[etoys-dev] Re: Brand new Ubuntu experience with etoys

Fri May 7 21:32:24 EDT 2010

Argh. Address this to wrong list. 

--- On Fri, 5/7/10, Jerome Peace <peace_the_dreamer at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Jerome Peace <peace_the_dreamer at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Brand new Ubuntu experience with etoys
> To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Date: Friday, May 7, 2010, 9:17 PM
> 
> Hi Bert,
> 
> 
> >I just changed the wording on the "missing plugin" page
> - is that better?
> 
> Ouch no. See below.
> 
> >And indeed, the distro package should register the
> plugin. Maybe it doesn't, I don't know.
> 
> FYI
> 
> The eToys blurb from their distro:
> 
> eToys
> A media-rich model, simulation construction kit and
> authoring tool
>    Installed
> Squeak Etoys was inspired by LOGO, PARC-Smalltalk,
> Hypercard, and starLOGO. It is a media-rich authoring
> environment with a simple powerful scripted object model for
> many kinds of objects created by end-users that runs on many
> platforms, and is free and open source. It includes 2D and
> 3D graphics, images, text, particles, pres-entations,
> web-pages, videos, sound and MIDI, etc. It includes the
> ability to share desktops with other Etoy users in
> real-time, so many forms of immersive mentoring and play can
> be done over the Internet.
> 
> This is the Squeak image developed for the OLPC
> project.
> 
> Canonical does not provide updates for eToys. Some updates
> may be provided by the Ubuntu community.
> 
> License: Unknown    Version:
> 3.0.1916+svn132-2ubuntu1 (etoys)
> 
> =====
> 
> Above is the info from the Ubuntu Software when You get to
> eToys.
> Note the version and the license info.
> 
> After playing a bit I realized I needed to close firefox
> and try again.
> 
> So I did.
> 
> Close.
> then
> 
> Firefox
> Squeakland>Showcase>All>Musical Chords>launch
> Which now sends me to the launch url.
> Which now just shows me a blank page.
> IMHO this is worse than before, at least then it seemed it
> was trying to help.
> 
> 
> launch page Url:
> 
> http://squeakland.org/launcher/?http://squeakland.org/content/showcase/everyone/accounts/digimath/Music%20Chord%20game.011.pr
> 
> This page (after Bert's changes) now shows up as a blank
> white page on my screen.
> 
> 
> page source: <extra lines removed>  
> 
>    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
> XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd
> ">
>    <html>
>    <head>
> 
>    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
> content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1">
> 
>    <!--[if lte IE 6]>
>    <script type="text/javascript"
> src="/sm/includes/supersleight.js"></script>
>    <![endif]--> 
> 
> <title>Etoys Project</title>
> </head>
> 
> <body>
> 
> <!-- content start -->
> 
> <script language="javascript">
> 
>    //This script detects the Squeakland
> plugin
> 
>    var agt =
> navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
>    var ie = (agt.indexOf("msie") != -1);
>    var ns =
> (navigator.appName.indexOf("Netscape") != -1);
>    var win = ((agt.indexOf("win") != -1) ||
> (agt.indexOf("32bit") != -1));
>    var mac = (agt.indexOf("mac") != -1);
>    var olpc = (agt.indexOf("olpc") != -1);
>    var url = document.URL;
>    var src =
> url.substr(url.indexOf("?")+1);
>    var prj =
> unescape(src.substr(src.lastIndexOf("/")+1));
> 
>    if ( ie && win )
>    {
>       SqueakInstalled =
> detectIE("SqueakOCX2.SqueakOCX.1", "Squeak");
>    }
> 
>    if ( ns || !win )
>    {
>       nse = "";
>       for ( var i = 0; i <
> navigator.mimeTypes.length; i++ ) nse +=
> navigator.mimeTypes[i].type.toLowerCase();
> 
>       SqueakInstalled =
> nse.indexOf("application/x-squeak-source") != -1;
>    }
> 
>    function detectIE( ClassID, name )
>    {
>       result = false;
>       document.write('<' + 'SCRIPT
> LANGUAGE=VBScript>\n on error resume next \n result =
> IsObject(CreateObject("' + ClassID + '"))<' +
> '/SCRIPT>\n');
>       if ( result ) return true;
>       else return false;
>    }
> 
>    if ( SqueakInstalled )
>    {
>       document.write('<OBJECT\n' +
>                
>      'ID="SqueakOCX Control"\n' +
>                
>      'WIDTH=800 HEIGHT=600\n' +
>                
>      'ALIGN=center BORDER=2\n' +
>                
>  
>    'CLASSID="CLSID:2BE9C39E-8386-4435-B337-FCDAD8EAB006"\n'
> +
>                
>  
>    'CODEBASE="/content/installers/EtoysInstaller.exe">\n'
> +
>                
>      '<PARAM name="src" value="' +
> src + '">\n' +
>                
>      '<PARAM name="pluginspage"
> value="/download/">\n' +
>                
>      '<PARAM name="apiSupported"
> value="false">\n' +
>                
>      '<embed\n' +
>                
>  
>    'type="application/x-squeak-source"\n' +
>                
>      'ALIGN="CENTER"\n' +
>                
>      'WIDTH="800"\n' +
>                
>      'HEIGHT="600"\n' +
>                
>      'src="' + src + '"\n' +
>                
>      'apiSupported="FALSE"\n' +
>                
>      'pluginspage="/download/"\n' +
>                
>      '></embed>\n' +
>                
>      '</OBJECT><br>\n'+
>                
>      'You may also download <a
> href="' + src + '">' + prj +'</a> and open it in
> Etoys.')
>    }
>    else
>    {
>       if ( olpc )
>       {
>           document.write(
>          'Downloading Etoys
> project <a href="' + src + '">' + prj + '</a>.
> Please wait.\n'+
>      
>    '<br><br><br><big>When
> the download is finished, start <b>' + prj +
> '</b> from your Journal.</big>' );
>           window.location = src;
>       }
>          else
>       {
>            
> document.write('You do not seem to have the Etoys plugin
> installed.<br>\n' +
>               'If you
> are using a Macintosh or Windows PC, please download the ' +
> 
>               '<a
> href="/download/">plugin here</a> and then run the
> installer.<br>\n' +
>               'As a
> Linux user, please install your distribution's "Etoys"
> package.<br><br>\n' +
>               'You could
> also download <a href="' + src + '">' + prj
> +'</a> and open it in Etoys.<br>\n'+
>               'Perhaps
> you want to use <a
> href="/download/">Etoys-To-Go</a> for that, which
> should work ' +
>               'equally
> well on Linux, Mac, or Windows machines.\n');
>       }
>    }
> 
> </script>
> 
> </body>
> 
> </html>
> 
> ======
> 
> Anyway to reiterate,
> 
> 1) First it should work out of the box and it does not. 
> Is the plugin present?
> What specifically is detected to determine the plugin is
> there or not on Ubuntu?
> I can't test for windows or macs at this point.
> 
> 2) How should Squeakland help with the troubleshooting?
>   IMO a specific help should be provided for fixing
> the plugin problem.
>   It should mention the plugin problem.
>   And Either provide a remedy for just the plugin
> problem OR
>   direct the user to remove the Ubuntu provided
> installation. (I.E. go to where you got it and press
> REMOVE).
>   Then direct then how to reinstall the whole Magila
> from the Squeakland distribution.
>   Basicly do not leave a user with the need to make a
> choice they have not been given enough information to make.
>   Better still help make the choice for them.
> 
> Yours in curiosity and service, --Jerome Peace
> P.S. Please cc: me personally as well as replying to the
> list. The only list I let send me mail right now is the
> beginners. Cheers --Jer
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 