One Laptop Per Child Application Development

An anonymous reader writes "This OLPC (One-Laptop-Per-Child) tutorial teaches you how to develop Python activities for the XO laptop. It covers the ins and outs of Sugar (the XO user interface, or UI) and the details behind activity development. You will also learn about Python programming, Sugar application program interfaces (APIs) for Python, and platform emulation with QEMU. Learn OLPC application development and help the worlds children."

Yet another sign-in-required alphaworks article...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please editors, at least check if the main article requires you to sign-in. There must be other rubbish you can post that doesn't require bugmenot to be read in full.

Thanks,

Anonymous IBM-coward

PS. No, I'm not new here. Why do you ask?

Marketing to the inevitable

[AndroidCat]

Any good books in the works on how to write hot games for that platform? Think of the market! (3. Profit!)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm using a combination of Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame [amazon.com], Pygame [pygame.org] and the documents on the OLPC wiki site. For the record, Pygame is installed on the XO by default and actually has a few added things like the ability to access the built in camera and mesh network.

Re:

[Darkael]

Think of the market! (3. Profit!)

Well, this isn't such a far-fetched idea, considering that EA donated Sim City to the OLPC project [donhopkins.com] and I don't think it was a completely altruist move.

Re:

[ajs318]

OLPC is for people who already have food and water. Ting! Next, please.

Re:Food? Power? Water?

[Minwee]

But can it teach them not to feed the trolls?

Re:

[Marcion]

yum install nut-nutrition [sourceforge.net]

NUT records what you eat and analyzes your meals for nutrient levels in terms of the "Daily Value" (DV). The
program uses the free food composition database from the USDA. By experimenting, you can find the optimal level
of the various nutrients and how to implement this with foods available to you.

Re:

[Hatta]

That's not terribly useful unless you limit yourself to prepackaged frozen crap.

Re:

[Marcion]

>That's not terribly useful unless you limit yourself to prepackaged frozen crap.

Not at all. You can still weigh organic ingredients.

If you have a 100g of carrots then you look it up, if you have an 100g bowl of rice you can look it up.

The USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors is quite comprehensive. You can enter your own data too.

Re:

[Hatta]

If you care to spend more time plugging your recipes into your computer than your face, sure. How many grams in a pinch anyway?

Re:

[Raenex]

Do you have a better way? Seems that spending a few minutes on nutrition is a pretty good use of time, and once you have some standard recipies you don't have to keep on entering data.

And THINK before you code

[elrous0]

Keep in mind that not all [cnn.com] kids are well intentioned.

Re:

[pembo13]

Is this different from anyone else?

Re:

[elrous0]

In the fact that these scams are legally tolerated in many of these countries, yes. But, even if it wasn't, the OLPC people are idealists who probably haven't even thought of the possibility of these computers being used for this sort of thing. Just as with the porn controversy [reuters.com], it's likely to catch them off guard if they don't think carefully before they code. An open system is great until people start exploiting it for all the "wrong" reasons.

Re:

[try_anything]

An open system is great until people start exploiting it for all the "wrong" reasons.

It's still great even then. Sticks, stones, knives, wheels, writing, domesticated horses, the postal system, electricity, narcotics, light bulbs, and email are all used for bad purposes, but they're used to far greater good effect than evil. I'm sure criminals will have a field day with the OLPC, but people will be too busy managing the positive effects to care. It's very hard to design morality into tools, especially w

full article pdf

[slack_prad]

https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/l-sugarpy/l-sugarpy-pdf.pdf [ibm.com]

Can we get a OLPC simulator environment yet?

[compumike]

What would really spur development is if we could get a software simulation environment (ala VMware, Bochs, etc) so that developers who don't have the hardware could play with stuff. Also the keyboard on the actual OLPC is tiny, which adds an extra challenge for (adult) developers.

--
NerdKits: educational microcontroller kits for a digital generation. [nerdkits.com]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

yet?!?!!!

they have made virtual machine images available for quite a long time.

Re:

[wjsteele]

Also the keyboard on the actual OLPC is tiny, which adds an extra challenge for (adult) developers.

So, plugging in a full size USB Keyboard won't work?

Bill

Re:

[sleigher]

A USB mouse and keyboard both work.

Audacity, gcc,etc.etc.

[Bananatree3]

There are hundreds of packages you can download by simply typing

Yum Install ...

Audacity downloads and is practically turnkey. GCC works out of the chute. People are even getting Free Doom to run on it. The limit isn't the tech but the experimentation of packages.

Think of the punctuation

[SleptThroughClass]

"Learn OLPC application development and help the worlds children."

And start by teaching them the proper use of the apostrophe.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

And maybe we can all start teaching the n00bs how to use blockquotes. Moran.

Maemo!

[try_anything]

Sugar and Hildon are both small, simple desktops based on GTK, so hopefully it will turn out to be no great effort to adapt Hildon programs for Sugar and vice-versa. Let's face it, we do a much better job at developing applications that we use ourselves. How can I develop an application for children? I've mostly ignored them since I was one myself, and if conventional wisdom is correct, adults are doomed to underestimate them, even when we are forewarned of this danger. But I know what I like -- simple study tools and educational games are fun to play on public transit and other dead time, or just ostentatiously improving oneself in a big comfy chair at the local coffeehouse. If they can also be used by children on the OLPC, well, that's a hell of a warm fuzzy, and a good line to use on chicks. (Can it be... a massive convergence of the interests of narcissistic hipgeeks and developing-world children? Count me IN!)

The Record Application...

[bagofcrap]

.. only let you record up to 45 seconds.

Thats not long enough, so change it: How to let the Record activity to record than 45 seconds of audio. [hackszine.com]