[etoys-dev] Etoys on Sugar

[Bert Freudenberg]

So our testers are pounding their shiny new XO-1.5 machines. Great! :) I'll respond to some of the questions here.

CW: Why does Etoys load with the last project automatically instead of the default welcome screen? Hmmn

That's Sugar policy ever since 0.84. All activities do that. The idea is that you continue where you left off. You can start Etoys by hovering on the Etoys icon in the activity ring, and choose one of the options from the menu that pops up. There is one without a project that will run plain Etoys.

There is no way for Etoys to change this - it is indistinguishable from a user clicking on a project in the Journal. We only know we are supposed to open a project when starting, not if it's from the Journal or resumed from the home ring.

CW: Journal saved a thumbnail but not description

The description saved in the project is different from the one in the Journal. The problem is what to do when you have both? So we just leave it alone - you can change the Journal description in the Journal, but not in Etoys.

CW: Project loaded on the same spot as when it was closed last.

Yes, this is a fairly big problem. It follows Sugar policy - an activity is supposed to save automatically when being stopped. However, it does not work well for Etoys. In general, after playing with someone else's project, you do *not* want to save it in its "used" state. 

I want to change this behavior: 

	http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-723

Rather than saving, it would just warn about losing unsaved changes on exit, same as on our other platforms.

To save, the user would always have to click the "keep in Journal" button. That button would bring up the project details dialog and allow to save. Can anybody see a problem with that?

- Bert -