[FM Discuss] I'd like to write a manual on Beginner's Guide To Creating Sugar Activities

[Jim Simmons]

Anne,

I've been thinking more about possible chapters for the book and this
is what I've come up with.  Notice the book is not half Appendices any
more, but there are still potentially *some*.

1. Introduction
2. A programmer's view of Sugar
3. A programmer's view of a Sugar Activity
4. What Do I Need To Know To Write A Sugar Activity?
5. Setting Up a Development Environment
6 Creating Your First Activity
7. A standalone Python program for reading etexts.
8. An Activity version of the same program.
9. Packaging the Activity
10.  Adding toolbars to the Activity
11.  Setting up a Git Repository
12.  Setting Up Pootle
13.  Distributing The Activity
14. Adding Collaboration
15. Adding Text to Speech

Appendices

A. A Sprite Library For GTK
B. Supporting Multiple Versions of Sugar
C. Using PyGame to create Activities
D. Sugarizing Existing Programs
E. ?

I think I might be able to work Walter's library for running Sugar
Activities that can also run standalone into chapter 8.  I'm not
familiar with that library yet, but it seems like a reasonable place
for it.  The content for Supporting Multiple Versions of Sugar might
find a home in the main body of the book, rather than getting a
standalone appendix.

Further progress in writing this book will require me to create and
test program samples.  That will take awhile, even though I have
existing code I could adapt.

James Simmons

On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Jim Simmons <nicestep at gmail.com> wrote:
> Anne,
>
> I've got the six chapters populated more or less as I had planned.  I
> hope to follow with three more chapters where I provide code samples
> and comment on them.  The chapters and their commentary will be:
>
> 7. A standalone Python program for reading etexts.
> 8. An Activity version of the same program.
> 9.  Adding toolbars to that program.
>
>  I would of course be interested in feedback on what I have so far.
>
> I have been thinking about how this book should be structured and I
> have a thought I'd like to run by everyone.  Walter has suggested
> several topics that belong in a book like this but would be hard to
> fit in the "case study" approach I'm taking.  What I'd like to do with
> at least some of these topics is to create Appendices to the main part
> of the book.  We could then have subject matter experts contribute
> standalone chapters on these topics:
>
> A. Using Git
> B. Implementing Text To Speech
> C. Creating Activities That Can Run Standalone
> D. A Useful Sprite Library For PyGTK
> E. Supporting Multiple Versions Of Sugar
> F.  Using Pootle To Internationalize Your Activity
>
> etc., etc.
>
> Please let me know what you think.
>
> James Simmons
>
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:56 PM, Anne Gentle
> <annegentle at justwriteclick.com> wrote:
>> Hi Jim -
>>
>> Very helpful, thanks for the audience considerations and the outline.
>>
>> I've created the manual here:
>> http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/ActivitiesGuideSugar/WebHome
>>
>> It includes the six starting chapters you list, though I did not go
>> into each chapter and include your sections you list, nor have I
>> arranged them in the correct order. We can do that after you get them
>> populated - just send another email to the group.
>>
>> I hope that gives you a good start! Thanks for bringing it to FLOSS
>> Manuals, it's a great match.
>>
>> Anne
>