On Sep 19, 2012, at 5:20 PM, Edward Mokurai Cherlin wrote:
I have completed a first pass over the draft Etoys Reference Manual,
adding as much information as I could easily find about Object types,
program tiles, tools, menus, and so on, and adding outlines for a
chapter on Etoys programming and a Glossary. More information is
needed.
The chapter of Etoys programming should be part of another book, not of the reference manual. The manual is thought of as a technical reference book, where you can find bits of information, but not much prose.
Also, the manual can be used as a check list: for users of what to find in Etoys, for developers what needs to be maintained, for beta testers what should still work in a new version.
We need the explanation chapters very much, maybe even more than the manual. But it should not be mixed up.
I am in a strange position, learning Etoys by writing substantial
portions of its Reference Manual, something that I do not think would
be possible for any other programming system. I found the early
tutorials a delight, up to the point where everything else was
completely opaque to me. After learning a bit of Squeak, and getting
just a few more hints, I found Etoys starting to make real sense, and
now I can use a substantial subset of it. When I get through the parts
of this manual that I can do, I will turn to creating Etoys projects
to illustrate the issues I found missing, and to take up various
education topics. Some will be in the manner of my Turtle Art
tutorials and Tony Forster's, but of course Etoys supports doing far
more than that.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt/TutorialsCan anybody help with these Etoys objects that either need explanation
or are simply not present in the versions I have access to? In
particular, communication between Etoys sessions and users remains
entirely opaque to me.
Communications
Attachment Adjuster
Badge
Fridge
NebraskaServer
Objects not found in Object Catalog--Can we remove these?
I've started to make a note if objects are available in later version only, the calendar, for instance, is in Etoys 5.0.
Other
Arrow Editor
Image How to substitute another image?
I think you just need to remove the old image, make a new screenshot and upload it using the insert image symbol.
This should be another book, maybe part of the programming etoys book.
I plan to combine redundant accounts of particular features, move a
few topics to what seems to me a more logical order, and add some more
topics.
We should discuss that. We had two book sprints when we started writing the manual and discussed its structure. The manual is 3/4 done, I would prefer not to open up more topics here and not to change basic things of the structure. But I would love to discuss this, because the manual should be a guide for users and if it is not helpful, we need to make it better.
I especially plan to explain how Etoys development tools work,
and how one accesses Squeak development tools from Etoys.
This is something we have often talked about, but not written down. Needs to be part of the Etoys programming book!
A tutorial
on either Etoys or Squeak development is, of course, inappropriate for
this manual, but I do want to demonstrate how one can look inside
Etoys object definitions using Squeak.
It is the Etoys manual and the transition is not on the focus. Therefore, if it should be part of this manual, I would like to put it in an appendix.
This question is somewhat
confusing, because things may have different names and different
structures in their Etoys and Squeak manifestations. Has anybody ever
made a tool for exposing the structure of the Squeak definitions of
Etoys objects?
Lots more questions to come.
--
Edward Mokurai (默雷/निशब्दगर्ज/نشبدگرج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
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