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Features/Resource monitoring (view source)
Revision as of 00:47, 21 February 2011
, 00:47, 21 February 2011no edit summary
== Detailed Description ==
== Detailed Description ==
''Expand on the summary, if appropriate. A couple of sentences suffices to explain the goal, but the more details you can provide the better.''
''How does one learn to effectively use a new tool?'' One must use the tool and experiment with it. If your father introduced you to a pocketknife, and it had a dull blade, you would have a bad first impression and not learn too well. My father gave me a knife with a sharp blade and a dull blade, asked me to discover the difference, and proceeded to show me how to sharpen the blade.
People who are new to computers will not know their limitations. They must learn by discovery. Unfortunately, the consequence of some computer requests will not be easily associated with their causes. (Witness all those whose computers crash or lose documents because the user could not see the scores of windows or redundant documents that were open under the full screen.) Some explicit feedback greatly aids in discovery. I remember how quickly I learned effective database querying when the database server was moved a few feet away from me and I could hear the disc drives churning when I submitted a more complex form of a query.
So with Sugar, which will most often be tried on a computer with limited resources, the new learner is greatly aided by having some signals that report on the status of the tool. The child may see that certain actions have progressive consequences, and may learn how to quickly 'sharpen the blade that has become dull' by overuse.
A progressive scale of computer 'strain' made visible by notable icons would aid in learning with Sugar. The progressive iconic feedback, itself, may be sufficient. Critical or dangerous resource conditions deserve additional alert mechanisms, such as those proposed for the alert system.
The curious should also have the opportunity to delve more deeply into this computer behavior and see more background information about the state of the computer. Hover panels should reveal some graphic information about the subsystems, and a 'Resource monitor' Activity should be opened if more information is requested by a primary click. This Activity would graphically and textually deliver more layers of information, staged in an instructive progression.
== Benefit to Sugar ==
== Benefit to Sugar ==
[[File:Dextrose-mascotte-120x96.png]] This feature is considered so important in Paraguay, that they chose the happy computer as their mascot.
== Scope ==
== Scope ==