Talk:Simplified user guide

Updating and maintenance section

I just moved those instructions over from Floss Manuals, and I"ll figure out a better way to format the Terminal typing instructions so that the numbering doesn't start over at 1 each time. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated until I get the time to puzzle through it, thanks! annegentle 15:51, 12 April 2008 (EDT)

Connect

The Connect activity has been removed from Ship.2 and Update.1 because the game functionality is unfinished. It will most likely be finished and added for Update.2 - so I recommend removing it from this user guide. morgs 03:24, 28 November 2007 (EST)

Removed it temporarily - I went ahead and removed the section... I can see the Connect Activity on the emulation of the 625 build. I'll continue to watch for changes to the Activity list.

annegentle 00:43, 15 December 2007 (EST)

You should be looking at Build 650+ for Ship.2 bits. Regards. --Walter 07:48, 15 December 2007 (EST)

I think the emulations are a little bit behind but will upgrade when I can. I don't see one in the latest joyride build in http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/olpc/streams/joyride/build1435/devel_ext3/ but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place for that version? A little help? annegentle 10:28, 17 December 2007 (EST)

Images out of date

Many of the screen shots are not very reflective of the Ship.2 versions of the activities. Also, the triangle is no longer used on the mesh. --Walter 18:35, 4 December 2007 (EST)

Removed triangle icon - Thanks for catching that. I will continue to update screenshots. annegentle 00:41, 15 December 2007 (EST)

Terminology, current wording.

FYI,

 Current OLPC 'consensus' about wording of the 'function keys' (F1,F2,F3,F4)...  

• F1 - Neighborhood view (not World or mesh)
• F2 - Group view (not friends)
• F3 - Home view
• F4 - Activity (not Application)

I can update appropriately, if that is helpful. --IainD 04:19, 6 January 2008 (EST)

Yes, please do update where appropriate. Thanks! annegentle 14:12, 6 January 2008 (EST)

Confusing section headings

The activities seem to be grouped somewhat arbitrarily under somewhat inconsistent heading. Is the reason for this?

1. Playing with the XO
   • EToys
2. Sharing and expressing with the XO
   • Chat
3. Learning and Exploring with the XO
   • Browse the Internet
   • Read
   • Measure
   • Pippy
   • Watch and Listen
   • Calculate
   • Draw
   • News Reader
   • Memorize
   • Write
   • Quick keyboard shortcuts
4. Viewing, creating, and capturing images
   • Turtle Art
   • TamTam Jam
5. Talking and recording with the microphone
   • Record

Also, the keyboard shortcuts seems completely out of place. --Walter 03:02, 8 January 2008 (EST)

Agreed... reorganized with an Activities section. I need to ensure that all the correct Activities are listed with each update but I think it's accurate for now. In the Floss Manuals edition there's an "Interface" section and the keyboard shortcuts go there, so I will try to organize them similarly here. annegentle 08:10, 8 January 2008 (EST)

Moved Pippy discussion to talk page

~~ How can those of us that have no experience whatsoever programming find out how to do this?~~

You can learn through doing... try it, you'll like it. --Walter 21:55, 25 December 2007 (EST)

What I've done to experiment is to first substitute different numbers to see the program display different answers. When that worked, I took the next step of using the commands as well. But I'd like to know how to get a blank screen to try programming from scratch. Is that possible? Thanks.

I think that you can delete all of an example's code and start from scratch that way, since Pippy will save your code in the Journal and when you click the example code again, it'll be refreshed. See https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/2993 for someone who had the same type of issue with the examples. The response is that "...when you click on the example, it should save the current program to the journal, without losing anything." My little bit of testing shows that is correct. annegentle 11:33, 4 January 2008 (EST)

Connecting your XO to the network

Part of the sentence, "You know you are connected..." is obscured by the illustration. I don't know how to fix this. 69.210.34.104 17:54, 20 January 2008 (EST)

I think it's fixed now by aligning the image left instead of right and re-writing some of the section. Thanks for pointing out the problem, even if you couldn't fix it! --annegentle 22:53, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Write Activity

I noticed a reference to a "journal" as something to write... and changed that to "diary" to avoid confusing users about "the Journal." (The curse of using common words in describing a user interface. Same goes for "activity")

The Write section description began as just a few lines about things someone might want to write -- addressed at either a child or, as the name of this document suggests, a "simplified user." Trying not to stray too far from that tone, I added a section about naming documents, a pretty basic way to keep The Journal from getting confusing, and a reasonable step for a child looking for things to write about... without getting into oldschool computer concepts like "documents" and "file names."

Mentioning a "diary" activity made me realize for the first time that the XO doesn't have a simple clock or calendar -- two educational activities that may be discussed elsewhere. If it's possible to get Write to deliver either the time or date, I haven't tried yet. Robby 20:07, 21 January 2008 (EST)

The Journal

Right now, the page literally backs into the idea of the Journal; the first reference to it sounded like a second reference here:

• 9 Copying the XO contents (backing up)
  • 9.1 Keeping information in the Journal

I don't have time today, but I think those two sections should be reversed. I did add something about naming Journal entries, so that users aren't left with a confusing list of "Write Activity... Write Activity... Write Activity..." Robby 17:50, 24 January 2008 (EST)

Came back and made some of the reorganizational changes suggested above.

Robby 17:02, 26 January 2008 (EST)

Use of names with Browse also is worth discussion, to make it clear that naming a Browse session does not create a permalink/bookmark for the visited page. Similarly, the "GMail" activity is listed as GMail in the journal even if the user browses away from gmail to another site before leaving the activity.

Perhaps someone more involved with the pedagogical planning can come up with a better explanation of how kids might creatively and constructively name things. Kids do name things, from pet animals to pet rocks, so the documentation doesn't need to say "what" as much as "how" and "why" -- for instance, that names aid in searching and finding. I don't want to be authoritarian and "prescribe" things, but suggesting names, dates and descriptions (under Write and under Journal) felt benign.

Robby 17:50, 24 January 2008 (EST)

Yep, I've had similar conversations in person and on email about how difficult it is to describe names... feel free to edit as you see fit, and I'll also work on it - I need to understand it better myself before trying to write a concept for kids. Thanks, though, for bringing it up here, and for the edits thus far. --annegentle 22:40, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Measure Activity

Shouldn't this section say what the Activity can do /without/ additional hardware? (Show sound waves?) Robby 23:39, 7 February 2008 (EST)

Excellent point - it currently only is accepting input from the microphone in my experience. --annegentle 22:38, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Shutting down

It would be nice to mention why it is better for the computer to use click on shutdown rather than hold the power button (for 10 seconds I think). Not sure here would be good place to mention it but on my g1g1 XO the power switch can get caught "in" so that on startup everything is normal for 10 seconds and then it starts to shutdown. Fholson 10:38, 1 March 2008 (EST)

Agreed. The Power button getting stuck might be more suitable in a troubleshooting topic, though. I'd also like to get a better explanation of what's going on with "sleep" mode (will it be available soon and how does it behave?) Feel free to edit as you see fit. --annegentle 22:42, 4 March 2008 (EST)