Talk:Activities

Is this the place to post bugs with downloaded Activities?

I have been downloading many games from the Activities wiki page. Several do not work at all, and some work but are not fully functional. I have seen that many created as part of the MaMaMedia Suite say "please test". So if I test them, who do I tell? Thanks affiliatelinks(at)goct.net

You could report problems here. Thanks. --Walter 21:42, 25 December 2007 (EST)

Problem with Jigsaw Puzzle download - I'm trying to download and install the jigsaw puzzle from the Activites Page but keep getting more instances of the Maze activity. i've done it twice or three times now, I'm pretty sure I'm hitting the right buttons. User error is not out of the question, though.

FYI, the file name that appears in Journal is correct, as far as I can tell ("jigsawPuzzle-1_20071030.xo.Activity) but the icon that appears with it is the maze icon (whereas on the activity page the icon is a jigsaw puzzle icon) and resuming this activity out of the journal just launches another version of the Maze activity (which I have also installed and my 4 year old had a blast with today.) User:KayTi

localization

Should this table incorporate a column (or the notion) of localization? This would probably raise the awareness and put the developing community in a more 'global' mindset? --Xavi 18:46, 29 May 2007 (EDT)

Good point. --Jim 20:13, 29 May 2007 (EDT)

Core now denoted by c, and localization merged with status comments. we need simple templates for l10n status, from simplest to most complex. Sj talk

"core"???

There is now a 'temporal' category for core, bundled & extra activities (through the use of the {{OBX activity}}, so maybe just remove the 'C' and link to those categories? (BTW, the category names are not 'official' - thus the red link - I'm not sure what the name should actually be just 'core' or (probably better) 'core activities' (being a sub-cat of 'activities'). Xavi 11:51, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

Duplication in programming activities

develop and python (and GvR)

2x logo

and several "easy scripting for creating animations and simple games".

Things would be simpler if we focused our efforts. Homunq 20:44, 7 August 2007 (EDT)

Simpler, but not necessarily better. It's possible that we may see better results with several competing projects stealing ideas from each other than from trying to coordinate a large number of developers to create the ultimate "easy scripting environment". Activities to create animations and games may benefit most from multiple approaches, since there are many different types of animations and games. —Joe 11:09, 10 August 2007 (EDT)

It would seem that there are some activities that are inconsistently named Draw? Xavi 11:51, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

Latest build

Shouldn't that column be replaced by a 'First build' in which the activity appeared? It would be logical to assume that once it's in the build it will stay in it... (unless otherwise noted). Xavi 11:51, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

GCompris in Activities

All the .xo bundles I found have been registered in the GCompris activity page (reachable through the (still temporal) Category:Activity bundle for activities with bundles). Repeating their links in the Activities page may be a bit redundant; especially if they are not fully sugarized and being so many of them... maybe the description could be expanded a bit to mention some highlights (thus giving a better idea on the real 'size' of the the GCompris set of activities) instead of listing? Comments? --Xavi 14:40, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

I was unaware of the GCompris page. I changed the Activities page to just include a link. If you would like to add a good summary of the activities, that would be great. Mainly, we wanted to have the activities listed there because they have been set up correctly so that XO's can download and install them. - AlexL

Hmmm... wonder how many are unaware of the actual activity pages. (IOW, maybe we have a structural miscommunication)... Any ideas on how we may correct that? I mean, for me it was obvious that if you want further info or stuff about an activity (ie: source code or bundles)) you would head for the actual activity page)... Maybe we could add a link similar to the l10n resources but saying xo bundles?

BTW, I had been adding the POT/l10n stuff before the advent of the OBXes, and now I've removed it, but still noting the presence or absence. --Xavi 20:47, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

POT ?

I've no idea what this means, please explain or link it. -- Skierpage 20:31, 6 October 2007 (EDT)

Is it a Portable Object Template:
Files ending with .pot are kind of base translation files found in distributions, in PO file format.
?? -- Skierpage 20:53, 6 October 2007 (EDT)

Yes, it's part of the internationalization/localization system for each application. (see also Python internationalization tutorial) —Joe 20:56, 6 October 2007 (EDT)

Perhaps this would be a good place to use Leejc Translate icons, instead of the current POT text icon. I especially like the last one, and I think its meaning would be clear if used in the Boxes on the activity pages. HoboPrimate 01:21, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

Thy wish is my command! Done! :)

If anybody has more suggestions about the OBX (non) icons, please do suggest or change them (I'm not personally gifted) as a matter of fact, I've been having ideas for many other OBXes but smacking a text icon most of the time just defeats the impact or worthiness... Volunteers?

Skierpage sorry about the confussion. I've edited the text so it just doesn't say 'POT NEEDED' (which out of context is not a perfect message ;)) --Xavi 09:51, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

That was quick! I've changed the icon, decreasing the canvas to 55px and uploaded , so that it looks bigger, with less white space around. It may work better. HoboPrimate 11:12, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

Talk about quick! :) Thanks! Done! --Xavi 11:42, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

Yeah, I made the icons to the Sugar HIG standard (approximately the middle 9 squares of a 5x5 grid), which is probably too much padding for other uses, like on the website. —Joe 16:20, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

Install

Something should be said here about how to install.

I'm using joyride #64 on B4 hardware.

From the Browse activity, I click on the link. After the download completes, I get two options. Neither is clear, and neither seems to do anything. Nothing identifiable shows up in the journal, though I'm getting lots of random crud there from numerous activities. (I hope that is a bug, because it sure is awful.)

AlbertCahalan 19:20, 20 October 2007 (EDT)

Something a bit more descriptive than "I'm getting lots of random crud" could help us diagnose what is going on here. In any case, there should be a record of the download in the Journal and resuming from that download will both install and launch the activity. You could take a peek at /home/olpc/Activities before the download; after the download; and after the resume from Journal to see what is happening. If you are not getting the expected behavior, please file a bug in trac. --Walter 11:40, 21 October 2007 (EDT)

New activity project

There's a new activities process being discussed on the packaging project. To add an activity summary to this page, make a subpage at Activities/ACTIVITYNAME and use one of the appropriate templates:

 {{activity-summary}} for bundles that are functional and can be tested
 {{activity-pre-summary}} for those in design or only working on other platforms

and you may want to make a similar

 {{activity-idea-summary}} for ideas with a wikipage and description but no details

Sj talk 23:43, 25 November 2007 (EST)

ePals link not working

The ePals link (http://www.epals.com/olpc/ePals-1.xo) is not working. --68.200.28.7 11:40, 22 December 2007 (EST)

Odd... I tried the link once and got a file-not-found page (as I imagine you are describing), but when I tried it again a few minutes later, it found the file. I assume that the issue is either sporadic or that they fixed it. —Joe 12:02, 22 December 2007 (EST)

I suspect the site may have been temporarily down. Seems to be working again. --Walter 12:26, 22 December 2007 (EST)

Hmm... Just checked it now and it seems to be broken again. Maybe they should consider hosting the XO file on the wiki? —Joe 13:27, 11 January 2008 (EST)

SimCity exit problem

SimCity takes up two activity "spots" and has an exit problem: you have to exit from within the exit menu. If you try to stop it from the Home view, the grayed-out circle in one of the Home app segments (I assume the game instantiation) stays resident and requires rebooting to shut down. --68.200.28.7 11:42, 22 December 2007 (EST)

This is partly due to Sugar; the Update.1 patch should address this. The newer Micropolis code is also cleaner about how it starts new python processes; you may want to try the first release when it comes out. --Sj talk to me 15:45, 22 December 2007 (EST)

Wesnoth

It's not sugarized, and perhaps not appropriate for very young children, but I was delighted to find that Battle for Wesnoth (a polished, open source, turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme) installs on a vanilla XO and runs well at 1200x900. It would be neat to sugarize to some degree esp to utilize the mesh network for multi-player games. To install, just open a terminal activity and do:

 su
 yum install wesnoth.i386

Then to play, open a terminal window and type:

 wesnoth

User page design

This is supposed to be a user page yet it lists many activities that are either in testing or simply not working. I think that untested and in-development projects should be placed somewhere else.

Agreed. Yet you need one big list for the wiki - otherwise, things will forever be out-of-date. Solution: have one big list, and then have a "user-ready activities" page which has the same list as a wiki include. Any activities not appropriate for inclusion can be surrounded by noinclude tags. Sound like a good idea? Homunq 23:20, 5 January 2008 (EST)

Alas, there is ample evidence that people don't end up using noinclude tags properly. What if there was a separate template for actvities under development, say {{Activity-Under-Construction}} that collected the same fields but displayed only enough information as to both give people a sense of what was coming down the road and an opportunity for other developers to jump in and help. Once it was ready for testing, a new template could be used: {{Activity-Please-Test}}. Finally, we'd get to the {{Activity}} stage. --Walter 07:48, 6 January 2008 (EST)

Backup, etc.

The references to School servers, etc. are not applicable to people who are using their XOs outside of the School server context (all G1G1 participants, for example). We should come up with a way of clarifying this. --Walter 08:04, 6 January 2008 (EST)

Alphabetical order?

Should we add new ones at the bottom of each category or try to keep them in some sort of order?

Removal of Doom from this page

Please do not put adult-oriented activities on this page, such as first-person shooters. Doom or Quake are not consistent w/ the educational goals of OLPC. Everyone is welcome to hack on the XO but please do not connect violent or adult-oriented material to the OLPC initiative.

--Bryan Berry

As an adult, I have little interest in such games. As a child, I loved them. Games have led many people to have a greater interest in computing. In particular, the 3-D shooters have led many people to study things like geometry and physics. Don't you think geometry and physics are consistent w/ the educational goals of OLPC? AlbertCahalan 22:58, 16 January 2008 (EST)

I love these kinds of games as an adult, and my child does as well. We play some together. However, I'm sure Bryan Berry's point is that these do not belong in the top-level list of activities linked by the OPLC organization. Such downloads will exist elsewhere, but they have the right to choose what content they want linked from their main activities download page.

User:KayTi

This is the list of all activities. Many of them are incomplete, horribly buggy, and even missing. Rather than the very negative idea of kicking some (which ones?) activites out, it's far better to concentrate efforts on promoting the most-loved activites elsewhere. I think a Bryan's top 10 activities page would do nicely. That would be a positive contribution, especially if he actually tests the activities with the kids in his area. (so i18n counts, etc.) AlbertCahalan 20:43, 17 January 2008 (EST)

I proposed here http://www.olpсnews.com/content/games/violent_games_olpc_wiki.html#comments that a set of age targets be established, with activities suitable for those ages grouped together. Off the top of my head I see several categories: All Ages, Under 6 (for non-readers), Under 9, Under 12, 12 & Up. I propose Doom (this version is a first-person shooter, right? I plan to download it, I love Doom and all it's videogame offspring) be moved to a "12 & Up" type of category, which should be housed on a separate page because the mission of the OLPC project is to target children ages 6-12. User:KayTi

Adding/cross-posting my comments on the OLPC news post about this: OK folks, I've played it. It's not a kids game. It's a standard first person shooter - nicely done and works fine on the little XO. Does not belong on a page with kids games.

Nope, it's a kid game. (and I am a parent, having 4 boys and 2 girls) Even if it were not a kid game, it would belong on the page because it is an activity for the OLPC XO. AlbertCahalan 23:26, 19 January 2008 (EST)

Also, whoever did the port needs to go through and remove the "Ralph has Haxoed this page" - I don't know what that is but it looks like someone is having some fun. It appears when you try to read the "read this!" file and during the initialization routine. User:KayTi

Download links for activities

Note for page maintainers: Some of the preinstalled activities have .xo download links that don't go anywhere, which—as someone noted on the formerly non-existent Image:Browse.xo page—can be confusing. I also see that some activities have a version number next to the download link that is greater than the version number in the corresponding downloadable .xo image name; is there value to advertising new activity versions on this page if they cannot be downloaded? —Joe 14:13, 25 January 2008 (EST)

Good point Joe - I was just coming here to post a suggestion that the line for each Activity include a revision date with the other information available for that activity. That would help those of us who have spent a lot of time already downloading activities quickly scan to find the newest content, and also scan to find updates to previously loaded activities. Any thoughts/issues with this? Can this be added to the base template? Thanks! KayTi 15:25, 31 January 2008 (EST)

move to activities/tmp

I'm planning to update this page to look like the page at activities/tmp -- with more precise metadata on the target pages, including cleaner download links and more maintainer info. Please create a projects/ACTIVITYNAME page for each activity you care about. --Sj talk 00:36, 5 February 2008 (EST)