[olpc-software] AbiWord, HIG

[Robert Staudinger]

On 3/15/06, Alan Kay <alan.kay at squeakland.org> wrote:
> Hi Robert --
>
> At 07:19 AM 3/15/2006, Robert Staudinger wrote:
> >On 3/15/06, Alan Kay <alan.kay at squeakland.org> wrote:
> > > There are many other ways to provide access to controls -- e.g. William
> > > Newman at PARC used a kind of overlay scheme that worked quite well.
> >
> >Are any further details on that available? URL?
>
> I think that Newman & Sproull 2nd Edition might show some pictures. But I
> also think that better designs are possible today, once we start looking
> for "better".
>
>
> > > This could be one route for the integration of media and scripting that
> > > children need.
> >
> >Where can I learn more about the requirements?
>
> AFAIK, there is no current official set of requirements (though Walter
> Bender is no doubt trying to put such together). The current opinions range
> from "just give them Linux with a windows-like UI and apps" to more extreme
> views (such as the ones I hold) that desire a real children's environment
> that is highly integrated, with a simple comprehensive UI, child scripting
> possibilities for everything, wiki-like but WYSIWYG authoring of dynamic
> media in or out of a browser, screen sharing with VOIP (for mentoring,
> internet collab, etc.), that runs bit-identically on all internet connected
> platforms, etc.

Hmm, the wiki bit makes me think. Are you considering to use AbiWord
as frontend? Currently AbiWord is pretty weak at reading HTML (much
effort has been put into good export). Also because of being page
oriented results may differ quite a bit when viewed in the browser.
If the first priority word processing use case is editing HTML maybe a
mozilla based frontend should be considered. I've been playing with
that idea (and code) some time ago (
http://robsta.rsm-freilassing.de/projects/ , look for "Bongo")

Best,
Rob