GoogleCodeIn2012/MYOSA

The manual Make Your Own Sugar Activities! was written by James Simmons a few years ago. It is still the most complete guide to making Sugar Activities, but it is already out of date. Two things have changed since it was first published:

1. Sugar now uses GTK3 to create user interfaces. The examples in the book use the older GTK, which is still available, but Activities should start using the new GTK3. The examples need to be updated and re-tested.
2. When James wrote the book he hoped it would help students write their own Activities. Whether the book helped or not, the fact is that students are writing Sugar Activities and even contributing to the Sugar environment itself. It is time for these students to stand up and be counted. Show off what you know, put your bio in the "About The Authors" chapter, and enjoy the benefits of being a published author. Impress friends, family, girls, boys, and future employers.

Of the two reasons to update the book the second one is clearly the most important.

Possible tasks

1. Create versions of the code samples in the book that work with GTK 3. These will go in the Git repository alongside the old versions (instead of just replacing them).
2. Have you "Sugarized" an application not originally written for Sugar? Write a chapter explaining how you did it!
3. Find a PyGame application that uses olpcgames, rework it to use SugarGame, and write up how you did it!
4. Have you worked on improvements to Sugar itself? Tell us about it! Did your changes become part of the official Sugar distribution? How did you make that happen? How did you do testing, version control, etc? We want the whole story!
5. Some applications use WebKit to display HTML and make it possible to create Activities using HTML5 and JavaScript. The current manual doesn't explain how to use the WebKit component in an Activity. We could use a chapter on this, with sample code.
6. The current manual only talks about making Activities using Python. Have you made an Activity using a different language than that? Write a chapter about it!
7. Do you know how to do something else that isn't in the book but should be? Write a chapter about it!
8. Can you do a good translation from English to Spanish (or Spanish to English?) There is a Spanish version of the book at http://en.flossmanuals.net/como-hacer-una-actividad-sugar/. We need to make any improvements to one manual have a translated version in the other. Some of our authors may prefer to write in Spanish, so we might need translators for both directions.

We'll write the manual using software called Booktype, which is like a Wiki that can make books. All you need is a web browser. The Sugar Browse Activity should be fine. The books will be published for free on the Internet Archive, as webpages on the FLOSS Manuals website, and as attractive printed books and Kindle e-books on Amazon.com sites in the U.S. and Europe. Currently the printed book cover shows a picture of James Simmons and lists him as the sole author. The new edition will list all contributors and the back may have a sort of collage of the contributor's photos. The mentor may also buy copies of the printed book for the contributors and ship them to wherever they live.