Sugar Labs - User contributions [en]

Sugar Labs/Current Events

2008-05-27T18:32:33Z

Shankar: /* Sugar in the news */ added link to ars technica -- 5/26 article

==What new==

=== Sugar Digest (2008-05-26) ===

1. About this list: Over the two-plus years I was at OLPC, I posted a weekly digest of OLPC news to the community-news@lists.laptop.org list. I also had been updating the news page in the OLPC wiki every weekend. Now that I am devoting my energies to Sugar Labs, I will start posting a weekly digest of Sugar news to community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org (I'll cross post to its.an.education.project@lists.sugarlabs.org and sugar@lists.laptop.org, but I will *not* cross-post to community-news@lists.laptop.org beyond this announcement). Please send me any updates by the weekend for inclusion in what will most often be a Monday-morning post. More information about the list, including subscription instructions and and archives can be found here (http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/community-news).

* sugar@lists.laptop.org remains the primary forum for discussing technical details of the Sugar project;
* its.an.education.project@lists.sugarlabs.org is a forum for discussing the impact of Sugar (and related technologies, such as Etoys) on learning, including discussion of observations from the field;
* community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org is a weekly digest of Sugar-related news and discussions;
* devel@lists.laptop.org remains the primary forum for discussing OLPC-XO-specific technical details.

Other distribution-specific lists are beginning to be made, such as:

* http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-olpc-devel

Other communication channels include:

* http://planet.sugarlabs.org
* #Sugar on irc.freenode.net

2. It has been just a few weeks since we launched the Sugar Labs initiative and the pace of activity is already picking up. Among the highlights are the creation of wiki.sugarlabs.org (special thanks to Helga Schmidt and Simon Dorner) and creation of the its.an.education.project list (thanks to Aaron Kaplan and Bernardo Innocenti). Thanks also to [http://www.develer.com Develor], Ivan Krstić, and Bernie for helping with the hosting of sugarlabs.org. Greg DeKoenigsberg is working on a LiveCd based on Fedora 9. Firefoxman will be our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org Planet Master].

The mailing list discussion has seen an interesting progression: it began as a discussion about the relationship between Sugar and the XO laptop and has morphed into a discussion about learning. These trends are evident in some self-organizing maps of the list activity generated by Gary Martin (author of the Moon activity):

Compare
[[:Image:2008-May-01-09-som.jpg]]
with
[[:Image:2008-May-17-23-som.jpg]]

(Gary has put the image thumbs and some basic text description on his user page—[[User:Garycmartin]]—and is looking for feedback as to how to make these visualizations more useful.)

3. The wiki has already almost 150 registered users and well over 1000 page edits. Highlights include:

* [[User Manual]]
* [[Supported systems]]
* [[Roadmap]]
* [[Release]]
* [[Taxonomy]]
* [[Request New Features]]

Be sure also visit:

* [[SugarLabs:Community_Portal]]
* [[Community/GettingInvolved]]
* [[Community/FAQ]]

We are discussing the goals and principles of Sugar Labs here:

* [[Sugar Labs]]
* [[Talk:Sugar Labs]]

=== Community jams and meet-ups ===

4. Family XO Mesh Meet-up: Mike Lee teamed up with Kevin Cole to host an event at Gallaudet University on 24 May. (See http://olpclearningclub.org/meetings/summer-blockbusters-at-gallaudet/ for event details.) Photos from the meeting can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/sets/72157604752586251/.

Yamandu Ploskonka reports that Ceibal had a jam this weekend (Please see http://proyecto-ceibal.blogspot.com/2008/05/breve-resumen-del-primer-ceibal-jam.html).

5a. Peru Jam: Hernan Pachas is organizing a jam during the VISION 2008 and Open Source Day planned for October at the University of San Martin de Porres (USMP). Details will be forthcoming.

5b. Aymara Jam: Together with Runasimipi, who already have translated Abiword into Aymara, Yama is helping organize a jam in La Paz, Bolivia to translate Sugar into Aymara, likely in October 2008 (Please see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Aymara_Fest).

6. Unconference: In the tradition of Barcamp, OLPC will be holding a grassroots "unconference" the weekend of 7 June, dedicated towards community-organization, and initiatives, events, structures, and best practices. This is not just an OLPC event—anyone with interest in grassroots organizing is invited to attend. (Please see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Grassroots_unconference or contact Mel Chua at mel at laptop.org for more information.)

7. Bootcamp: OLPC is also hosting a bootcamp and conference from 9–12 June 2008 in Cambridge, MA for current and future organizers of local groups. The objective of the bootcamp is to help community members become grassroots advisors, who can serve as resources to others who want to start local initiatives. (Please contact Mel for more information.)

8. Grassroots Jam: a jam will be held in New York City on 14–15 June 2008, run by the bootcamp attendees. The jam, open to
everyone, will focus on development of individual and group projects that could work on/with Sugar and/or XO laptops. (Please see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Grassroots_Jam for more information.)

=== Tech Talk ===

9. BugSquad: David Farning is forming a Sugar BugSquad. His goals are:

* Squash bugs;
* Develop the concept of teams within sugar development community; and
* Start recruiting community members in an orderly manner to the project.

Most of the early effort will be developing a triage guide and working through the backlog of bugs. Where appropriate, David is basing the Sugar bugsquad off the Gnome, KDE, and Ubuntu bugsquads. (Please see [[BugSquad]] for more information.)

10. Debian: Jonas Smedegaard reports that the status of the Sugar source package Debian's testing distribution has changed.

Previous version: (not in testing)
Current version: 0.79.4-2

All core Sugar packages are now in Debian testing! Please speak up if you are interested in helping out.

11. v-toys: V-toys, a visual scripting system compatible with Etoys, is now available (Please see http://community.ofset.org/index.php/V-toys_international); you'll find some documentation and tutorials on the same page.

12. iStoa.net: Hilaire Fernandes reports that iSTOA, a platform interactive educational activities and monitoring via the Internet, which runs on top of Squeak, can run on the XO laptop (Please see http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire/index.php?post/2008/05/24/iStoanet-lands-on-Olpc).

13. Gnash: Rob Savoye reminds us that the most uptodate Gnash builds can be found on http://getgnash.org and that we are in need of someone to maintain gnash rpms.

14. Sugar core: Marco Pesenti Gritti, Tomeu Vizoso, and Simon Schampijer have been working on a variety of Sugar improvements.

Tomeu has worked on:

* Show the installation date of activity bundles in the activity list;
* Implement search in the activity list;
* Reviewed and merged a patch contributed by Eric Burns for showing a notification when an item is added to the clipboard;
* Reviewed and merged Eben Eliason's work for activating palettes on right click;
* Added a palette to links in Browse. For now it allows copying the link to the clipboard. Other features will be added to this palette soon.

Simon worked in getting the [[Taxonomy#Sucrose:_The_interface.2C_plus_a_set_of_demonstration_activities|Sucrose]] [[Sucrose_0.81.1|release 0.81.1]] out of the door (See [[Roadmap#Timeline]]). An announcement will follow soon. Simon also worked on Browse Version 87, which is the release version for Sucrose 0.81.1. It has some pylint cleanups, fixes downloads with latest xulrunner beta5 and replaces the 'Open' label with a 'Show in Journal' one in the download alert.

Marco was busy with:

* Coordination and process/infrastructure work for Sucrose 0.81.1;
* Allow palettes to be created lazily, which should help performance quite a bit when we start using it;
* Discussion with Michael Stone about release management.

Walter Bender met with teams from Peru, Uruguay, and Paraguay to discuss a process for in-field testing of new Sugar features. We agreed to develop a process whereby we can conduct tests of new features with children using Sugar on a daily basis. Details will be posted in the wiki (See [[Testing]] for details as they develop).

=== Sugar Labs ===

15. Walter has been in discussions with the Software Freedom Law Center regarding how to best structure Sugar Labs such that it is aligned with the principles of FOSS. Stay tuned.

16. Bernie was busy with:

* Performance and reliability work on trinity, the server hosting this wiki;
* Setup of http://planet.sugarlabs.org/ ;
* Setup of a download directory on trinity and a mirror of it on http://download.sugarlabs.org/ ;
* Migration of the mailing lists.

==Sugar in the news==
{|
|-
|align=right valign=top|26 May 2008||'''Ars Technica''' – [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080526-former-olpc-software-president-wants-to-expand-sugars-reach.html OLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo]
|-
|align=right valign=top|22 May 2008||'''BetaNews''' – [http://www.betanews.com/article/Linux_startup_Sugar_Labs_in_informal_talks_with_four_laptop_makers/1211467857 Linux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''OSTATIC''' – [http://ostatic.com/162220-blog/olpcs-open-source-sugar-platform-aims-for-new-hardware OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''PCWorld''' – [http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146002/bender_forms_group_to_promote_olpcs_sugar_ui.html Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''MHT''' – [http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/05/12/daily35.html Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''News.com''' – [http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9946242-7.html Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''Feeding the Peguins''' – [http://morgancollett.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/the-future-of-sugar/ The future of Sugar]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''Sugar list''' – [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/sugar/2008-May/005800.html A few thoughts on SugarLabs]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''xconomy''' – [http://www.xconomy.com/2008/05/16/bender-creates-sugar-labs-new-foundation-to-adapt-olpcs-laptop-interface-for-other-machines/ Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''BBC''' – [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7405346.stm '$100 laptop' platform moves on]
|-
|align=right valign=top|15 May 2008||'''OLPC wiki''' – [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/AnnounceFAQ Dual-boot XO] Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''Softpedia''' – [http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bender-Launches-Sugar-Labs-for-Better-Development-of-OLPC-039-s-Sugar-UI-85881.shtml Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI]
|}

==Press releases==
{|
|-
| align="right" valign="top" |  15 May 2008
| [[Announcing SugarLabs]]
|}

[[Category:General public]]

Getting Started

2008-05-26T07:18:18Z

Shankar: Category:Documentation added

== About Sugar ==

Sugar is a different desktop environment to what is normally used in Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X or other Linux operating systems. It is conceived as a tool to allow kids to learn interactively. The first thing that a child sees, therefore, is not a hard disk or a trash can — it’s the other kids in the “neighborhood.” Programs and Applications are called Activities, many of which allow for collaboration between users who are connected to each other by Wifi or through a [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/SugarLabs:Community_Portal#Jabber_Networks Jabber network]. Sugar developers are encouraged to write activities with collaborative elements that are automatically enabled.

Sugar is developed in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29 Python] and runs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux Linux] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_%28computer_science%29 Kernel] 2.6.22 and the [http://fedoraproject.org/ Fedora 7] base environment.

==Getting started==

You can explore the Sugar [[Glossary|interface]] in the XO-1 [http://laptop.org/en/laptop/start/homeview.shtml Getting Started guide].

===Connecting to the Internet===

Connecting to the Internet is something that somewhat falls between the cracks of Sugar and the computer it's running on.

On the XO laptop, there are three ways to connect to the Internet:
*Wireless access point (WiFi hotspot);
*“School Server” mesh network; or
*“simple” mesh network, which lets you collaborate directly with other XOs running Sugar.

From a conventional laptop running Sugar, connecting through an access point works. (Mesh support is becoming available on more machines.) Depending upon which [[SugarLabs:Community_Portal#Jabber_Networks|Jabber server]] you are connected to, you'll see different collections of "neighbors" in the Neighborhood View.

Read the [[Connecting To The Internet|Connecting to the Internet page]] for detailed instructions.

[[Category:General public]]
[[Category:Documentation]]

Category:Documentation

2008-05-26T07:05:31Z

Shankar: created the page

This category is for collecting pages which contain "Documentation".

Documentation Team/User Manual

2008-05-26T07:04:38Z

Shankar: category added

=How To Use Sugar=

===Using the [[Glossary#User_Interface_.28UI.29|Interface]]===

====Where's the desktop?====
Sugar is a different desktop environment to what is normally used in Windows, Apple's OS X or other Linux operating systems. The first thing that a child sees, therefore, is not a hard disk or a trash can — it’s the other children in the “neighborhood.” Sugar's closest desktop metaphor is the Home view: where the user can see what Activities they are currently using and access the Journal, which acts as a history of usage and allows the user to access files they viewed or applications they ran previously.

===Using Activities===
====What is an Activity?====
The program that you run using Sugar are called Activities. Why? Because Sugar, in its departure from the desktop metaphor for computing, is the first serious attempt to create a [[Glossary|user interface]] that is based on both cognitive and social [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_%28learning_theory%29 constructivism]: an environment where learners engage in authentic exploration and collaboration in the act of learning.

====Starting an Activity====

====Installing and Deleting Activities====
<ol>
*Installing Sugar Activities Using Browse
*Installing/Removing Sugar Activities Using Terminal
*Installing/Removing Linux Applications
*Installing Sugar Coated Linux Applications
*Windows Applications</ol>

===Customizing the Interface===
====Changing an XO's Nickname and Color on Sugar Views====
<ol>Your XO's Nickname and other options can be changed using the [[Terminal Activity]]'s command line [[Sugar-Control-Panel]].
</ol>

====Changing the "XO Guy"====
To change the XO Guy, the symbol in the middle of the Home view (with applications opening around him/her), you have to follow a few steps:

*'''Create An Icon''' - You first have to make an icon image and save it as an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file with the name computer-xo.svg. Probably on your Mac or Windows machine. There are instructions on how to do this [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Making_SVG_Icons_for_Sugar on the OLPC wiki].
*'''Transfer It To Your Computer''' - Copy computer-xo.svg to a USB or SD card and plug it into your OLPC or computer.
*'''Install it''' - Open Terminal and type the following commands to back-up the original icon and copy your new icon into the correct location:

su -l
cp /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/device/computer-xo.svg /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/device/computer-xo.svg.bak
cp /media/<your usb or sd>/computer-xo.svg /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/device/computer-xo.svg

*Now close terminal and press Ctrl,Alt,Erase.

Exmaple of modified icon:

[[Image:Screenshotkm7.png‎‎]]

'''Restoring Icon To Original'''

To restore computer-xo.svg back to the original, open terminal and type:

su -l
cp /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/device/computer-xo.svg.bak /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/device/computer-xo.svg
rm /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/device/computer-xo.svg.bak

Source: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=2157.0

====Setting the Clock and Timezone====

You may set the date and time as follows:

<ol>

<li> Connect to the Internet. (For details, see [[Connecting to the Internet]])

<li> Open a Linux prompt. (For details, see [[#How do I access a Linux command prompt?|How do I access a Linux command prompt?]] Note that unless you are an advanced user, you should use the Terminal Activity button to open the prompt.)

<li> Log in as "root". Assuming you are using the Terminal Activity program, you can log in as root by typing "su -" at the command prompt and pressing the Enter key. Note that as user "root" you have the ability to destroy all software on the XO, so you should end your session as soon as you successfully change the date and time.

<li> At the command prompt, enter the following commands:<br>
<code>/usr/sbin/ntpdate time.nist.gov</code><br>
<code>/usr/sbin/hwclock --systohc</code>

<li> Press the Enter key after each. In response to the ntpdate command, if it successfully contacts this US government official time server, the system will output a line of data displaying the correct date and time.

<li> Click the "Stop" icon [[Image:Quit.gif|25px]] at the upper right corner of the screen to log out and close the Terminal Activity program.

</ol>

====How to set the timezone on my laptop====

You can set the timezone by typing the [[Sugar-Control-Panel]] command in the [[Terminal Activity]].

===Sound Control===

<ol>
====Disabling the bootup sound====

Turn the volume down while the laptop is booting (i.e. before getting into Sugar).
</ol>

===Taking Screen Shots===

To take a screen shot, typing Alt+1 at the same time will take one and store it in your journal.

=Networking & Communications=

===Connecting to Wireless Networks===
To some degree, networking is specific to the platform upon which Sugar is running.
<ol>
On the XO-1 laptop, there are three ways to connect to the Internet:
*Wireless access point (WiFi hotspot);
*“School Server” mesh network; or
*“simple” mesh network, which lets you collaborate directly with other XOs.
</ol>
Read [[Connecting to the Internet]] for detailed instructions.

===Connecting to Jabber Servers===

Jabber servers allow Sugar users to interact, play and collaborate with each other in the Sugar environment.

While the OLPC is designed with mesh wireless networking built in (where users can connect to each other without having a central wireless internet router/connection), Sugar users around the world may not be able to connect with others using the platform unless it's through the Internet, since mesh networking relies on a concentration of users (for example, in a classroom, school or business environment).

Jabber networks link Sugar users to each other in order to chat, interact and collaborate. There are global Sugar Jabber networks, or regional ones hosted by organizations and individuals around the world. You can choose whichever Jabber network you wish to connect to. Connecting Sugar to one of these networks will greatly enhance your Sugar experience.

*'''Connecting to Jabber Networks''' - [[How to connect Sugar to a Jabber network]]
*'''List of Jabber Networks''' - [[A list of Jabber networks around the world]]
*'''Creating a Jabber Server''' - To host a Jabber server for your city, region, country or interest read [[How to Create a Jabber Server]]

=== IRC Chat ===
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XoIRC Install the XoIRC activity] and connect with other Sugar/OLPC users and enthusiasts on the internet and chat with them in real time. XoIRC uses a system called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat IRC].

It defaults to a "room" called #olpc-help, but you can also enter other rooms by typing '''/join #room''' where '''room''' is the name of the room you wish to join.

Some other Sugar/OLPC IRC chatrooms are listed [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/IRC#irc.freenode.net_channels are listed here.]]

=== OLPC/Sugar as Webserver ===

*Open Terminal and type the following to install Boa (approx. 100k)

su -
yum -y install boa

*Now put your index.html in /var/www
*Find your Sugar Computer/XO's IP Address. Still as root user (having entered su- already), enter into Terminal:

ifconfig

*Look next to eth0 for 192.168.whatever (for example)
*Go to another machine on your LAN and type your Sugar Computer/XO's IP Address into your browser. There's your Sugar computer serving up a web page!

=Installing Sugar=
*[[:Category:Installing Sugar|Installing Sugar]] (on various platforms)
*[[Sugar Instructions]], booting and getting started with Sugar

=Developing For Sugar=
* [http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/02/23/building-the-xo-introducing-sugar/ Building the XO: Introducing Sugar - Red Hat Magazine 2007-02-23]
* [[Sugar_with_sugar-jhbuild|Build]] from sources, and [[Sugar Instructions|get started]].
* Read the human interaction [[HIG|guidelines]]
* Get an overview of the [[Sugar Architecture|architecture]]
* [[Sugar_Activity_Tutorial|Write]] your own activity
* Check out the [[Sugar_Code_Snippets|code snippets]] library
* [[Understanding sugar code]] organization.
* See a list of Sugar [[Activities|activities]] and specifications.
* [http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=sugar;a=summary Sugar source repository]
* [http://dev.laptop.org/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=reopened&group=component&order=priority Current trac tickets, sorted by category]. The TODO list.
* [http://dev.laptop.org/roadmap Roadmap]

=See also=
* [[Glossary]] of Sugar terms

[[Category:General public]]
[[Category:Documentation]]

User:Shankar

2008-05-26T07:01:56Z

Shankar: my contrbtn

Shankar Pokharel

*Contributing: [[TODO|Maintain this wiki]]

User:Shankar

2008-05-18T17:14:29Z

Shankar: named

Shankar Pokharel

Sugar Labs/Current Events

2008-05-18T02:33:17Z

Shankar: added softpedia news link

==What new==

==Sugar in the news==
{|
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''OSTATIC''' – [http://ostatic.com/162220-blog/olpcs-open-source-sugar-platform-aims-for-new-hardware OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''PCWorld''' – [http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146002/bender_forms_group_to_promote_olpcs_sugar_ui.html Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''MHT''' – [http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/05/12/daily35.html Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''News.com''' – [http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9946242-7.html Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''Feeding the Peguins''' – [http://morgancollett.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/the-future-of-sugar/ The future of Sugar]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''Sugar list''' – [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/sugar/2008-May/005800.html A few thoughts on SugarLabs]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''xconomy''' – [http://www.xconomy.com/2008/05/16/bender-creates-sugar-labs-new-foundation-to-adapt-olpcs-laptop-interface-for-other-machines/ Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines]
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''BBC''' – [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7405346.stm '$100 laptop' platform moves on]
|-
|align=right valign=top|15 May 2008||'''OLPC wiki''' – [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/AnnounceFAQ Dual-boot XO] Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
|-
|align=right valign=top|16 May 2008||'''Softpedia''' – [http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bender-Launches-Sugar-Labs-for-Better-Development-of-OLPC-039-s-Sugar-UI-85881.shtml Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI]
|}
==Press releases==
{|
|-
| align="right" valign="top" |  15 May 2008
| [[Announcing SugarLabs]]
|}

[[Category:General public]]

Human Interface Guidelines/Design Fundamentals/Key Design Principles

2007-04-17T07:20:20Z

Shankar: /* Performance */ memory changed from 128 to 256

<div style="background-color: #FFF; margin-left:auto; margin-right: auto; width: 95%;">
{{hig-subnav-inter|p_link=Design Fundamentals/Know Your Audience|p_label=Know Your Audience|c_section=Design Fundamentals|c_page=Key Design Principles|n_link=The Laptop Experience/Introduction|n_label=The Laptop Experience}}

===Key Design Principles===
''Low floor, no ceiling:'' this mantra should guide your development efforts for OLPC. All activities and interfaces should be designed in such a way as to be simple and intuitive to users of all age groups, nationalities, and levels of computer experience. At the same time, we don't wish to impose unnecessary limitations on the software either. Instead, we hope to create a platform suitable for all kinds of creative expression which provides a low floor to the inexperienced, but doesn't impose a ceiling upon those who are. This is a worthy goal, but will require a genuine effort on the part of developers, who must take many aspects of design into account. The following list, while certainly not comprehensive, provides a starting point for such considerations.

====Performance====
The OLPC laptop bucks the trend of "more, faster, fatter"; we aim to provide a computer tailored to the needs of children in the context of their learning, not to the needs of frantic video games or office applications. We are, however, working within constraints of component cost, robustness, and power consumption. To satisfy these constraints, we have opted for NAND flash rather than a hard disk and a modest 256MB of memory (Please see [[Hardware_Specification|hardware specifications]]). Thus, developers must make every effort to write efficient code while minimizing memory usage.

Since there is no swap space on the laptop, only a limited number of activities can run concurrently; the Sugar UI exposes these details directly to the children. The [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Laptop Experience/Zoom Metaphor#Home|Home]] screen features an activity ring that contains icons representing each instance of an open [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/Activities|activity]]. The size of the ring segment that a given activity occupies represents its overall memory usage; when the ring fills up, no additional activities may be launched until some resources have been freed. Take these limitations into account as you develop activities, since they will have a greater impact on the performance of your software on the laptop than on other platforms.

====Usability====
OLPC places an emphasis on discoverability and usability due to our [[OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/Design Fundamentals#Know_Your_Audience|target audience]]. Usability has everything to do with the actual behavior of the activities, the layout of the buttons and tools, and the feedback that the interface provides to the children when they interact with it. Ultimately, the design decisions that make your activities usable will depend greatly on the type of activity you are developing, and it will be up to you to consider carefully the kinds of interactions that the children will expect when presented with it. As a general rule, if the interface provided does what the child expects it to, you are off to a good start. However, since it is quite difficult to know what they will expect—and in practice not all children will expect the same things—there is no substitute for user testing.

====Simplicity====
We designed the entire laptop interface with a goal of simplicity. It can be tempting—and also quite easy—to add an overabundance of features to software: the abundance of MIPS and memory often exacerbate the software-bloat phenomenon. The laptop hardware "limitations" lead toward a more concise direction and aid in designing for simplicity.

Keep in mind that simple doesn't necessarily mean limited. OLPC hopes to demonstrate to the world that simple—even minimal—controls can have great expressive power. Avoid bloated interfaces that do too much, and limit the controls to those immediately relevant to the task at hand. Rather than creating a "Swiss Army knife" of an activity, think of the laptop itself as the knife, and instead develop a particular tool for that knife that does one thing, and does it very well. When all the activities on the laptop embrace this idea, the true power of the laptop will emerge.

====Reliability====
Of course we want to avoid instances where things go wrong; this should be a goal for every piece of software. We are committed to ensuring that the UI framework prevents activities from causing system crashes; Developers should consider a "fail-soft" approach to their designs, such as incorporating a suitable behavior for the spontaneous termination of an activity.

====Security====
(Mention the "walled garden".)

====Adaptability====
There are several use conditions that should be taken into consideration in designing activities: the laptop has both a grayscale (sunlight) mode and a color (backlight) mode; the mesh—while always available—may or may not be connected to the Internet at the time the activity is active; the laptop may be configured in either laptop mode (keyboard and touchpad exposed) or [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Sugar Interface/Input Systems#"Hand-held" Mode|handheld mode]] (game controller, camera, microphone and speakers only). Signal strengths, and therefore bandwidth, may fluctuate, and at times activity partipants may even drop off temporarily. Activities should handle all of these cases with care. E.g., temporary loss of connectivity should be handled silently, and reconnection of an individual to an activity they were previously participating in should happen with no noticeable side-effects as outlined in the guidelines for [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/Activities/Activity Basics#Activity Robustness|activity robustness]].

====Recoverability====

Recoverability is fundamental to encouraging exploration. With creative exploration among OLPC's main goals, it therefore becomes an issue of high importance on the laptops. When a child knows they have a fallback plan — a way back to the current state of things — they will much more frequently go beyond their comfortable boundaries and experiment with new tools and new creative means of expression.

The [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Laptop Experience/The_Journal|journal]] provides a partial notion of recoverability, since its auto-journaling amounts to maintaining an automatic incremental backup. The ability for a child to choose to "keep" anything they're working on in its current state furthers this idea.

However, the primary and essential means of recoverability remains the ability to undo one's actions. Of course, the notion of undo/redo becomes complicated in the realm of collaborative editing, which imposes a limitation on the extent to which undos are possible, since collisions could often occur between the things one child wants to undo and the things another child has already changed since those were done. Nonetheless, we are dedicated to providing this functionality to every extent possible, and [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/Activities|activities]] should strive to support this to the best of their ability.

(Future revisions of the [[OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Sugar Interface/Input Systems#Keyboard|keyboard]] may even have an undo/redo key to further strengthen this idea.)

====Interoperability====

====Mobility====

Of course, as with all portable computers, a general notion of mobility is intrinsic to the laptops. However, in the hands of children, this mobility rises to a new level, since we can expect that they will carry them not only to and from school, but on a hike, onto the playground, or to any number of other locations where they can learn and experience the world. Their physical form has been designed with ruggedness in mind. The important thing to consider is the effect such mobility can, and should have on the activities themselves. The lens of the built-in camera looks a lot different when it's treated not as a simple webcam, but as a way to capture the world around them, both indoors and out.

====Transparency====

OLPC also hopes to encourage the children using the laptops to explore the technology under the surface. Towards this end, a [[OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/The Laptop Experience/View Source|view source]] key has been added to the laptop keyboards, providing them with instant access to the code that enables the activities that they use from day to day. This key will allow those interested to peel away layers of abstraction, digging deeper into the codebase as they learn.

To enable such layered exploration, OLPC has written much of what can be in [[Python]], a scripting language, to enable children to view the source code. This means, aside from general good practice, code should be both readable and well commented. The [http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/ PEP 8] style guidelines for Python provide an excellent resource, and OLPC recommends that developers follow the practices laid out therein unless a compelling reason not to exists.

====Accessibility====

There are lots of things to think about relating to accessibility in a set of human interface guidelines. We've just started hashing out general accessibility issues at the [[Accessibility]] page.

Broadly speaking, the user interface of the GUI shell and of activities must address the following accessibility issues:
* Using the interface only from the keyboard (without a mouse or trackpad)
* Using the interface without requiring the ability to distinguish color (a significant portion of the population has some level of color blindness)
* Providing an enlarged print/icon option for folks whose vision is less than 20/20 (but who still can see things that are somewhat enlarged - e.g. 18 point fonts)
* Using the keyboard without needing to press more than one key at a time (all modifiers must work with AccessX functionality)
* Supporting programmatic access to the GUI (which for us will mean supporting [http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/atk/ ATK] in Sugar and all activites)
* Either shipping with some number of assistive technology applications (is a screen reader an "activity"?), or making them easy to download
* Providing some way for a user to discover accessibility support and enable what they need (Windows XP & Vista offer an "accessibility wizard" for this purpose; we don't have good upstream technology from GNOME we can take for this unfortunately; the Ubuntu accessibility folks are perhaps furtherest along in thinking about this)

{{hig-subnav-inter|p_link=Design Fundamentals/Know Your Audience|p_label=Know Your Audience|c_section=Design Fundamentals|c_page=Key Design Principles|n_link=The Laptop Experience/Introduction|n_label=The Laptop Experience}}
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