Changes

We believe that the traditional "open" and "save" model commonly used for files today will fade away, and with it the familiar floppy disk icon.  The laptops do not have floppy drives, and the children who use them will probably never see one of these obsolete devices.  Instead, a more general notion of what it means to "keep" things will prevail. Generally speaking, we keep things which offer value, allowing the rest to disappear over time.  The Journal's primary function as a time-based view of a child's activities reinforces this concept.

We believe that the traditional "open" and "save" model commonly used for files today will fade away, and with it the familiar floppy disk icon.  The laptops do not have floppy drives, and the children who use them will probably never see one of these obsolete devices.  Instead, a more general notion of what it means to "keep" things will prevail. Generally speaking, we keep things which offer value, allowing the rest to disappear over time.  The Journal's primary function as a time-based view of a child's activities reinforces this concept.

Most of us have heard the "save early, save often" mantra, largely ignored it, and incurred the consequences.  Sugar aims to eliminate this concern by making automatic backups.  This lets the children focus on the activity itself.   

Most of us have heard the "save early, save often" mantra, largely ignored it, and incurred the consequences.  Sugar aims to eliminate this concern by making automatic backups.  This lets the children focus on the activity itself.

 

The physical analog for an Activity is canvas and paint on an easel or clay on a wheel. They exist as created and modified. No 'saving' action, per se, is needed.  The 'Keep' toolbar button (proposed to be 'Copy', [http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg13104.html]) provides the capability to replicate the current state of the Activity into a new, separately available Activity object in the Journal.  Outside of

Incremental backups occur regularly and are also triggered by such activity events as changes in scope, new participants, etc.  To cater to the many needs of the editing environment, activities can also specify "keep-hints" which prompt the system to keep a copy.  For instance, a drawing activity may trigger a keep-hint before executing an "erase" operation immediately preceded by a "select all".  Of course, a child may choose to invoke a keep-hint by selecting the "keep in journal" button<!--[{{fullurl:olpc:File:542-keepicon.png}} http://wiki.laptop.org/images/3/32/542-keepicon.png]-->, but the increasing adoption of this new concept of keeping should ultimately eliminate this.  

Incremental backups occur regularly and are also triggered by such activity events as changes in scope, new participants, etc.  To cater to the many needs of the editing environment, activities can also specify "keep-hints" which prompt the system to keep a copy.  For instance, a drawing activity may trigger a keep-hint before executing an "erase" operation immediately preceded by a "select all".  Of course, a child may choose to invoke a keep-hint by selecting the "keep in journal" button<!--[{{fullurl:olpc:File:542-keepicon.png}} http://wiki.laptop.org/images/3/32/542-keepicon.png]-->, but the increasing adoption of this new concept of keeping should ultimately eliminate this.