Python Debugger activity for the XO
Objectives And Strategy
It would be wonderful to have a python sourcecode debugger for the XO, fully integrated with sugar. But at this point, even command line tools like Ipython and PDB, are difficult to use within the SUGAR environment. It appears that most Activity development is done using emulation and cross machine development. The purpose of this Activity is to develop, as quickly as possible, the minimal functionality which will permit stand alone development of Sugar Activities on the XO.
- One way it will try to minimize development time is by combining Activities that are already available on the XO -- such as Write, Browse, and Terminal (with ipython).
- Another is to tightly control the addition of "nice to have" features.
It would be nice if this activity can become a springboard for older students as they explore the world of Python, Gtk, and Sugar Activity development. In the service of this objective, PyDebug should provide simple working examples which can be explored and modified. It should provide a set of offline documentation, available in html, as learning facilitation.
Features
There will be 5 notebook pages in PyDebug:
- A Terminal page - lifted from the Terminal Activity
- An Editor - Initially lifted from Write, but possibly replaced by Gedit, if the dbus interface to Gedit via a python plug-in can be created.
- The "Child Screen (the debugee)
- Project data - which maps to the "activity.info" file required by the Sugar interface, This could also provide access to example Activities.
- Help -based upon the Browse Activity and Hulahop
Next Steps
It would be nice to connect with college level teachers of programming to see if we could insert the contributor's program into their curriculum. There are a number of follow on projects which would greatly enhance the ease of developing Activities on the XO:
- GEdit Activity
- Glade Activity for easy GTK layout
- Firefox with SQLite add-in and Screem as a client/server database development tool
