground for crazy ideas. Suitable for farming out to interns, Google SoC folks, or eager community members.

* Adding hooks between Browse / Write / Google Docs to provide a killer offline mode for Google Docs. Google Gears allegedly makes this easy.
* A better, more fun, Paint option for small children - One way - Use eToys - http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/etoys/2008-November/002770.html

* See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:GSoC_proposals

== Core Software ==

=== Speech Synthesis integration into Sugar ===
Integrate speech synthesis with all activities, not just [[Speak]], and provide for karaoke coloring. See [[User:Mokurai|Mokurai]]'s [http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html article] on adapting [[Same Language Subtitling]] for literacy to the XO.

Desirable Features for Sugar Speech Synthesis Plugin:

* Provide Sugar Speech Synthesis Configuration Management Tool
* Karaoke Style Coloring in Sugar Environment
* UI for configuration Control
* Accent gets set on the basis of locale

=== Java ===
Package and integrate the IcedTea open source bootstrap of OpenJDK Java with browser plugin for the XO. Deliverables would include:
* Binary, source and rpm dependencies for icedtea and icedtea browser plugin
* Java enabled xo os image
* Integration of packages into autobuild branch

=== Print Support ===
Print support in Sugar would be useful in many scenarios. The ideal project deliverables would include
* Integration of a printing infrastructure (CUPS ??) into the XO-1 software images
* Modification of Sugar Control Panel to set up the printer (add/select default printer?)
* Modification of at least one activity (Write ?) to support printing
* Making a printing activity, that follows sugar GUI guidelines?

:I am highly interested in working on this project. Would the project leader mind contacting me at bmw.stx@gmail.com?

=== JavaScript-Python Communication ===
JavaScript Python Communication through the following strategies: PyXPCom, hulahop, and xulrunner. Ideally, develop a demo activity which could be used as a template for sugarizing javascript activities.

== Activities ==
=== VideoChat activity ===
telepathy-python has support for audio and video streaming and has recently gained support for using gstreamer, which means that we could easily do efficient videoconferencing using fully open source codecs.

So a really nice project would be to do a proper Sugar activity for video conferencing.

== Language Trainer ==
A language trainer with text to speech support would be very nice. Something that could start with letters and then teach words.

== Thesaurus ==
Working together with openthesaurus -- someone could create a thesaurus for kids to learn different words (synonyms and antonyms)

=== Improved Read activity ===
Use Gecko to implement a reader for [http://www.openebook.org/ epub] format ebooks. This is superior to PDF because such books can be reflowed to better fit the screen and user preferences. Also, (although it would break the standard) it would make it very simple to include AJAX-style active features to books.

Extra credit if you support textual and graphical annotation.

=== KDEEdu ===

Sugarize any [http://edu.kde.org/ KDEEdu] activity, especially the ones which have no corresponding Sugar activity.

== Some ideas for improving Sugar Activities ==
*See [[MarketingTeam/Events/Sugarcamp_Boston_2008/Minutes#Items_from_the_roadmap_brainstorm|a list of project ideas]] from a brainstorming session at Sugar Camp.

== More of your ideas ==

=== Preeti's list ===

Hi, I am Preeti, from New Delhi. I would like to get myself involved in this very interesting aspect of the OLPC software development. I have jotted some of my views on the same at:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User_talk:59.178.99.172

Regards
Preeti

Sugar on a Stick

2009-02-15T02:00:36Z

Mick: added note about Fedora and I put a note that i'm working on bug 114

==About Sugar on a Stick (SoaS) ==

[[Image:Soas.jpg|thumb]]

The goal of the Sugar on a Stick project is to give children access to *their* Sugar on any computer in their environment with just a USB key.

We are still in preAlpha on this project. It is not ready to use with children yet. At the time of this writing, the latest Fedora images are the recommended version to use if you want something that is the most stable.

===Creating a USB Stick===

The basics of creating a Live, bootable USB are you download a '.iso' image. Then you use a USB creator program to copy it to a USB, create a space for users to store files on the USB (if required) and set it to be bootable.

In practice this means the first thing you need is a Live USB creator.

We are working with live USBs based on both Fedora and Ubuntu (these are different distributions of Linux), you can try either or both.

If you are helping us with testing, please be sure to use one of the Sugar .iso's from this page. Please keep notes on which you got and when. Please report bugs to dev.sugarlabs.org and finally, please join the Moodle Class where we are coordinating testing. http://schools.sugarlabs.org/course/view.php?id=17

This is still in testing, its not ready for production use yet.

====Fedora based Sugar on a Stick====

You will need to download current version of Sugar that we are testing for Sugar on a Stick:

http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/1/Soas-200902061045.iso

Please note that at this point in time the versions are coming out rather quickly. It is worth checking [http://erikos.sweettimez.de/ Erikos' blog] to see if the link above might be out-of-date. Note also that, while the above link (Fedora-10-based) is encouraged for testing, end users may have a better experience with the Fedora-9-based [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/xoimages/ xoimages] (though again, that is only true as of Feb 12 and could change quickly).

=====From Windows=====
To create a Fedora based Sugar from a Windows machine: https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/

Download that file to a windows machine and install it. (I couldn't get it to run in wine... --[[User:Walter|Walter]] 17:40, 3 December 2008 (UTC))

#Plug in a 1GB or larger USB stick into your computer.
#Open "liveusb-creator.exe"
#Use "Browse" to select the iso file that you just downloaded.
#Set the Target Device to your USB device
#Move the slider to set some persistent storage (hint, set it high then it will tell you how much space there is and you can adjust it to the right point)
#Click "Create Live USB". It will take a few minutes.

How much persistent memory you set will depend on the size of the .iso and the size of your USB but make sure you have some so people can save files.

=====From Linux=====
You can use the shell script [http://katzj.fedorapeople.org/olpc/livecd-iso-to-disk.sh livecd-iso-to-disk.sh]

=====Problem=====
I tried to do this and was able to create the files on the stick, but when I try to book on a Toshiba Tecra M4
(which can boot from USB sticks) I get
<pre>
SYSLINUX 3.72 2008-0925-25 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2008 H. Peter Unvin
Could not find kernel image: linux
boot:
</pre>

====Ubuntu based Sugar on a Stick====

* Detailed instructions are here: http://dev.laptop.org/~probono/sbuntu/ and in [[Sugar on a Stick Ubuntu]]

====Ubuntu based Sugar on a Stick from Windows====

(Note that these instructions work on Fedora as well, and also can be run from any Linux distribution or Windows)

# Download the stock [http://releases.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso]
# Download [http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ UNetbootin] [http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-windows-latest.exe for Windows] (or [http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-linux-latest Linux]) and run the application
# Supply the Ubuntu 8.10 desktop ISO file in the "Diskimage" option, select your target USB drive, and press "OK" to make an Ubuntu Live USB
# Add the file [http://dev.laptop.org/~probono/sbuntu/sugar.squashfs sugar.squashfs] to the directory casper/ on the USB stick

===Using Sugar on a Stick===

The trick is to set the BIOS to boot from USB. Unfortunately this is slightly different on each computer. Try Google on BIOS your computer model and explore the setup screen for your system.

If you have trouble try creating a "Boot Helper" CD using the .iso below. This will start the boot from the CD then read files from the USB.

http://www.sugarlabs.org/~marco/boot.iso

You can also use the 'PLoP Boot Manager' to create a boot floppy for machines without the ability to boot from CD or USB, see http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/No_native_BIOS_support

===VirtualBox and Sugar on a Stick===

At our pilot school for Sugar on a Stick the teachers have MacBooks. Our plan is to have teachers run Sugar in emulation mode on their personal Macbooks, while the students use the USB to access a variety of computers.

Instructions for using a preconfigured VirtualBox disk image with Sugar on a Stick [[Sugar on a Stick VirtualBox]]

===Cloning Sugar on a Stick===

The vision is that an adult will be able to create a Sugar on a Stick, add activities, set the language and the collaboration service and then "clone" the stick to create Sugar on a Stick for all the students in a class or a school.

[[Specs for Cloning Sugar on a Stick]]

===Join the development effort===

We are coordinating work on this project on Sugar Labs Moodle system. Please create an account and join the Sugar on a Stick Class. http://schools.sugarlabs.org/course/view.php?id=17

====Report Sugar on a Stick Bugs====

Use the Sugar Trac system at http://dev.sugarlabs.org to report bugs. Use the "SoaS" component.

===Project Goals===

* Sugar on a Stick as 1 to 1 computing in an elementary school
* Sugar on a Stick to empower middle and high school students to help test [[Sugar as Service Learning]]
* Sugar on a Stick for conferences to let people try Sugar and collaborate with other conference participants

===Sugar on a Stick ToDo List===

* Create an Easy Emulation for Boston School teachers macbooks - http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/114 <-- [[User:Mick|Mick]] is working on this
* Create a boot helper CD that lets Macs boot from the stick
* Install the latest version of Sugar on a Stick, pick an activity and test it
* Create a system for tracking activity testing
* Solicit USB stick donations from companies
* Create a design for a CD sticker to put on boot helper CDs

=== See Also ===
*[[DeploymentTeam/School_Key]]

Activity Library/Design

2009-02-13T16:15:06Z

Mick: added Josh's mockup

= Purpose of a.sl.o =
The idea of the site is so people (think kids) can download .xo files -- the .xo's should be tested on build 767 before being uploaded (or they should be put in the sandbox). Kids shouldn't download software that will not work for them - period.

Not sure if Library Bundles should be added. LanguagesPacks have been decided are a bad idea and they shouldn't be added in a.sl.o.

If someone else has ideas on what other things (like books) could be added and how it would fit in the design, add it here.

= Mockup =
[[Image:Sugar-wire-mock-up.png|800px|thumb|center|Josh's mockup]]

[[Image:wire-frame-sugar-with-notes.png|800px|thumb|center|Josh's mockup with his comments]]

= Mockup comments =
...

= Design =
[[Image:remora-design.png|500px|thumb|center|a screenshot from addons.mozilla.com - used for reference]]

1) ''' Categories '''
We should probably base the categories on the categories that are in wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All

2) ''' the "Other Applications" menu '''
I'm not sure if we can use this or not.

3) ''' Advanced '''
This should be taken out. The idea was so that people can seach application's addons (extensions for Sunbird containing string "foo". Since this paradigm doesn't fit into what we are doing, It should be taken out via css hiding the div

4) ''' RSS '''
Kids don't use RSS feeds and I think that this is too much. Can we add something else there?

5) ''' Languages '''
We should focus on translations for languages that have deployments and want to have the kids exposed to a.sl.o -- some deployments may have a very strict policy about what gets downloaded on the laptops and what doesn't.

Also, kids should be able to access the a.sl.o site and see the interface in their own language - by default.

File:Wire-frame-sugar-with-notes.png

2009-02-13T16:12:31Z

Mick: Josh's mockup w/ notes

Josh's mockup w/ notes

File:Sugar-wire-mock-up.png

2009-02-13T16:10:12Z

Mick: Josh's mockup

Josh's mockup

Activity Library/Design

2009-02-12T05:43:43Z

Mick: ActivityTeam/Remora port/Design moved to AddonsPortal/Design: Changed it to make more sense to people. Everyone asks what remora is :)

= Purpose of a.sl.o =
The idea of the site is so people (think kids) can download .xo files -- the .xo's should be tested on build 767 before being uploaded (or they should be put in the sandbox). Kids shouldn't download software that will not work for them - period.

Not sure if Library Bundles should be added. LanguagesPacks have been decided are a bad idea and they shouldn't be added in a.sl.o.

If someone else has ideas on what other things (like books) could be added and how it would fit in the design, add it here.

= Design =
[[Image:remora-design.png|500px|thumb|center|a screenshot from addons.mozilla.com - used for reference]]

1) ''' Categories '''
We should probably base the categories on the categories that are in wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All

2) ''' the "Other Applications" menu '''
I'm not sure if we can use this or not.

3) ''' Advanced '''
This should be taken out. The idea was so that people can seach application's addons (extensions for Sunbird containing string "foo". Since this paradigm doesn't fit into what we are doing, It should be taken out via css hiding the div

4) ''' RSS '''
Kids don't use RSS feeds and I think that this is too much. Can we add something else there?

5) ''' Languages '''
We should focus on translations for languages that have deployments and want to have the kids exposed to a.sl.o -- some deployments may have a very strict policy about what gets downloaded on the laptops and what doesn't.

Also, kids should be able to access the a.sl.o site and see the interface in their own language - by default.

Activity Library/Design

2009-02-11T21:26:13Z

Mick: initial ideas

= Purpose of a.sl.o =
The idea of the site is so people (think kids) can download .xo files -- the .xo's should be tested on build 767 before being uploaded (or they should be put in the sandbox). Kids shouldn't download software that will not work for them - period.

Not sure if Library Bundles should be added. LanguagesPacks have been decided are a bad idea and they shouldn't be added in a.sl.o.

If someone else has ideas on what other things (like books) could be added and how it would fit in the design, add it here.

= Design =
[[Image:remora-design.png|500px|thumb|center|a screenshot from addons.mozilla.com - used for reference]]

1) ''' Categories '''
We should probably base the categories on the categories that are in wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All

2) ''' the "Other Applications" menu '''
I'm not sure if we can use this or not.

3) ''' Advanced '''
This should be taken out. The idea was so that people can seach application's addons (extensions for Sunbird containing string "foo". Since this paradigm doesn't fit into what we are doing, It should be taken out via css hiding the div

4) ''' RSS '''
Kids don't use RSS feeds and I think that this is too much. Can we add something else there?

5) ''' Languages '''
We should focus on translations for languages that have deployments and want to have the kids exposed to a.sl.o -- some deployments may have a very strict policy about what gets downloaded on the laptops and what doesn't.

Also, kids should be able to access the a.sl.o site and see the interface in their own language - by default.

File:Remora-design.png

2009-02-11T21:09:00Z

Mick: Initial notes about the a.sl.o design

Initial notes about the a.sl.o design

User:Mick

2009-02-01T08:10:51Z

Mick: New page: My name is Mick Weiss I'm working on addons.sugarlabs.org - you can find me on freenode (my nick is mick_laptop)

My name is Mick Weiss

I'm working on addons.sugarlabs.org - you can find me on freenode (my nick is mick_laptop)