Library Release Notes, 2007

These are early days for the OLPC library exchange (in development); there is still a great deal of content that can be tried out on your XO out of the box, and a growing set of formats you can quickly create and remix.

Other release notes: Demo Notes (on how and what to demo), Hardware Release Notes (B1, B2), and Software Release Notes -- these are all useful for understanding the system and what is available. There are also general instructions on how to use the Sugar interface.

The software and interfaces for creation are still in alpha test stages, and we are just forming links to archives and repositories with their own metadata and format needs. Please refer to the OLPC Human Interface guidelines and Content guidelines for a vision of how we would like to see the content and interfaces on the laptops to develop, and what we want interfaces into existing platforms and collections to look like for XO users.

Efforts to date have focused on being able to read, write, and share materials in basic formats, and interfaces for children to editing and browsing these materials. Components still under development include a mesh view of who is working on what at any given moment, a reader/writer interface to editable material, and a distributed content store. While some of the early library is dedicated to static sample materials, to use in testing and as suggestions of what might be created, our goal is to help children and teachers create; and the best materials for the early library are those that expose their construction, or can be useful pieces in later work.

If you test out the library in a particular setting, please let us know.

Library Release Notes

Formats

The library and sugar currently supports the following formats. Note that other formats can be supported on the current build outside of Sugar, but those are not considered here.

Text

• .txt, .doc, .abw : these formats can be read by abiword, and will launch it from the browser. Abiword will write .abw files
• .pdf : this can be ready by xbook, which launches automatically from the browser when following a pdf.

Multimedia document with layout

• .html : parsed by the browser. source will soon be viewable
• .pdf : read by xbook

Formatted text

• .xml, .rss : read by the browser, by penguinTV (as feeds)

Images

• .jpeg, .gif, .png - these can be viewed by many applications, including the browser
• .svg - 99% supported.

Music

• csound : this will be playable by TamTam... currently its XO build doesn't provide a way to save or load sound files, however.
• .ogg : see other common audio formats below; can be played by Helix or Gstreamer, not part of the current build.
  • .mp3, .wav : these can be played by Helix or Gstreamer, standalone or as a browser plugin, when they are installed
  • .rm, .ra : this can be played by the Helix plugin when installed with a RealAudio codec.

  Currently, audio files selected in the browser try to launch a player if it is present.

Video

• .ogg : can be played by Helix or Gstreamer, standalone or as a plugin. Not part of the current build.
• .mpeg, .mov, .wmv, .rm : see above

Python

• the Develop activity will provide one way to view python files; the 'view source key' another

Javascript

• this will viewable the same way page source can be viewed through the browser.