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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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