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Re: [kidsgames] the webpage



Hello,

I am SOOOO behind.....

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, Paul Kienzle wrote:

-->Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 17:08:43 +0100 (BST)
-->From: Paul Kienzle <pkienzle@kienzle.powernet.co.uk>
-->To: jeff@smluc.org, kidsgames@smluc.org
-->Subject: Re: [kidsgames] the webpage
-->
-->>stickers Paul this thing is GREAT!!!!!!  It needs work, but WOW.... I like
-->>it and my daughter does too :)
-->>
-->>	things to do with it (besides what Paul already has on his todo
-->>		list :).
-->>
-->>		From Clare: the barn scene needs a feed trough as well as
-->>			a water trough.  (optional) Sounds to go with the
-->>			stickers, and sound help to activate when hovering
-->>			over a button.
-->
-->Tanya and I had arguments about this.  She figured sounds would be
-->distracting.

I can be, but it can also help.  And for *most* children younger than say
6 or 7 their PRIMARY mode of understanding is spoken word and
visualization.  This means an application without sound is not addressing
them in their primary mode.

-->  I think sounds can make up for a design deficiency (you
-->can't actually tell when a sticker has been stuck).  In the end, it was
-->more work to add sound than not, and my weekend hack turned into a two
-->week hack so I opted to leave sound out.  I have written a routine which
-->reads in .wav files and plays them on the /dev/dsp. 

Ouch, it seems that the X protocol should have a sound target just like it
has a screen target, it's just another display type isn't it.....oh well I
guess they didn't see it that way...

--> It is very easy
-->to drop into a program.  However, sound is best handled through a sound
-->server, preferably the same one for all other applications on your system,
-->and prefereably one that is network aware.  I tried running esound 0.2.8,
-->but couldn't get it to compile.  I don't know if it is network aware.
-->Any idea which sound server is "winning"?  I.e., which one we should
-->standardize on?
-->

wish I knew.  rplay, esd, probably a couple of other's. I still think it
belongs in the X protocol, but I doubt that will ever happen.

-->>			The fish need to have an ocean background instead
-->>			of the grass one they have now :)
-->
-->Maternity leave is coming up soon.  You can expect more artistic
-->development then.
-->

Sound great.

-->>		From me:  needs a way to save the drawing (seems to do
-->>				this sort of automatically but segfaults if
-->>				I pick what it seems to have
-->>				saved, perhaps an oversite on my part?)
-->>			  needs a way to print, I don't like wasting
-->>				trees, but showing off their work it important
-->>				to kids, perhaps a virtual
-->>				fridge to pin it to.... ;)  we mentioned
-->>				the online gallery before it would be good
-->>				to integrate that capability in
-->>				now I think.
-->
-->The drawings are saved in your directory in a file name and format
-->controlled by the configuration window.

ok.

-->  You can use image magic or
-->the gimp to print them.  As for integrating printing into stickers,
-->it would be easy enough to add a control button underneath the other
-->scene control buttons to print the scene that you are working on, 
-->but short of saving it to a temporary file and piping it through some
-->image printing program (which one?)

Easiest and probably best would be to make that one of the configuration
items, so that it can be set to "lpr -Pbigolecolorlaserprinter" or
">stupid.file.that.isnot.necessary" or "smbclient -p
\\printserver\winprinter" or whatever

--> I don't know how to get it to a
-->printer (or into an e-mail to grandma).
-->

if you make the print command configurable then to get it into email

would just be "| pine grandma" or some such... these commands are not
exact and I suppose they could pose a security risk, but it is best to let
programs that are designed to handle printing and mailing to do just that.
 
-->> -->>			  would be nice if the objects in panels were more
-->>				obvious (i.e. I didn't know there were
-->>				multiple stickers on one tab for a while)
-->
-->Feel free to send more intuitive icons.  Particularly for "restore sticker
-->properties" since nobody recognizes the boomerang.
-->

IF I EVER get a change to learn how to really learn the GIMP, I will DO
just that...

-->>			  needs to have shapes scene where the images are
-->>				just simple square, circle, rectangle,
-->>				triangle, etc. (i'm working on it,
-->>				I think I can do that...)
-->
-->And various brush shapes.
-->

If I could figure out how to use the tangram shapes from gTans, that would
be cool....Can gimp brush shapes be used for this?

-->>			barnyard needs horses and goats, and the chicken
-->>				default size should be smaller ;)
-->>
-->>			It would be wonderful to have a scene builder
-->>			application where it would be easy to add the
-->>			base scene and the png
-->>			sticker's to go with it, would a gimp plugin
-->>			be a way to go here, or
-->>			should it be a stand alone type thing?
-->>			I intend to try some real pictures as stickers and
-->>			see how it works.
-->
-->I really need to add alpha support for photos to work well. Otherwise, the
-->edges will be too harsh.  They will work better than the 16 colour images
-->I liberated from Sesame Street Art Workshop however.
-->

Go LIBERATOR!!!!  I might try that, they do have a LOT of stickers don't
they, fair use... I just have to make sure I don't accidental package them
into anything.... all this licensing stuff gets to be such a pain
sometimes...

-->> 
-->>			Anyway, a big round of applause and thank you to
-->>			Paul and Tanya and their son have made an EXCELLENT
-->>			start.  Get this and start adding to the scenery
-->>				;) or just use what's already there....
-->
-->Now as soon as life stops interfering I can do some more work on stickers
-->(and an animated story book and a voice trainer and a foreign accent 
-->trainer and so on...).
-->

:)

-->Paul Kienzle

-- 
Jeff Waddell
jeff@smluc.org

Kids Games Project Coordinator
main website at http://smluc.org/SIA/kidsgames/



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