Changes

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 paper, pencil, & writer at a desk, canvas, paint, & artist at an easel, clay & hands at a wheel, or sidewalk, chalk, & children at a driveway. 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 software culture, such rapid and perfect replication has few physical analogs, and perhaps so has been a point of confusion.

The physical analog for an Activity is paper, pencil, & writer at a desk, canvas, paint, & artist at an easel, clay & hands at a wheel, or sidewalk, chalk, & children at a driveway. 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]) is intended'''*''' to provide the capability to replicate the current state of the Activity into a new, separately available Activity object in the Journal.  Outside of software culture, such rapid and perfect replication has few physical analogs, and perhaps so has been a point of confusion.

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.