Sugar Labs/FAQ

This page contains many frequently-asked questions along with some answers.
To ask a new question, please post your question(s) here. We encourage you to answer questions and keep these pages organized.

About Sugar

What is Sugar?

Sugar is an educational software platform built with the python programming language and based on the principles of cognitive and social constructivism.

Who is doing Sugar development?

Sugar is a community project. At present some of the Sugar developers under contract to OLPC; most of the Sugar developers are volunteers. You can get an idea of the people involve from the Modules page.

What makes Sugar different from other educational software platforms?

The Sugar interface, in its departure from the desktop metaphor for computing, is the first serious attempt to create a user interface that is based on both cognitive and social constructivism: learners should engage in authentic exploration and collaboration. It is based on three very simple principles about what makes us human: (1) everyone is a teacher and a learner; (2) humans by their nature are social beings; and (3) humans by their nature are expressive. These are the pillars of a user experience for learning.

Sugar also considers two aphorisms: (1) you learn through doing, so if you want more learning you want more doing; and (2) love is a better master than duty—you want people to engage in things that are authentic to them, things that they love.

The presence of other people is always present in the Sugar interface: collaboration is a first-order experience. Students and teachers engage in a dialog with each other, support each other, critique each other, and share ideas.

Sugar is also discoverable: it can accommodate a wide variety of users, with different levels of skill in terms of reading, language, and different levels of experience with computing. It is easy to approach and yet it doesn't put an upper bound on personal expression; one can peel away layers and go deeper and deeper, with no restrictions.

Sugar is based on Python, an interpreted language, allowing the direct appropriation of ideas: in whatever realm the learner is exploring—music, browsing, reading, writing, programming, graphics, etc.—they are able to drill deeper; they are not going to hit a wall, since they can, at every level, engage in debugging both their personal expression and the very tools that they use for that expression.

Using Sugar

Does Sugar run on {GNU/Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, MAC OS, Windows, etc.}?

Please refer to the Supported systems page for an up-to-date list of supported systems.

Is there an image of the OS that can be run on a PC?

You can download a LiveCD version of Sugar (Please see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LiveCd) or run Sugar natively on a supported system.

Does Sugar run on an ASUS Eee PC (or other "ultra-mobile" or "mini" PCs)?

There is a thread on the mailing list about success stories with the Eee: http://lists.lo-res.org/pipermail/its.an.education.project/2008-May/000282.html Another pointer is: ftp://rohrmoser-engineering.de/pub/XO-LiveCD/XO-LiveCD_080321.pdf Many manufacturers are beginning to take an interest in supporting Sugar.

Sugar Labs

Sugar Labs FAQ

This page contains many frequently-asked questions along with some answers.
To ask a new question, please post your question(s) here. We encourage you to answer questions and keep these pages organized.

About Sugar

What is Sugar?

Sugar is an educational software platform built with the python programming language and based on the principles of cognitive and social constructivism.

Who is doing Sugar development?

Sugar is a community project. At present some of the Sugar developers under contract to OLPC; most of the Sugar developers are volunteers. You can get an idea of the people involve from the Modules page.

What makes Sugar different from other educational software platforms?

The Sugar interface, in its departure from the desktop metaphor for computing, is the first serious attempt to create a user interface that is based on both cognitive and social constructivism: learners should engage in authentic exploration and collaboration. It is based on three very simple principles about what makes us human: (1) everyone is a teacher and a learner; (2) humans by their nature are social beings; and (3) humans by their nature are expressive. These are the pillars of a user experience for learning.

Sugar also considers two aphorisms: (1) you learn through doing, so if you want more learning you want more doing; and (2) love is a better master than duty—you want people to engage in things that are authentic to them, things that they love.

The presence of other people is always present in the Sugar interface: collaboration is a first-order experience. Students and teachers engage in a dialog with each other, support each other, critique each other, and share ideas.

Sugar is also discoverable: it can accommodate a wide variety of users, with different levels of skill in terms of reading, language, and different levels of experience with computing. It is easy to approach and yet it doesn't put an upper bound on personal expression; one can peel away layers and go deeper and deeper, with no restrictions.

Sugar is based on Python, an interpreted language, allowing the direct appropriation of ideas: in whatever realm the learner is exploring—music, browsing, reading, writing, programming, graphics, etc.—they are able to drill deeper; they are not going to hit a wall, since they can, at every level, engage in debugging both their personal expression and the very tools that they use for that expression.

Using Sugar

Does Sugar run on {GNU/Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, MAC OS, Windows, etc.}?

Please refer to the Supported systems page for an up-to-date list of supported systems.

Is there an image of the OS that can be run on a PC?

You can download a LiveCD version of Sugar (Please see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LiveCd) or run Sugar natively on a supported system.

Does Sugar run on an ASUS Eee PC (or other "ultra-mobile" or "mini" PCs)?

There is a thread on the mailing list about success stories with the Eee: http://lists.lo-res.org/pipermail/its.an.education.project/2008-May/000282.html Another pointer is: ftp://rohrmoser-engineering.de/pub/XO-LiveCD/XO-LiveCD_080321.pdf Many manufacturers are beginning to take an interest in supporting Sugar.

Sugar Labs

Sugar Labs FAQ

BugSquad

Bugsquad FAQ

To ask the BugSquad a question, please post questions here.

As a non-programmer/non-developer, how does one go about verifying bugs?

Please see the BugSquad/Triage Guide -- Erikos

If I'm running Ubuntu, where do I report Sugar bugs?

• If you are running official (or unofficial) Sugar packages on Ubuntu, and you encounter a bug in Sugar functionality or in an Activity which is bundled, please report it in Ubuntu's Launchpad bugtracker.

• If you are running sugar-jhbuild, or the bug is in an activity which you downloaded as a .xo file, please report it in the Sugar Labs bug tracker.

--Morgs 18:32, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

BugSquad

Bugsquad FAQ

To ask the BugSquad a question, please post questions here.

As a non-programmer/non-developer, how does one go about verifying bugs?

Please see the BugSquad/Triage Guide -- Erikos

If I'm running Ubuntu, where do I report Sugar bugs?

• If you are running official (or unofficial) Sugar packages on Ubuntu, and you encounter a bug in Sugar functionality or in an Activity which is bundled, please report it in Ubuntu's Launchpad bugtracker.

• If you are running sugar-jhbuild, or the bug is in an activity which you downloaded as a .xo file, please report it in the Sugar Labs bug tracker.

--Morgs 18:32, 11 December 2008 (UTC)