Changes

This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at [http://walterbender.org/ walterbender.org], and [[Archive/Current Events|archived here]].) If you would like to contribute, please send email to [[User:walter|walter]] at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit <span class="plainlinks">[http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet.sugarlabs.org].</span>)

This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at [http://walterbender.org/ walterbender.org], and [[Archive/Current Events|archived here]].) If you would like to contribute, please send email to [[User:walter|walter]] at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit <span class="plainlinks">[http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet.sugarlabs.org].</span>)

==Sugar Digest==

== Sugar Digest ==

1. I spent the month of October reacquainting myself with Javascript. Since I cannot learn without learning about something (to paraphrase Seymour Paper), I wrote a new version of [https://turtle.sugarlabs.org Turtle Blocks in Javascript]. It is far from finished, but it is already usuable (at least from a Chrome browser -- for some reason I have broken it on Firefox). Feedback most welcome both in terms of the activity itself and any improvements I can make to the [https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs code]. (Note: saving is a bit flaky at the moment, so please be prepared to lose your work.)

1. Google Code In update: After the first two weeks, we have 33 participants and almost 140 tasks completed. The pace is faster than in years past, perhaps because we have more experienced Sugar users each year. You can follow the action (the contest runs for five more weeks) at [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2014 GCI 2014].

It is inevitable that Javascript/HTML5 is in our future and so I am determined to make the best of it. While we were in San Francisco at the Google Summer of Code reunion, Martin Abente, Gonzalo Odiard, and I sent time with Raul Gutierrez Segales working on several aspects of the Sugar-web framework, including a model for "under the tree" collaboration. Martin wrote a simple server using socket.io and I wrote a simple neighborhood view that lets you see your collaborators. We had the opportunity to bounce ideas off Ben Schwartz, Sameer Verma, Aaron Borden, and Bernie Innocenti.

At the current pace, almost 500 tasks will have been completed by the end of the contest. If you have project ideas, please let me (or any of the other mentors) know. We can continue to add new tasks throughout the contest. Tasks include coding, but also documentation, quality assurance, outreach, etc.

Raul, Martin, and I also did some brainstorming about developing a new web backend for the Sugar datastore based on git. Details to follow.

2. We continue to make progress on Turtle Blocks JS (the Javascript version of Turtle Blocks). There have been many new contributions from participants in Google Code In and in generally, the code is approaching a point of stability. You can try it by visiting [https://turtle.sugarlabs.org turtle.sugarlabs.org] or by downloading the activity locally from [https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs github]. Any and all comments, feedback, bug reports, merge requests, and suggestions welcome.

Aside: Raul added a wrapper to Turtle Blocks JS that enables it to be launched as a Facebook App. Not public yet as we await Facebook approval, but it opens some interesting possibilities about where we can take some of the core ideas from Sugar.

3. Martin Abente has been working on new translation platform, including a new Pootle instance. He has been adding repositories there so translators can start working. If you are interested in having your project included in the new platform, please follow these instructions:

# If you still use our old Gitorious repository, please move your projects to Github. Gitorious is considered read-only now. (See [[Activity_Team/How_to_migrate_from_Gitorious]] for details about how to move projects.)

# Update this [[Translation_Team/Pootle_Projects/Repositories]] wiki page so we can track your project's repository.

# Please send an email to Martin (CC'ing sugar-devel) with a list of the repositories for your projects so that he can add them to Pootle. Don't forget to specify your user name on the translation platform.

2. The Google Summer of Code reunion was lots of fun. A chance to catch up with old friends and to help bring into focus some future directions. I spent time with the Google Code In team and I got Sugar Lab's application submitted. We still need to flesh out the [Google_Code_In_2014|wiki page]] with more task ideas and add our growing mentor list. Please contact me regarding details.

4. The final phase of the run up the the Sugar 0.104 release is testing and bug fixing. Martin has released tarballs for our (UNSTABLE) feature-freeze release, which can be downloaded from:

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-artwork/sugar-artwork-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-artwork]

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-datastore/sugar-datastore-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-datastore]

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-runner/sugar-runner-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-runner]

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/sugar-toolkit-gtk3-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-toolkit]

3. Gonzalo, Aaron, and Sameer organized Turtle Art Day San Francisco in conjunction with the OLPC SF meeting. While more sparsely attended than we had anticipated, nonetheless, it was an enriching experience for those who came. Martin also joined the fun, helping with some Turtle Bots programming.

We welcome all the help you can provide testing and fixing bugs!

 

4. It is not too late to toss your hat into the ring for the annual Sugar Labs Oversight Board election (AKA SLOBs). Four (4) seats are open (due to staggered seat terms) for election / re-election to the Sugar Labs Oversight Board for 2013-2014, those of Daniel Francis, Gonzalo Odiard, Adam Holt, and Claudia Urrea. Please let me know if you are interested running for one of our board seats and also, please add your self to the [[Oversight_Board/2014-2015-candidates|candidates' wiki page]]. Also, since only members receive ballots, please be sure to sign up for membership by following [[Sugar_Labs/Members#Applying_for_membership|the instructions in the wiki]]. Finally, we need help running the election itself. Please contact me (or Luke Faraone) if you are interested in helping.

=== Sugar Labs ===

=== Sugar Labs ===

5. Please visit our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet].

5. Please visit our [http://planet.sugarlab.org planet]

== Community News archive ==

== Community News archive ==