Day 14: The Game Plan

After submitting our fix to modify a couple of Python files in the Sugar code base, we gathered yesterday to discuss the course of the team's efforts for the rest of our time together during this semester.  I do not think anyone in the group wanted to write test cases, since it would be a repeat performance of the projects we had completed in CSCI 362.  Instead, we decided on developing software in the form of creating an activity for the Sugar environment.  Our team member, Megan, pointed us in the right direction by finding Sugar's Wikipedia page on how to create an activity.  This step by step guide shows one how to create a simple activity by giving the reader the code needed in order to perform the setup operations.

Towards the bottom of the page, there is a command to install the compressed activity in the .xo format as follows:

sugar-install-bundle HelloWorld.xo

I mentioned earlier the use of the Surf.xo activity recommended over Sugar's Browse feature.  I installed it using the command above, replacing HelloWorld.xo with Surf-115.xo.  I received a successful completion in the terminal window and noticed the activity appear in the Sugar environment, but upon using the activity to search the Web, it failed and returned me to the start-up screen.  However, in using a USB to transfer the program to the Sugar emulator, the program would respond well upon use.  I'll investigate further to see if the problem is a matter of placing the file in a particular location in order to use the command appropriately.

Getting back to our timeline, we have created some initial tasks to divide amongst ourselves for creating an activity that will present nutrition facts to children in the U.S.  There is a similar activity available for kids in Uruguay, click here.  So far, we have planned:

• A GUI
• Algorithms to calculate a percentage of "healthiness"
• A database that interacts with the GUI