Difference between revisions of "Summer of Code/2016"
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The Sugar Journal should provide a 'save/save as' interface which should enable a user to choose whether to save the current document when an activity is closed. The interface should require a name change from 'current.activity' to a user supplied name. If the document is derived from one currently saved in the Journal, the user should be allowed to save (overwrite) or save as (create new document) by giving a new name to the document. This could be accomplished by showing a modal dialog at close time requesting the user to supply a name or not save the document. If the document has a user supplied name, the dialog could request the user to save or to provide a new name to create a new document. | The Sugar Journal should provide a 'save/save as' interface which should enable a user to choose whether to save the current document when an activity is closed. The interface should require a name change from 'current.activity' to a user supplied name. If the document is derived from one currently saved in the Journal, the user should be allowed to save (overwrite) or save as (create new document) by giving a new name to the document. This could be accomplished by showing a modal dialog at close time requesting the user to supply a name or not save the document. If the document has a user supplied name, the dialog could request the user to save or to provide a new name to create a new document. | ||
;Note: this approach satisfies the needs referenced in the git task. Git is a little like a hammer looking for a nail. Using git for this function will likely double the size of the data stored in the Journal (based on normal experience using git). Unfortunately, we don't have this space on the XOs. The standard save/save as gives the user the ability to manage versions by using unique names. | ;Note: this approach satisfies the needs referenced in the git task. Git is a little like a hammer looking for a nail. Using git for this function will likely double the size of the data stored in the Journal (based on normal experience using git). Unfortunately, we don't have this space on the XOs. The standard save/save as gives the user the ability to manage versions by using unique names. | ||
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The Journal activity is currently implemented as an activity. It should be changed to a 'service'. This means the Journal icon on the frame should be to the left of the zoom group icons to match the sequence on the keyboard. The Journal is always running as a service when the Sugar is running. It is accessible by the Journal key on the keyboard and also by the Journal button in the frame. When the view is switched to the Journal, clicking on the activity view (right most key of the zoom group) should switch the screen back to the current activity. | The Journal activity is currently implemented as an activity. It should be changed to a 'service'. This means the Journal icon on the frame should be to the left of the zoom group icons to match the sequence on the keyboard. The Journal is always running as a service when the Sugar is running. It is accessible by the Journal key on the keyboard and also by the Journal button in the frame. When the view is switched to the Journal, clicking on the activity view (right most key of the zoom group) should switch the screen back to the current activity. | ||
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;Note: This would essentially accomplish the intent of the group/buddy task. Further, OwnCloud could be provided on a school server or on the internet. as appropriate. | ;Note: This would essentially accomplish the intent of the group/buddy task. Further, OwnCloud could be provided on a school server or on the internet. as appropriate. | ||
;Note: There is a Sugar interface for saving to other cloud services, such as Google Docs, Dropbox, et al. that could be exploited. | ;Note: There is a Sugar interface for saving to other cloud services, such as Google Docs, Dropbox, et al. that could be exploited. | ||
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Unfortunately, a consequence is that the Journal view fills with essentially meaningless links to this metadata (mine fills with Terminal Activity and Log entries). | Unfortunately, a consequence is that the Journal view fills with essentially meaningless links to this metadata (mine fills with Terminal Activity and Log entries). | ||
This makes it much harder for the user to identify meaningful Journal objects (documents, images, items from the library, ...). A mechanism is needed to that session data can be logged independently of the Journal view (i.e not shown on the screen). This logged information should be transferred to a backup repository (e.g. school server or USB drive) as soon as possible and deleted from the local store to free up space. The available reporting activities should be modified to use this new mechanism. | This makes it much harder for the user to identify meaningful Journal objects (documents, images, items from the library, ...). A mechanism is needed to that session data can be logged independently of the Journal view (i.e not shown on the screen). This logged information should be transferred to a backup repository (e.g. school server or USB drive) as soon as possible and deleted from the local store to free up space. The available reporting activities should be modified to use this new mechanism. | ||
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!valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | Sugar Journal quota management ||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson ||align=left valign=top| | !valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | Sugar Journal quota management ||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson ||align=left valign=top| | ||
The Journal icon provides information the amount of free space in the user's store. if this amount is less than 50MB, a dialog is shown requiring the user to switch to the Journal view and claiming that the 'Journal is Full'. This message is, at best, misleading. The available storage can arise from several causes - the fact that an activities 'instance' store was not deleted, the space required by installed activities, or space required by data files in /home/olpc/Library, or data stored by activities in 'data', 'instance' or 'temp'. Currently, Sugar provides no guidance or help to enable a user to deal with this problem short of reflashing the image. The goal of this task is to provide a quota management system on storage with a way for the user (e.g. by a special Sugar activity) to analyze the usage of storage and to save by usb key or school server or cloud storage large or currently unneeded items and then delete them. The system should show the user the size of items and provide updates on how much storage has been made free by his/her actions. | The Journal icon provides information the amount of free space in the user's store. if this amount is less than 50MB, a dialog is shown requiring the user to switch to the Journal view and claiming that the 'Journal is Full'. This message is, at best, misleading. The available storage can arise from several causes - the fact that an activities 'instance' store was not deleted, the space required by installed activities, or space required by data files in /home/olpc/Library, or data stored by activities in 'data', 'instance' or 'temp'. Currently, Sugar provides no guidance or help to enable a user to deal with this problem short of reflashing the image. The goal of this task is to provide a quota management system on storage with a way for the user (e.g. by a special Sugar activity) to analyze the usage of storage and to save by usb key or school server or cloud storage large or currently unneeded items and then delete them. The system should show the user the size of items and provide updates on how much storage has been made free by his/her actions. | ||
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This task should set the Home View default to launch a new instance of the activity. The Alt key should be set to enable resuming a selected instance of the activity. By serendipity, this also shows the Home View with black and white icons. Icons with color signifying a resumable instance use the colors associated with the laptop. Unfortunately many of these color combinations make the icon much more difficult to distinguish than the black and white version. | This task should set the Home View default to launch a new instance of the activity. The Alt key should be set to enable resuming a selected instance of the activity. By serendipity, this also shows the Home View with black and white icons. Icons with color signifying a resumable instance use the colors associated with the laptop. Unfortunately many of these color combinations make the icon much more difficult to distinguish than the black and white version. | ||
− | + | ||
|- | |- | ||
!valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | Sugar Activity resume feature ||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson<br>Ignacio Rodriguez ||align=left valign=top| | !valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | Sugar Activity resume feature ||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson<br>Ignacio Rodriguez ||align=left valign=top| | ||
Sugar provides a 'web services' capability. However, these services are only available to an XO which has connection to the internet. This is not useful to a large number of users who do not have internet access. The school server (e.g. XSCE) provides an alternative to the internet for many deployments. This task is to provide a capability on the school server to support some or all of the Sugar web services (e.g. by OwnCloud or ELGG). | Sugar provides a 'web services' capability. However, these services are only available to an XO which has connection to the internet. This is not useful to a large number of users who do not have internet access. The school server (e.g. XSCE) provides an alternative to the internet for many deployments. This task is to provide a capability on the school server to support some or all of the Sugar web services (e.g. by OwnCloud or ELGG). | ||
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!valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | Sugar offline ||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson ||align=left valign=top| | !valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | Sugar offline ||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson ||align=left valign=top| | ||
There are a number of Sugar activities which currently require access to the internet (InfoSlicer, GetBooks). These activities should have an option to function with the school server. For example, GetBooks could access books on the school server and InfoSlicer could create slices from Wikipedia on the school server as Journal objects. | There are a number of Sugar activities which currently require access to the internet (InfoSlicer, GetBooks). These activities should have an option to function with the school server. For example, GetBooks could access books on the school server and InfoSlicer could create slices from Wikipedia on the school server as Journal objects. | ||
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deployments or experienced users to create an 'onboard' script that guides the user to carry out a task. The referenced proposal suggests some user tasks where this mechanism could be employed. Since there is no finite list of these tasks, an interpretive approach enables the scripts to be created as necessary. | deployments or experienced users to create an 'onboard' script that guides the user to carry out a task. The referenced proposal suggests some user tasks where this mechanism could be employed. Since there is no finite list of these tasks, an interpretive approach enables the scripts to be created as necessary. | ||
;For example: how does a user switch to the Gnome desktop? A script could be created guiding the user through the necessary steps. How does the user make a screen shot, use Gimp in the gnome desktop to crop and resize, and then insert it as an image in a Write document? How does the user initiate or join a chat? | ;For example: how does a user switch to the Gnome desktop? A script could be created guiding the user through the necessary steps. How does the user make a screen shot, use Gimp in the gnome desktop to crop and resize, and then insert it as an image in a Write document? How does the user initiate or join a chat? | ||
− | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | !valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | 32bit Sugar on Ubuntu||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson ||align=left valign=top| | ||
+ | Sugar is available on the XO and some other platforms. In particular, Sugar is available for 64-bit systems with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installed (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Ubuntu). Unfortunately, this procedure does not work with 32-bit systems. There exists an opportunity to deploy Sugar | ||
+ | with relatively inexpensive or refurbished laptops which do not provide 64-bit support. This task is to create a comparable version of Sugar which can | ||
+ | be installed on 32-bit systems as an alternate Ubuntu desktop. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | !valign=top | [[File:Debugging.png|90px|thumb|center]] ||valign=top width="15%" style="background:#e3e4e5;" | One to Many Sugar||valign=top width="15%" | Tony Anderson ||align=left valign=top| | ||
+ | The OLPC model is that each user has full possession and is the only user of an XO laptop. Therefore, Sugar assumes a 1-1 correspondence between users and XO serial numbers. However, Sugar is being used on other platforms (e.g. SOAS), where there is no obvious equivalent to a serial number. SOAS and James Cameron have created versions of Sugar which do not assume the user is 'olpc', but implement a standard username/password login system. The users storage is allocated to his/her home directory. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This task is to create a Sugar image for the XO which allows for user's to login by username and password. The basic task is to move the Activities folder to a common space so that only one copy is needed per system. This will support deployments where one set of laptops are shared across multiple classes (and users) or where there one laptop is shared between two students - one in a morning shift and the other in an afternoon shift. | ||
+ | |} | ||
==Subpages== | ==Subpages== | ||
{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}} | {{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}} |
Revision as of 11:45, 20 February 2016
Students: See our guide on how to participate in Google Summer of Code for more information.
Project candidates
In the table below is a list of projects potential participants might contribute to in the GSoC program.
- Note 0
- These are project ideas from Sugar Labs contributors. Students, feel free to propose your ideas as well.
- Note 1
- Potential mentors, please feel free to add ideas to this list. Also, feel free to add your name to a project you'd be willing to co-mentor.
- Note 2
- Potential students, more project ideas can be found on our Features page.
Sugar Core
Title | Mentor | Project | |
---|---|---|---|
Journal Rethink | Sam Parkinson |
| |
Groups Rethink | Sam Parkinson |
| |
Reflection Activity | Sam Parkinson and Walter Bender |
| |
Git backend | Martin Abente Lahaye and Walter Bender |
| |
Performance tuning on machines with limited memory | Samuel Greenfeld and James Cameron |
| |
Re-design collaboration with web technologies | Martin Abente Lahaye and Walter Bender |
|
Sugar Activities
Title | Mentor | Project | |
---|---|---|---|
Beyond Flashcards: Programming to ReadJS | Walter Bender |
| |
Covert Record, Clock, Speak and Measure to gstreamer 1.0 | <TBD> |
| |
Covert TamTam to Csound6 | <TBD> |
| |
Music Widgets | Devin Ulibarri |
learning as well as overall user-experience for Music Blocks. The widgets are 1. Pitch-Staircase 2. Tempo 3. Rhythm Rulers, and 4. Free-Pitch Slider. Widgets will integrate with the current coding environment without disrupting the underlying language in any way (like the current pitch-time matrix).
blocks from their experiments.
and/or physics |
Sugar Activities (and Ports)
These are existing and new activities we'd like to see enhanced. We expect that the activities will take on new UI features and pedagogical significance.
Title | Mentor | Project | |
---|---|---|---|
Music Blocks Challenges | Devin Ulibarri |
| |
Nutritional Microworld | w/Dr. Jessica Early |
relevant tool—one that invites learners to explore fundamental concepts of nutrition that are both intrinsic to music yet transcendent of a specific discipline.
| |
Turtle Confusion/Flags JS | Walter Bender |
|
Sugar Technology
Sugar is based on the Python programming language and the GTK libraries. We also support some web technologies: HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
Title | Mentor | Project | |
---|---|---|---|
Unit Testing | TBD |
Deep dive into unit tests. We have a framework but it provides scant coverage for Sugar core and almost no coverage for Sugar activities.
|
Sugar on the Ground
A number of real-world issues crop up in deployments of Sugar, especially where resources are limited (bandwidth, CPU speed, battery life, local storage, etc.) These tasks are related to making Sugar more usable under such circumstances.
Title | Mentor | Project | |
---|---|---|---|
Sugar Journal save option | Tony Anderson |
The Sugar Journal should provide a 'save/save as' interface which should enable a user to choose whether to save the current document when an activity is closed. The interface should require a name change from 'current.activity' to a user supplied name. If the document is derived from one currently saved in the Journal, the user should be allowed to save (overwrite) or save as (create new document) by giving a new name to the document. This could be accomplished by showing a modal dialog at close time requesting the user to supply a name or not save the document. If the document has a user supplied name, the dialog could request the user to save or to provide a new name to create a new document.
| |
Sugar Journal as a service | Tony Anderson |
The Journal activity is currently implemented as an activity. It should be changed to a 'service'. This means the Journal icon on the frame should be to the left of the zoom group icons to match the sequence on the keyboard. The Journal is always running as a service when the Sugar is running. It is accessible by the Journal key on the keyboard and also by the Journal button in the frame. When the view is switched to the Journal, clicking on the activity view (right most key of the zoom group) should switch the screen back to the current activity.
| |
Sugar Journal backup and restore | Tony Anderson Ignacio Rodriguez |
Sugar provides a method to backup and restore the Journal (one method to a USB key and one method to the school server). The Journal also provides a select box to enable an action to be taken for all selected objects. This mechanism should be sufficient for the USB key case. However, the school server backup currently is based on taking a snapshot of the current Journal state. This means the size of the objects in a user's Journal cannot exceed the available local store on an XO (300MB for an XO-1, 1.9GB for other models). A mechanism is needed to save on the school server all documents created by the user and to restore a selected object to the Journal from the school server. Since many documents may represent library objects (e-books, audio, image or video media), the mechanism should recognize these and not save them as user documents. However, the metadata saved should enable the system to download the library items again as needed (and, as available).
| |
Sugar Journal session data management | Tony Anderson |
One goal of Sugar is to record information about user sessions. This is currently accomplished by creating statistics from the metadata stored in the Journal. Unfortunately, a consequence is that the Journal view fills with essentially meaningless links to this metadata (mine fills with Terminal Activity and Log entries). This makes it much harder for the user to identify meaningful Journal objects (documents, images, items from the library, ...). A mechanism is needed to that session data can be logged independently of the Journal view (i.e not shown on the screen). This logged information should be transferred to a backup repository (e.g. school server or USB drive) as soon as possible and deleted from the local store to free up space. The available reporting activities should be modified to use this new mechanism.
| |
Sugar Journal quota management | Tony Anderson |
The Journal icon provides information the amount of free space in the user's store. if this amount is less than 50MB, a dialog is shown requiring the user to switch to the Journal view and claiming that the 'Journal is Full'. This message is, at best, misleading. The available storage can arise from several causes - the fact that an activities 'instance' store was not deleted, the space required by installed activities, or space required by data files in /home/olpc/Library, or data stored by activities in 'data', 'instance' or 'temp'. Currently, Sugar provides no guidance or help to enable a user to deal with this problem short of reflashing the image. The goal of this task is to provide a quota management system on storage with a way for the user (e.g. by a special Sugar activity) to analyze the usage of storage and to save by usb key or school server or cloud storage large or currently unneeded items and then delete them. The system should show the user the size of items and provide updates on how much storage has been made free by his/her actions.
| |
Sugar Journal activity resume feature | Tony Anderson |
In Sugar's Home View, a click on an activity icon by default resumes the most recent instance of the activity. This capability is designed into the Journal and is redundant in the Home View. A Sugar activity is a tool to enable the user to accomplish some task. If that task is not completed, the user can resume it via the Journal. If the tool is to be used on a new task, the user can launch it from the Home View. The current Home View assumes that the intent of the user is to continue the most recent task with that tool. This task should set the Home View default to launch a new instance of the activity. The Alt key should be set to enable resuming a selected instance of the activity. By serendipity, this also shows the Home View with black and white icons. Icons with color signifying a resumable instance use the colors associated with the laptop. Unfortunately many of these color combinations make the icon much more difficult to distinguish than the black and white version.
| |
Sugar Activity resume feature | Tony Anderson Ignacio Rodriguez |
Sugar provides a 'web services' capability. However, these services are only available to an XO which has connection to the internet. This is not useful to a large number of users who do not have internet access. The school server (e.g. XSCE) provides an alternative to the internet for many deployments. This task is to provide a capability on the school server to support some or all of the Sugar web services (e.g. by OwnCloud or ELGG).
| |
Sugar offline | Tony Anderson |
There are a number of Sugar activities which currently require access to the internet (InfoSlicer, GetBooks). These activities should have an option to function with the school server. For example, GetBooks could access books on the school server and InfoSlicer could create slices from Wikipedia on the school server as Journal objects.
| |
Sugar "on-boarding" | Tony Anderson |
Sugar users are often new to computers and not familiar with other operating systems. We need a mechanism to allow users to more quickly develop skills in using the capabilities of the XO ('onboarding'). One proposal is to develop scripts which lead the user through a series of interactive steps illustrating common usage of the XO with Sugar ([1]). This task is to implement an interpretive system that allows deployments or experienced users to create an 'onboard' script that guides the user to carry out a task. The referenced proposal suggests some user tasks where this mechanism could be employed. Since there is no finite list of these tasks, an interpretive approach enables the scripts to be created as necessary.
| |
32bit Sugar on Ubuntu | Tony Anderson |
Sugar is available on the XO and some other platforms. In particular, Sugar is available for 64-bit systems with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installed (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Ubuntu). Unfortunately, this procedure does not work with 32-bit systems. There exists an opportunity to deploy Sugar with relatively inexpensive or refurbished laptops which do not provide 64-bit support. This task is to create a comparable version of Sugar which can be installed on 32-bit systems as an alternate Ubuntu desktop.
| |
One to Many Sugar | Tony Anderson |
The OLPC model is that each user has full possession and is the only user of an XO laptop. Therefore, Sugar assumes a 1-1 correspondence between users and XO serial numbers. However, Sugar is being used on other platforms (e.g. SOAS), where there is no obvious equivalent to a serial number. SOAS and James Cameron have created versions of Sugar which do not assume the user is 'olpc', but implement a standard username/password login system. The users storage is allocated to his/her home directory. This task is to create a Sugar image for the XO which allows for user's to login by username and password. The basic task is to move the Activities folder to a common space so that only one copy is needed per system. This will support deployments where one set of laptops are shared across multiple classes (and users) or where there one laptop is shared between two students - one in a morning shift and the other in an afternoon shift. |
Subpages
- Summer of Code/2016/BeyondFlashcardsProgrammingtoReadJS
- Summer of Code/2016/GitBackend
- Summer of Code/2016/Journal Rethink
- Summer of Code/2016/LearnForFun
- Summer of Code/2016/MusicWidgets and MusicBlocksChallenges
- Summer of Code/2016/Nutritional Microworld
- Summer of Code/2016/Redesign and recreate Sugar Labs webappearance
- Summer of Code/2016/Redesign and recreate sugarlabs web appearance
- Summer of Code/2016/Redesign and recreate suugarlabs web appearance
- Summer of Code/2016/SugarJournalSaveOption UtkarshT
- Summer of Code/2016/SugarLabs Websites Redesign
- Summer of Code/2016/Sugar Journal backup and restore
- Summer of Code/2016/SugarizerActivitySet
- Summer of Code/2016/SugarizerOS
- Summer of Code/2016/Sugarizer Activity Set
- Summer of Code/2016/Sugarizer OS
- Summer of Code/2016/Sugarizer Server Dashboard
- Summer of Code/2016/TeachingKidstoCode
- Summer of Code/2016/TurtleConfusion FlagJS
- Summer of Code/2016/Turtle Confusion/Flags JS
- Summer of Code/2016/beyondFlashCards