[etoys-dev] a demand for drawers and children

[K. K. Subramaniam]

Hi,

The elimination of brush size 1 from the brush palette of PaintBoxMorph in 
Etoys 4 is causing trouble for art teachers (see below).

The brush sizes of 1, 3, 5 etc. were changed to 3,5,.. in Etoys 4+ (see 
initializeBrush method). Was this done for OLPC Display? What are the 
downsides of reverting it to original sizes or tying it to display DPIs?

Regards .. Subbu

On Saturday 07 Jan 2012 3:10:00 AM s-guyader at club-internet.fr wrote:
> I address this letter to you because I have a problem from a long time with
> the new versions of Etoys and because I know that you give importance to
> everything in relation with artistic creation. It's a small technical
> point, but its effects are important, however, on certain categories of
> graphical drawings and on children creations and I cannot be heard on this
> point. I talked of it with P.A. Dreyfuss and Hilaire Fernandes. This last
> advised me to send a letter to the community, but my comment did not
> caused reactions. This concerns the table of the thickness of lines
> proposed by the painting machine on drawing space. In all the new
> versions, the first thickness has been removed and replaced by that which
> previously was listed in position n° 2. The problem may seem of little
> importance in regard to all the improvements made otherwise. They enrich
> or facilitate the use of Etoys for experienced users or for children. But
> this deletion has repercussions on graphic realizations made on the
> painting screen. Those realizations are disadvantaged compared to those
> produced with the means of the world screen. This prejudice is
> particularly to be noted regarding drawings of young children because the
> new thickness of lines is less favorable to the narrative drawing. However
> the results obtained by drawings made with Etoys tools put them among the
> artistic tools of creation. But the removal of the thinnest line, on the
> painting machine, limits the possibilities of creation. I do not ask the
> rebuilding of the whole tool on painting screen.
> I just want to know if it is possible to replace, on one of the recent
> versions, (one of those with green bar, for example) only the previous
> table of line thicknesses (and not all the painting machine) to have
> thicknesses of lines in agreement with those we have on the World screen.
> Is this a change that requires a lot of work ?
> I join a series of pictures which are made with the old version Etoys 3.8.
> Now they are inaccessible with the new versions. ‘’People working
> exclusively with menus and programming of World objects are not affected
> by the shortcomings I noted ‘’ I count on you and on the aid of Pierre -
> André Dreyfuss and Hilaire Fernandes, to whom I submitted the request that
> I made you, to advocate for drawers and children and to obtain, besides
> the classic Etoys, a parallel version identical to the other but with a
> graphic orientation. Suzanne
> To see the text  ‘Gaphics in Etoys’
> http://community.ofset.org/index.php/Graphics_in_Etoys
> 
> …….
> You will find here some of the emails exchanged when I submitted my request
> for advice to Hilaire Fernandes (creator of Dr.Geo) and to P.A. Dreyfuss
> (who is the author of the V- toys running on an Etoys environment and that
> can concern young children)
> 
> From: "Hilaire Fernandes" [hilaire.fernandes at gmail.com]
> Cela me semble bien argumenté.
> 
> En fait ce que tu décris est un cas d'école sur développement user
> centered.
> 
> La décision d'enlever la ligne de 1 pixel d'épaisseur fut prise sans
> consultation de l'utilisateur final. Ce sont des choses qui arrivent,
> cela m'est déjà arrivé de faire ce genre d'erreur sur DrGeo.
> 
> Hilairefrom: "p.a.dreyfuss at excite.com " <p.a.dreyfuss at excite.com>
> 
> Bonjour, j'ai la discussion sur la ligne fine.
> 
> je pense aussi que la taille 1 est importante.
> 
> J'ai fouillé le code pour voir ce que l'on peut faire en attendant.
> 
> Ci-joint un projet avec une brique v-toys qui permet de changer la taille
> du pinceau.
> 
> On désigne un bouton pinceau et on met la valeur de la taille dans
> l'affichage numérique.
> 
> Pour l'instant l'affichage du nouvau pinceau ne marche pas bien pour
> retrouver la taille 1.