Difference between revisions of "Karma/Specifications"

Latest revision as of 03:53, 25 August 2009

Introduction

Two main goals should be kept in mind when creating Karma lessons:

they should be easy to adapt
they should run on as much hardware as possibe with OLPC's XO-1 laptop representing the baseline

General Notes

Hardware constraints

Since a large percentage (if not the majority) of Karma users are envisioned to be using OLPC XO-1 laptops, netbooks, older hardware or generally relatively slow systems there are several performance constraints that need to be taken into account when designing Karma lessons.

CPU/Memory: The baseline regarding available performance is the XO-1 laptop which comes with an AMD Geode LX 433MHz CPU and 256MB RAM (full specifications). This limits the use of high-resolution multimedia, animations and videos to some degree.
Display: Karma lessons should work well on displays with a resolution of 1024*768 (whereby a part of the display may be taken up by browser UI elements!).
Mass storage: Since especially the XO-1 laptop only has very limited local mass storage (1GB) lessons should be kept reasonably small.
Connectivity: Karma lessons must not assume constant connectivity with a locally (e.g. XS) or globally available server. Support for storing data locally will be provided by Karma.

Accessibility

Follow best practices for accessibility (e.g. example of a checklist), especially with regard to colorblindness.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE HTML>

JavaScript

...

Animations

Format(s): TBD
Recommended tools: TBD
Notes: TBD

The Karma animations are created using JavScript and the Karma plugin. At this moment we haven't defined a mechanism to "export" (and "import") one animation. But copying and pasting the code (of the animation) will be enough in most cases.

Images

Format(s): JPEG, PNG, SVG (Note 1, 2 and 3)
Recommended tools: Inkscape, GIMP, Adobe Illustrator (non-free), CorelDRAW (non-free)
Max. resolution: 1200*900 px
Notes:

To handle SVG files will be necessary to create a parser svg2canvas in order to introduce them as objects inside canvas element.
Animated SVG content will be hard to reproduce using canvas.
SVG animations seems slow under the XO-1 (Tested with RaphaelJS and Browse)

Sound

Format(s): OGG Vorbis (Note 1)
Bit rate: TBD
Max. size per lesson: 3~4MB
Recommended tools: Audacity
Notes:

https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements

Video

Format(s): TBD (Note 1)
Recommended tools: TBD
Notes: TBD

https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=== Introduction ===
+<noinclude>{{GoogleTrans-en}}{{TOCright}}</noinclude>
+=== Introduction ===
+Two main goals should be kept in mind when creating Karma lessons:
+# they should be easy to adapt
+# they should run on as much hardware as possibe with OLPC's XO-1 laptop representing the baseline
+=== General Notes ===
+==== Hardware constraints ====
+Since a large percentage (if not the majority) of Karma users are envisioned to be using OLPC XO-1 laptops, netbooks, older hardware or generally relatively slow systems there are several performance constraints that need to be taken into account when designing Karma lessons.
+* CPU/Memory: The baseline regarding available performance is the XO-1 laptop which comes with an AMD Geode LX 433MHz CPU and 256MB RAM ([http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Karma/Specifications full specifications]). This limits the use of high-resolution multimedia, animations and videos to some degree.
+* Display: Karma lessons should work well on displays with a resolution of 1024*768 (whereby a part of the display may be taken up by browser UI elements!).
+* Mass storage: Since especially the XO-1 laptop only has very limited local mass storage (1GB) lessons should be kept reasonably small.
+* Connectivity: Karma lessons must not assume constant connectivity with a locally (e.g. [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server XS]) or globally available server. Support for storing data locally will be provided by Karma.
+==== Accessibility ====
+Follow best practices for accessibility (e.g. example of a [http://northtemple.com/1608 checklist]), especially with regard to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness colorblindness].
+=== HTML ===
+* <!DOCTYPE HTML>
+=== JavaScript ===
+* ...
+=== Animations ===
+* Format(s): TBD
+* Recommended tools: TBD
+* Notes: TBD
+The Karma animations are created using JavScript and the Karma plugin. At this moment we haven't defined a mechanism to "export" (and "import") one animation. But copying and pasting the code (of the animation) will be enough in most cases.
 === Images ===
+* Format(s): [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG JPEG], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics PNG], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics SVG] '''(Note 1, 2 and 3)'''
+* Recommended tools: [http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape], [http://www.gimp.org/ GIMP], [http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/ Adobe Illustrator] (non-free), [http://www.corel.com CorelDRAW] (non-free)
+* Max. resolution: 1200*900 px
+* Notes:
+#To handle SVG files will be necessary to create a parser svg2canvas in order to introduce them as objects inside canvas element.
+#Animated SVG content will be hard to reproduce using canvas.
+#SVG animations seems slow under the XO-1 (Tested with [http://raphaeljs.com/ RaphaelJS] and Browse)
 === Sound ===
-{|
+* Format(s): [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis OGG Vorbis] (Note 1)
-! Format !! Bit rate !! Recommended tools !! Max. size
+* Bit rate: TBD
-|-
+* Max. size per lesson: 3~4MB
-| [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis OGG Vorbis]
+* Recommended tools: [http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity]
-| ???
+* Notes:
-| [http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity]
+# https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements
-| 3~4MB
-|-
-}
+=== Video ===
-=== Video ===
+* Format(s): TBD (Note 1)
+* Recommended tools: TBD
+* Notes: TBD
+# https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Media_formats_supported_by_the_audio_and_video_elements