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→Design Goals
[[Category:2009_GSoC_applications]]
=== About Me ===
Q1.''' What is your name? '''
Ans. Puneet Girdhar
Q2. '''What is your email address?'''
Ans. puneetgirdhar.iiit@gmail.com
Q3. '''What is your Sugar Labs wiki username?'''
Ans. puneet
Q4. '''What is your IRC nickname?'''
Ans. chasedspeed
Q5. '''What is your primary language? (We have mentors who speak multiple languages and can match you with one of them if you'd prefer.)'''
Ans. hindi. good at english though.
Q6. '''Where are you located, and what hours do you tend to work? (We also try to match mentors by general time zone if possible.)'''
Ans.Hyderabad, India-500032. In summer, I can devote full time on open source activity. Any time suits me fine.
Q7. '''Have you participated in an open-source project before? If so, please send us URLs to your profile pages for those projects, or some other
demonstration of the work that you have done in open-source. If not, why do you want to work on an open-source project this summer?'''
Ans.This would be my first active participation in open source development. I have worked on variety of projects ranging from web services, mobile development in j2me, python web server managment. I guess, I knew about GSOC before but was busy in learning open source technologies so could not apply before, but now after gaining enough experience about project development and technical skills I didn't want to lose the opportunity to contribute back to open source community.I want to get started here and wish to continue even after GSOC.
=== About My project ===
Q8. ''' What is the name of your project?'''
Ans. Marbles : Shape the imagination
Q9. ''' Describe your project in 10-20 sentences. What are you making? Who are you making it for, and why do they need it? What technologies (programming languages, etc.) will you be using?'''
Ans.We are supporting children imagination and trying to realize them in digtal world. Students often love to indulge themselves in various acivities ranging from playing to building stuff, to management . These are nothing but their imaginative reach trying to make it real. These creativity are the most important one and the most beneficial in child development. Computers on other hand are meant for catching imagination and creating artificial reality, then why shouldn't we attach them both. We would be using computers digital approach to support child creativity. Children can play games, learn programming , build application, learn graphics and many other activities.
Use case scenarios :
Students can use this project for
# create a simple UI application with simple drag and drop widgets.
# they would be able to resize the widget, reorder them and associate some event handlers to the widgets.
# Programming support would be given for advanced students where they can test and improve their programming skills for beginners, a step-by-step instruction sets for introducing them in programming.
# We can go for sound support with gstreamer library, where we can interact the program with simple sounds, since children get attracted to sound <br>more easily than text
# Help Manual to get started for students. Special care will be taken for information supplied, they would be concise and expressive.
This project also targets the developers, they can use our application to
# add / remove activity
# modify activity, Activity modules would be independent of architecture and easily modifiable to suit current needs.
# sugar bot support for unit-testing
# debugger integration with gui to facilitate debugging the activity.
We can associate various group activities among students to encourage them in developing environment.
Technologies I will be using are pygtk, XML parsers ( if sharing of information is required ) . Pygtk, gives a gtk libraries support which we can code them to interact with the enviornment and develop UI applications. XML communication would be required if there is need to transfer the information from one end to another. Some of key points would be :
# Primary aim would be to provide basic learning experience in UI application with minimal programming efforts.
# Secondary aim would be to increase Scope for development for future developers.
# Application would be built as simple as possible with highlighting and attractive features.
# Sharing of code over network, integrating of code in program directly.
# Exception handlers, should be interactive for users and should take minor decisions automatically.
==== Basic Design Principles ====
Marbles is the pygtk GUI builder tool for pygtk almost like glade, but would be optimized for sugar environment.
#'''Python'''<br> Python is powerful,easy and fun. It is an excellent choice both for development and usages for children,students as well for professionals for even<br>writing complex applications.if GUI builder is to be compared with RAD, I would say R(Rapid) in RAD stands for python.
#'''GTK+'''<br>A face for GNOME, Sugar and other desktop managers.
#*The python bindings (PyGTK) of this toolkit are elegant and both GTK+ and PYGTK have excellent documentation.
Whole design can be divided into three parts
Input --------- Processing ----------- Output
Where input is a UI canvas which shows widgets with its correct alignment. Processing is the program generator which takes the information of widgets from the canvas and output is a code generated from program generated ( Python, C/C++ or XRC source )
:'''Input'''
# It contains "Visual UI representations", UI builder tool showing the widgets
# Visual Authoring tool: It contains a canvas on which widgets can be placed. It also contains a tree structure in it's side view to view a tree strucuture to view UI application.
:'''Processing'''
#Program Generator: Main spinal cord for the whole system. It takes the input as widget information from canvas and builds a UI code according to it.
#History generation: It's a module capabable of storing history of widget-activity on canvas. It links with database or files for storing history
#View Modifier: It's a seperate module and will be designed to remove the old technique of HBOXSIZER or VBOXSIZER. It will take decisions like widget placements, size, display ratio etc.
#Function Library: It associates the scripts or accelarator tags with widgets to give life to widgets. It would be responsible for "action" in UI application.
Output of processing will be a python code ( for now, but can be modified to other programming languages too ).
:'''Output'''
#Python Source Code for UI application
#UI application will be launched as a seperated pid to view the UI design.
#Automatic Activity generation from python source code, if user wants
#Automatic sharing of activity as xo bundle.
==== Technical Approach ====
Here is the basic design foundations
http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/user/chasedspeed/design
Below is the technical abstract for Marbles:
:[[Image:marbles-flowchart.png|left| Marlbes-development environment.]]
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
Here visual UI representations gives an option to select widgets, authoring tool will assist the users to place the widgets on frame and also do some prechecks on UI widget compatibility.Program generator then generates the optimized code based on UI types, positions and associates event handlers to the widgets. Views should be handled independently and it includes final checks on widgets too. History generation is being done side by side to facilitate recoveries if error occurs and finally, output generation ( both UI and code output ) . Code output from the software will be stored in specific directories or in database.
Database comes into picture while history creation with simple as undo/redo or more complex project development stages. Typically database would store the fields like
#Table: Widget
#*Fields: Widget id,name,label,icon, height, width, position,parent_container id ,visible,focus-type, param1,param2
#*Widget table will contain widget id , it's name,label,positional parameters, id to its paraent container, and other parameters specific<br>to widget functionality like for checkbox we could have parameters like "default check". This table includes all type of widgets i.e.<br>containers, menu, buttons, checkbox etc
#Events
#*Fields: Eventid, type,signalid, signal-handler,object,widget-id(foreign key),params
#*Events table will register the events associated with the widgets. Note that signal handler would be called as object.signal-handler() with<br> parameters if necessary.
#Navigation-Views
#*Fields: Widget-id,pos-x,pos-y,col-span,row-span,padding,Expanding(boolean), shrink(boolean), colorfill(boolean), params
#*This gives option to handle view effectively. Options are id, postions, span space, padding space, expanding ( yes/ no ), shrinking<br>(yes/no), color fill and other parameters. This table would be mainly responsible for generating views in desktop UI.
#Navigation-main
#*Fields: Widgetid,name,description,activate(boolean),children-id(foreign key),delete(boolean),params
#*This table will be the database of UI application and UI graphics can be straight generated using this table. This table would be overwritten with widgetids everytime, when an object is added to on VISUAL UI. this contains field like widget id,<br>name desc, chidren-id ( widget that comes under it ) and other functional or positional parameters. delete column will help in faking delete<br>option( more on this later ).
#*This table can also be shared in network and associated with other UI applications. Here XML messaging can be used with DOM/SAX parser support in this application.
'''Description'''
Initially, navigation-main row will be initiated with widget-id say 0 and delete will be false
When user drags an widget on canvas, new widget will be created and a new entry comes in navigation-main table. Similarly children-widgets are created and subsequent entries will be given in specific tables. In this way, a whole tree-view of UI application would then be saved in database.
For undo operation, navigation-row entry for "delete" can be set to true, similarly for redo operation, entry would be false again.
'''How output is generated'''
program generator will read navigation-main and widgets specified by user will be initiated with given options. Navigation-view will then be fetched and widgets will then be arranged according to view-instructions.
Code generated will be temporarily stored in files ( say /tmp) , can be permanent stored if user wants to save the UI-application.
'''Note'''
Special care will be given on debugging facility. since pygtk is used in UI application, sugar-bot integration would not be difficult to achieve. I will also try to include modules for sugar-bot debugging facility to facilitated direct unit-testing.
==== Design Goals ====
==== Design Goals ====
#'''Automatic Decision System'''<br>Minor decisions for widget placements, size ratio with desktop resolution and other script associations should be done automatically.
#'''Automatic Decision System'''<br>Minor decisions for widget placements, size ratio with desktop resolution and other script associations should be done automatically.
#'''User Input'''<br>Mouse input is more preferrable than Keyboard input.
#'''User Input'''<br>Mouse input is more preferrable than Keyboard input.
#*'''Quality'''<br>prefers quality of features over quantity.
:'''And a final set of considerations'''
#*'''Promote Collaboration'''<br>Promote collaboration through good documentation, careful modular design and quality code.
Here are the final considerations for Marbles.
#*'''Modularity'''<br>Design will allow extending to other target languages and other GUI toolkits.
#'''Quality'''<br>prefers quality of features over quantity.
#'''Promote Collaboration'''<br>Promote collaboration through good documentation, careful modular design and quality code.
#'''Modularity'''<br>Design will allow extending to other target languages and other GUI toolkits.
* Check out the source code of shallow file browser at http://code.google.com/p/shallow-file-browser. Do check the snapshot of browser in action.
* Check out the source code of shallow file browser at http://code.google.com/p/shallow-file-browser. Do check the snapshot of browser in action.
* Minute-Shell: Well, it's a part of my course project. I created a small program to emulate linux shell. This code is hosted at http://code.google.com/p/minute-shell/ .
* Minute-Shell: Well, it's a part of my course project. I created a small program to emulate linux shell. This code is hosted at http://code.google.com/p/minute-shell/ .
=== Me and the community ===
Q11. ''' If your project is successfully completed, what will its impact be on the Sugar Labs community? Give 3 answers, each 1-3 paragraphs in length. The first one should be yours. The other two should be answers from members of the Sugar Labs community, at least one of whom should be a Sugar Labs GSoC mentor. Provide email contact information for non-GSoC mentors.'''
Ans. This project support children creativity and imagination. These small games, development activity will surely help them to become problem solvers, innovators, and creative thinkers. These activities will also help the children to develop many important skills that boost a child's learning and success.
Q12. ''' Sugar Labs will be working to set up a small (5-30 unit) Sugar pilot near each student project that is accepted to GSoC so that you can immediately see how your work affects children in a deployment. We will make arrangements to either supply or find all the equipment needed. Do you have any ideas on where you would like your deployment to be, who you would like to be involved, and how we can help you and the community in your area begin it?'''
Ans. That would be a great idea to go with. I've been working in NGO for primary children education called "ASHA-KIRAN" in our college and it would a great learning experience for them. Here, in hyderabad, We have a language problem, they don't understand hindi, my mother tongue, and I don't understand, telgu ( local language ). So, I always use different activities to teach them like sound creation, drawing, Word dictionary, some local plays etc. I believe in case of language problems like India, We should teach the children as:
# Alphabet creation, as a drawing practice
# Sound, give alphabets some sound, try to echo them loudly, may be in funnier way.
# Try to associate meaning to words, here imagination comes into play. I use some stories behind words, or pictures
# Last, use them in sentence.
I can associate these features in my project and sugar lab can help us to provide technical equipments to teach children. We already have a good infrastructure in campus, so I will start using my project even in development stage with them and report the status to sugar community.
Q13. ''' What will you do if you get stuck on your project and your mentor isn't around?'''
Ans. I have been using open source projects for quite a long time and I know, we always get stuck with some problem may be installation, compiling, syntax error, many more but I guess this is where the interesting part begins and open source community comes into play. In my views, we always learn new things about the error/software if we ask doubts in community. So, if I ever get stuck on the project, I will raise my doubts in mailing lists, request clearifications in irc chat, write in blog or on some related community sites where I can get any assistant from.
Other assistant I am sure to get it from my seniors, they all have been participating in GSOC from past years and would love to assist me if need occurs.
Q14. ''' How do you propose you will be keeping the community informed of your progress and any problems or questions you might have over the course of the project?'''
Ans. I love interactive with people and I will keep community members duly informed. I can try following things to work this out
* Chatting on IRC chat
* Mailing lists
* tracking specific person or related to the area personally via email.
* Posting queries on blog
=== Miscellaneous ===
[[Image:puneetgirdhar.png|thumb|right| Here is my Development environment.]]
Q15. ''' We want to make sure that you can set up a [[Development Team#Development_systems|development environment]] before the summer starts. Please send us a link to a screenshot of your Sugar development environment with the following modification: when you hover over the XO-person icon in the middle of Home view, the drop-down text should have your email in place of "Restart." See the image on the right for an example. It's normal to need assistance with this, so please visit our IRC channel, #sugar on irc.freenode.net, and ask for help.'''
Ans. I am a fedora loving guy and installed sugar system on my fedora. I googled for the installation and successfully completed the following tasks
* Installed the system using yum packages.<br>
This is just double click installation like windows. But I could not find the development procedure for rpm packages.<br>
* Built using source.<br>
I used jhbuild to install and update the source code needed for the sugar development. I tested it by creating some activities given on wiki<br> page of sugar lab and it was working fine.<br>
I've started exploring things and really looking forward for a good open source development.<br>
Q16. ''' Describe a great learning experience you had as a child.'''
Ans. As a child, I had a great interest in science and was more curious to know everything. One thing I would like to share is, When I was in 8th standard, I was more impressed by Einsten-theory "One theory for every theories" and still I am. I remember discussing my new science theories on unification of world and discoveries with my science teacher and which ofcourse he won't like and always got irritated, but what he always suggested me, is to read & analyze before coming to conclusions. This habit of me is still continuing. Now the views have changed, questions are different but thirst for knowing things is still the same. My teacher not only answers my query but it gives me a life time dose to approach for my problems.
Q17. ''' What is your t-shirt size? (Yes, we know Google asks for this already; humor us.)'''
Ans. medium
Q18.''' Is there anything else we should have asked you or anything else that we should know that might make us like you or your project more?'''
Ans. Just for introduction, I am pursuing my BTECH degree from IIIT Hyderabad. I had started using linux from past 2 years and since then I love every bit of it. I also have research interest and working on my research paper on "simulation of rigid blocks during earthquake". I am an
active coder in SPOJ and topcoder and have a strong python programming skills. I have also worked as an intern in california based company.
"buddibot" developing medicare services for elderly people.<br>
<nowiki> No matter if I get selected or not, but I love to continue with sugar community.I already registered myself in sugar bug reporting tool and trying to study source code. Please let me know how can I assist to open source community.<br></nowiki>
<br>
<br>
Thank You & Regards,<br>
Puneet.
=== Recent Editing ===
* Basic Design principles for marbles are explained in GSOC document http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/user/chasedspeed/design.
* Reponse for http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/Application_review_notes#Don.27t_reinvent_the_wheel can be found at http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/user/chasedspeed/marbles.
''' Comments / Suggestions on Marbles are always welcome. '''