ericb's place

How to add new cursors in OOo4Kids (Windows, Linux,Mac OS X)

2010-04-24T08:27:00.008Z

Added a new entry in the OOo4Kids wiki:

How to add a new cursor in OOo4Kids (basically the same as adding one in OpenOffice.org of course ;-)

Everything comes from notes I took during the implementation, and the translation in other locales will follow soon.

Any help and contribution is welcome : feel free to add information, and help us to improve !

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Education Project on the wiki
EducOO.org blog (french)
OOo4Kids

Many thanks to Ben Bois , author of the EducOOo Logo

Be able to see any Image in Writer, as a slideshow ... (idea of 21st april)

2010-04-21T19:07:00.007Z

Just a wild idea (don't know whether this is realistic or not), but after I watched Google Chrome video, I was thinking to myself : what about be able to see any image as a slideshow ?

(Sort of) scenario :

Imagine you are reading a Writer /Draw or whatever document, and in this document, a nice image.

-> click one dedicated shortcut : et hop ! the image appears in fullscreen, including possible annotations
-> move the mouse : a front like menu appears, and you can stop, or display the next image found in the document, maybe do more ..

Ok, was just an idea ... back to the real work :-)

OOo4Kids 0.9.5 adds Arabic localization

2010-04-12T06:27:00.005Z

The localization is not completely finished, but thanks a lot to Anas for his work !

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Education Project on the wiki
EducOO.org blog (french)
OOo4Kids

Many thanks to Ben Bois , author of the EducOOo Logo

Preparing OOo4Kids 0.9.5

2010-04-10T09:33:00.013Z

ENGLISH version(FRENCH below) :

After some times debugging, I found what was not working, and now we have a new feature in Impress, in annotations mode:

- in eraser mode, or when you change the eraser size, the cursor is an eraser
- in pen mode, the cursor is a pen
- when changing the color, the cursor is an arrow

Verified on Linux and Mac OS X (remains Windows, never like the other ...)

This work is a follow up of the big project we have with Ecole Centrale Nantes, more precisely : improve Impress adding a canvas in overlay.

Other changes for 0.9.5 :

- added Arabic (yet some missing strings, and needs more attention, due to RTL behavior, and a second translator needed)
- added Norwegian (Bokmal)
- added Traditional Chinese
- added some important fixes from the coming OOO_321

Todo before to release 0.9.5 :

- verify the cursor is ok on Windows too (check the hotspot e.g.)
- cleanup in menus, toolbars (removing useless entrie)
- cleanup in prefs (remove tabs)
- change version number for 0.9.5 and create the new .DS_Store on Mac OS X

This is the last step before 1.0beta :)

FRENCH version :
Apres quelques temps passes a debuguer Impress, j'ai trouve ce qui ne marchait pas et maintenant nous avons une nouvelle fonctionnalité dans Impress, en mode annotations :

- en mode "gomme", ou lorsqu'on change la taille de la gomme, le curseur devient une gomme
- en mode stylo, le curseur est un stylo
- lorsqu'on change la couleur du stylo, le curseur est une fleche (plus grosse sous Mac OS X)

Fonctionnement verifie sous Linux et Mac OS X (reste Windows, ou rien n'est comme ailleurs ...)

Ce travail est la suite du grand projet que nous avons avec l' Ecole Centrale Nantes, en particulier, ameliorer Impress avec un canvas en overlay, en mode presentation.

Autres changements pour la future version 0.9.5 :

- ajoute l'Arabe (encore quelques chaines manquantes, demande de l'attention, a cause de la prise en charge de droite a gauche de l'ecriture, et du fait qu'il manque un second traducteur)
- ajoute le Norvegien (Bokmal)
- ajoute le Chinois Traditionnel
- ajoute quelques correctifs importants de la version 3.2.1 a venir

A faire avant la release 0.9.5 :

- verifier que le curseur est ok sous Windows (verifier le hotspot par exemple)
- continuer a nettoyer les menus, et barres d'outils (en otant les entrees inutiles)
- nettoyage dans les preferences (supprimer d'autres onglets)
- modifier le numero de version pour 0.9.5 et creer le nouveau .DS_Store sous Mac OS X

C'est la derniere etape avant la version 1.0beta !!

Password protected preferences in OOo4Kids 0.9

2010-03-27T20:50:00.027Z

One of the OOo4Kids 0.9 new feature is the password protected preferences.

Principles :

Children love experiment. Most of them have good skills for that, but this is not what the teacher expects :-) So, the goal of this feature, is to implement, intelligently, a protection for the preferences, who :
* avoids the children to modify something
* but allow them to click, and see whatever they want (in read only mode)

Important : this feature is only a protection to avoid children hacking the OOo4Kids, but not a security (the password is readable in Common.xcu)

The Rules :

* The default password, if enabled, is : prof
* By default, the preferences are unlocked
* To activate the protection, one just need to click on the "Click to avoid modifications" Image button (the green padlock).

=> Be carefull : the protection will be validated once the dialog box will be closed, and this change is not reversible Means once activated, you'll need the password to disable that.

The views :

* A green padlock displayed on the bottom of the view, means : unlocked preferences

* A red padlock displayed on the bottom of the view, means : locked preferences

Disable the protection :

Change the password

Attention : the toolbars will stay customizable.

The feature was made on behalf of teachers, and in collaboration with them. Th code will be fully documented (I started already) at the Password protected preferences wiki page, and of course, if ever something can be reused in Openoffice.org, I'd be glad to provide patches (no idea whether it will interest anybody though)

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If you want to help us, to find resource and contribute back to improve OpenOffice.org, via the OpenOffice.org Education Project, donations are welcome

OOo4Kids is made for Educational purpose, has been thought to work with students, making them discover OpenOffice.org source code, without constraints, but just code, and having Fun.
The promise is, when the code is good enough, it will be proposed for integration into OpenOffice.org.

OOo4Kids 0.9 on gdium

2010-03-24T10:28:00.007Z

Completed the build on gdium (Linux mipsel), and OOo4Kids 0.9 builds and works well on this machine, based on loongson mipsel processor.

The .rpm install fine too. Thanks to Julien Forgeat for the Mandriva generic installation instructions you'll find there.

The build was made on an 32 GB USB key, and the next step, is to install the Debian Lenny on the gdium.

For the one interested : the Debian Installation instructions on gdium link

OOo4Kids 0.9 is available for download

2010-03-18T08:31:00.025Z

EducOOo and the OpenOffice.org Education Project are proud to announce OOo4Kids 0.9 is out.

Click the link to download OOo4Kids

You'll find the following versions (de, es, en-US, fi, fr, it, nl, pt, zh-CN):

* Windows XP ( SP3 or superior)
* Mac OS 10.4 or superiior (PowerPC and Intel),
* Linux 32 and 64 bits ( as archive containing .deb)

=> + Don't forget the Portable OOo4Kids for Windows !

-
the changelog is continuously updated there :
http://wiki.ooo4kids.org/index.php/Changelogs

To summarize, the The latest essential changes
between 0.8 and 0.9 are :

English :
* OOo4Kids is now localized in Finnish
* Integrated sound and movies on Windows (DirectX), Mac(QuickTime) on Linux (gstreamer) with Impress. Thanks to Novell, Radek Doulik and Cedric Bosdonnat for the gstreamer part (Linux).
* User's preferences are now password protected. (prof is the default password)
* Impress Annotations mode during a presentation : color, and size of the pen can now be modified, backup'ed erased. Thanks to the students of Ecole Centrale Nantes and Thorsten Behrens for their work (eraser1 cws)
* Impress 3D OpenGL transitions (Mac OS X only)
* big size arrow cursor ( Mac OS X only)
* Debian .deb archive on Linux (expérimental)
* (Linux) OOo4Kids and all other applications do now appear in the main menu
* New Open and save icons( thanks to Ben Bois) replaced old Crystal theme applications icons with the OOo4Kids one
(some bugfixes .. )

In préparation :
- big cursors on Windows and Linux, new eraser and pen cursors (bigger) with Impress, in annotations mode.
- Puppy Linux version (very soon)
- Linux Gdium version (build currently broken)

Note: we do not provide yet .rpm archive, but depending on the demand, we'll put one experimental .rpm archive online very soon ( Suse, RedHat and Mandriva compatible)

Anybody willing to prepare .rpm should be able to build OOo4Kids for those distributions witout any big probleme. Thanks to contact us for further information ( IRC : #ooo4kids , server : irc.freenode.net )

French :
* OOo4Kids est maintenant proposé en Finlandais
* Son intégré sous Windows (DirectX), Mac(QuickTime) et Linux (gstreamer) avec Impress. Merci à Novell, Radek Doulik and Cedric Bosdonnat pour le code relatif à gstreamer (Linux).
* Préférences Utilisateur protégées par mot de passe. ( prof est le mot de passe par défaut )
* Annotations, couleur, taille stylo pouvant être modifiées, sauvegardées, gommées pendant une présentation (Impress)
* Transitions 3D OpenGL (Impress, Mac OS X)
* Curseur de grande taille ( Mac OS X seulement)
* Archive .deb pour Debian sous Linux (expérimental)
* (Linux) OOo4Kids et toutes les applications apparaissent dans le menu principal

En préparation :
- gros curseurs sous Windows et Linux, nouveaux curseur gomme et stylo (plus gros ) avec Impress, en mode annotations
- version Toutou Linux (prochainement)
- version Linux Gdium (compilation actuellement cassée)

Note: nous ne fournissons pas encore d'archive de type .rpm faute de volontaires et de ressources, mais en fonction de la demande, nous mettrons une version experimentale en ligne prochainement. Toute personne souhaitant preparer des .rpm ( Mandriva, Red Hat ) devrait pouvoir créer ces archives sans problème.

Merci de nous contacter (IRC : #ooo4kids , serveur : irc.freenode.net).

---------------------

If you want to help us, to find resource and contribute back to improve OpenOffice.org, via the OpenOffice.org Education Project, donations are welcome

OOo4Kids is made for Educational purpose, has been thought to work with students, making them discover OpenOffice.org source code, without constraints, but just code, and having Fun.
The promise is, when the code is good enough, it will be proposed for integration into OpenOffice.org.

OOo4Kids is a 7-12 years children Office suite, based on OpenOffice.org ( http://www.openoffice.org ) source code. This means OpenOffice.org has some features OOo4Kids has not (like Base and Java). And if you need those features, please use OpenOffice.org, that you can download at : Download OpenOffice.org. Please do not forget that the software is provided as it, and that you will use it at your own risks. Do not forget to do a backup either.

OOo4Kids now builds as .rpm

2010-03-16T21:46:00.006Z

Yesterday, Matthieu Paret, student at UTBM, joined the channel and proposed to help us. So, I suggested to install a Mandriva, and try to build OOo4Kids. Once installed, we helped Matthieu to start the build, and spend yesterday evening, with some issues.

.. and this was finally successfull : we worked together today too, and finally fixed the old issue avoiding to build .rpm (mostly the desktop menus).

And we're done : it works, and OOo4Kids now installs as .rpm !!

For the moment, that's experimental, and needs some work, but we're glad :)

Yet other new videos presenting OOo4kids

2010-03-14T12:27:00.008Z

Un grand merci à Jean-Marie Lafon pour son super boulot.

Le contenu, qui concerne la future version 0.9 d'OOo4Kids est, comme vous pouvez le remarquer, en Français, mais si vous souhaitez traduire ces vidéos dans une autre langue, n'hésitez pas à nous contacter.

Note: this is french only

Thanks to Jean-Marie Lafon for his great work !!

The content is in French but easy to understand. Feel free to contact us is you want to translate.

Protection des préférences par mot de passe from Jean-Marie LAFON on Vimeo.

Réglage du niveau utilisateur pour "Writer" from Jean-Marie LAFON on Vimeo.

Time to release OOo4Kids 0.9

2010-03-13T13:00:00.009Z

After several days of tests, it's time to release OOo4Kids 0.9.

Stay tuned :-)

One of the next steps will be: document the changes, and start ClassRooms with the Education Project, describe about what has been done, and improve. The point is to demystify OpenOffice.org source code, and answer the questions, e.g. in discussions with student, explain what's inside an so on.

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Education Project on the wiki
EducOO.org blog (french)
OOo4Kids

Many thanks to Ben Bois , author of the EducOOo Logo

New look for the Education Project wiki page

2010-03-11T10:03:00.008Z

Many thanks to Matthieu Paret, student at UTBM (France) who relooked the Education Project wiki page

The work was made as a student application (credits), during the previous semester.

The reports describing the work, are available in both French and English (please report us the issues, errors and so on, you could find)

* French version of the report (.pdf format).
* English version of the report (.pdf format).

* Other reports (.odt and other)
To summarize, the work was mostly a long thought about what we do, and how we do.

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Education Project on the wiki
EducOO.org blog (french)
OOo4Kids

Many thanks to Ben Bois , author of the EducOOo Logo

OOo4kids provided as .deb archives

2010-02-17T07:30:00.008Z

Yesterday, I finally figured out what was wrong with the upstream packaging, and the .deb we build install fine and can be deinstalled fine too. Just follow the instructions

The problem is, the upstream way of .deb is not the right one, and Jose Luis Redrejo who kindly helped me, suggested to return to the right Debian way.

One big issue, e.g., is that if you want to install Writer only, this is unclear with the current dependencies scheme, and needs to be seriously improved. Other issue, is there are not "Section" and "Priority" sections in the existing control file.

So, this must be changed, and we agreed to use the upstream way until 1.0 output, and then change for the real Debianization just after 1.0 is out (current milestone in progress is 0.9)

Experimental packages can be provided on demand. Either ask us the info by email, or (better) ask on IRC.

Last but not least : .rpm will follow soon if we find a volunteer.

Channel : #education.openoffice.org
Server : irc.freenode.net

See you

OOo4Kids 0.8

2010-02-15T07:00:00.006Z

The current version of OOo4Kids is 0.8

If you want to help us, to find resource and contribute back to improve OpenOffice.org, via the OpenOffice.org Education Project, donations are welcome at this URL

OOo4Kids is made for Educational purpose, has been thought to work with students, making them discover OpenOfice.org source code, without constraints, but just code, and having Fun.
The promise is, when the code is good enough, it is proposed for integration into OpenOffice.org.

OOo4Kids is a 7-12 years children Office suite,
based on OpenOffice.org source code.
This means OpenOffice.org has some features OOo4Kids has not(like Base and Java). And if you need those features, please use OpenOffice.org, that you can download at : download OpenOffice.org

Please do not forget that the software is provided as it, and that you will use it at your own risks. Do not forget to do a backup either.

The latest essential changes since 0.6 are

- New Start center (new design by Ben Bois)
- Ooo4Kids is now based on OOO320_m11 OpenOffice.org source code (m12 for trunk)
- default user interface scale is now 115% by default (better adaptated for children)
- modified toolbar with 3 new buttons added (Writer, expert mode)

The latest biggest bugfixes since 0.6 are :

- several crashes when launching Ooo4Kids in command line are fixed
- Windows : directly launch any application is now supported (no more crash)
- Fixed the crash, when clicking on the icon, while OOo4Kids is already launched
- mismatch with color/security tabs in preferences issue is fixed
- Mac OS X : the new Apple remote (metallic, 2009 model) works

For further information, please read the changelog

Last but not least, don't forget that we propose a portable version for Windows

Reminder : Education Project objectives and Mission

2010-02-14T16:28:00.008Z

Just back from holidays, I thought it could be a good idea to make a point about what is Education Project, as reminder, and to avoid confusion with what we can read sometimes ...

Back to the point: the objectives of the Education Projects are extremely precise, and well defined on the OpenOffice.org wiki. This is written since at least two years, means since I'm Education Project Lead ...

Let's verify ... reading the OpenOffice.org Wiki page : The Education Project aims to create a bridge between Educational World and OpenOffice.org Project

More precisely, the OpenOffice.org Education Project mission is explained there : Education Project Mission

Shortly, our Mission in 3 points :

- Provide a place for OpenOffice.org users, in Education context: discuss about adapt OpenOffice.org to your pedagogy, your needs ..etc (all levels of Education are concerned )

- Provide and promote tools adapted to pedagogical use, around OpenOffice.org

- Write code together : we can teach you everything about OpenOffice.org code and how add your: just go ahead

Any help is welcome, and Alexandro Colorado (Education Project Co-Lead) and me, will be glad to welcome you :)

As conclusion : please do not trust everything people wrote about the Education Project, and if you have some doubts, feel free to ask me directly ;-) (e.g. join #education.openoffice.org on irc.freenode.net server if you want to discuss with me directly)

OOo4Kids 0.8 : new Star Center

2010-01-28T17:26:00.008Z

One more time, thanks to Ben Bois who created a new great background for the future version (0.8) of OOo4Kids :

The shapes of the buttons are no longer apparent, and when you roll over one of them, a help balloon explains you which application will open. Of course, things are not perfect, and we still have some bugs to fix, but this is very promising !! (and my children love it ;-)

More information about the recent changes

IMPORTANT : the version proposed for download (0.6) below does NOT have the feature yet. The new splashscreen should be integrated in the version : 0.8, not before.

=> Download.ooo4Kids.org website

If you want to help us, to find resource and contribute back to improve OpenOffice.org, via the OpenOffice.org Education Project, donations are welcome

OOo4Kids is made for Educational purpose, has been thought to work with students, making them discover OpenOffice.org source code, without constraints, but just code, and having Fun.
The promise is, when the code is good enough, it will be proposed for integration into OpenOffice.org.

OOo4Kids is a 7-12 years children Office suite, based on OpenOffice.org ( http://www.openoffice.org ) source code. This means OpenOffice.org has some features OOo4Kids has not (like Base and Java). And if you need those features, please use OpenOffice.org, that you can download at : Download OpenOffice.org. Please do not forget that the software is provided as it, and that you will use it at your own risks. Do not forget to do a backup either.

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Education Project on the wiki

EducOO.org blog (french)

Many thanks to Ben Bois , author of the EducOOo logo, dedicated to the OpenOffice.org Education Project
...

Welcome to new students joining the OpenOffice.org Education Project

2010-01-11T11:37:00.008Z

Morgan Magnin just advertised me today : two students from Ecole Centrale Nantes(aka ECN) will continue the effort this semester (january to june 2010) :-)

Welcome to Cyril le Mat and Arthur Bonnet!

It is planned to continue to improve the HP Tablet PC use with Impress.

The great news, is that this new project will start the third year of cooperation between OpenOffice.org Education Project and ECN.

Links: see the blog entry about the previous project just finished and screenshots about "Tablet PC and OpenOffice.org (french, sorry).

Are you student in computing, and want to learn code (mostly C++), fight with well defined and mentored projects ? or simply contribute to OpenOffice.org, instead of doing dumb internal projects ? Just find a teacher, as correspondant, and join the OpenOffice.org Education Project :-)

Contact : IRC
Channel : #education.openoffice.org
Server : irc.freenode.net

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Education Project on the wiki

EducOO.org blog (french)

OOo4Kids Project

Many thanks to Ben Bois , author of the EducOOo logo, dedicated to the OpenOffice.org Education Project
...

EducOOo reversing money to the OpenOffice.org Project

2010-01-03T07:24:00.006Z

The EducOOo non profit association is not really rich ( see : the Donations Thermometer for example ), but after I proposed the idea to the EducOOo Administration Council,it has been accepted.

The exact level is being discussed, and can be revised, but it should be between 10% and 15% of the money we receive (donations or partners).

As example : imagine we receive 3000 euros from some partner, or as donation : 450 euros will be directly reserved for direct help, like fund a developer (student prefered, but other cases will be studied) who cannot attend an event, or participate to buy hardware or whatever other action.

Work in progress. Stay tuned.

OOo4Kids 0.6 and Happy New Year !!

2009-12-31T10:20:00.020Z

For the new year, EducOOo and the OpenOffice.org Education Project are proud to announce OOo4Kids 0.6 is out, and can be downloaded at :

=> Download.ooo4Kids.org website

If you want to help us, to find resource and contribute back to improve OpenOffice.org, via the OpenOffice.org Education Project, donations are welcome

OOo4Kids is made for Educational purpose, has been thought to work with students, making them discover OpenOfice.org source code, without constraints, but just code, and having Fun.
The promise is, when the code is good enough, it will be proposed for integration into OpenOffice.org.

OOo4Kids is a 7-12 years children Office suite, based on OpenOffice.org ( http://www.openoffice.org ) source code. This means OpenOffice.org has some features OOo4Kids has not (like Base and Java). And if you need those features, please use OpenOffice.org, that you can download at : Download OpenOffice.org. Please do not forget that the software is provided as it, and that you will use it at your own risks. Do not forget to do a backup either.

The latest changes since 0.5.1 are:

* (experimental) Portable OOo4Kids for Windows the following locales are provided :
- en-US, fr, de, es, nl, it, pt
- zh-CN is provided too - thanks to Julien Forgeat for the translation - but not tested (can be unusable)
Please use them with caution, and report us any bug you found.

* New layout ( thanks to Ben Bois for the icons, and Vincent Ruffiot for the screenshot) :
- fixed the white effect on right
- fixed the look

* New toolbars behavior : now, the toolbars content depend on the
User's Level ( can be changed in the prefs).
See : Toolbars and User Level for
further information.

* New locales are provided :
- Italian,
- Chinese (simplified),
- Dutch
(previous existing locales : English-US, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish)

* New XO port : OOo4Kids has been "Sugarized", means it does respect Sugar tree, and the .xo archive installs like any other activity.

* More OOo4Kids icons

* Linux : .deb and .rpm buildable (yet some bugs)
* Linux : language packs buildable (will be used for XO port)

* Experimental : modified the UI in the prefs, adding the "password" feature, to protect the prefs (avoiding children doing wrong actions).
* Will be implemented in 0.7. It is scheduled that the password will be enabled by default.

* Next step :
- choose the definitive toolbars content, per level, and following the teachers recommandations
- fix more issues with .deb and .rpm
- more bugfixes
- implement the password feature

=> Further information : see the roadmap

Season Greatings, and (almost) Happy New Year to all of you !!

Education Project mailing list reactivation

2009-12-29T18:25:00.008Z

Below, the mail I sent to several mailing lists.

After two years of an intense activity of the french part of the education.openoffice.org project, we are ready to reactivate this international list : this is one of our objectives for 2010 !!

To subscribe, just send a mail at : users-subscribe@education.openoffice.org confirm, and that's all : you can start contributing to the Education Project !!

To become a member, please follow the instructions provided there : http://education.openoffice.org/servlets/ProjectMemberList

Education Project aims to create a bridge between Educational World and OpenOffice.org Project, following 3 axes :

- create a network of teachers, using OpenOffice.org
- provide a sharing area
- provide new developers, and spread OpenOffice.org source code (teach OOo source code and coding guidelines, UNO, an so on)

Currently, this project counts around 110 members, but everybody is welcome, and there is so much to do, that any contribution is wamrly welcome too !!

Everybody is welcome : teachers, students, just curious :)

For the one willing to help us, we need people able to help us for the website, translate, manage the wiki, but not only (the list is not limited).

Other need is to compare, work together (collaborative work), and concatenate informations providing from several educational systems, and of course, share our knowledge.

Be welcome, and Seasonal Greatings to all of you !!

Eric Bachard
Lead,
OpenOffice.org Education Project

OpenOffice.org Education Project and Epitech Paris students

2009-12-22T16:31:00.010Z

The great story between Epitech Paris and OpenOffice.org, for instance OpenOffice.org Education Project, representing OpenOffice.org Proejct, of course, continued this year.

What happened ?

Last year, was Pierre Pasteau, who contributed to the moz2seamonkey migration. Thanks to Frank Schonheit who helped us a lot btw.

This year, we had two other students, Thomas Fontenay and Abelkader Belabbes, who did a great work too. The work they did, was to port OOo4Kids to the XO

Note: port OpenOffice.org directly is not an option, because an XO machine does only have 1GB of Hard disk, and 256 MB or RAM only, while OOo set is already 400MB :-)

Some will say this is not a directly visible result, but in fact, this is an extremely important result : Realize this XO port connected OpenOffice.org Community directly with XO / OLPC Community !! (like provide gdium suppport connected us to the OLPH community too)

Indeed, from one side, the .odf is essential, and from another, it must be considered that the students learned a lot of OpenOffice.org source code, in a short time. Learn the code first, is essential to my eyes. If they had to dive into QA, specs (what basically does mostly concern Sun employees), six month would have been too short. The other good effect, is that the OpenOffice.org Project yet built a strong link with an engineer school.

In fact, that's exactly what we did with Ecole Centrale Nantes, and UTBM .

The difficulty is that create such bridges with schools is extremely long, needs a lot of energy, but, in return, creates a very positive image of the project, and can really help to find developers (remember, the code is the blood of a free software, not "politics ").

Just a bit of patience, and the future will be better !

Last but not least, we received several machines, exactly 3 XO-1.5 for the next coming students. The plan is to profile and try to improve Impress performances (the request is very high for the netbooks), and propose a backport in OpenOffice.org, if the code desserves it.

Those machines are reserved to the two first students (from France prefered), able to find a prof (mandatory) to make the link with the school.

any candidate(s) ?

Ecole Centrale Nantes and OpenOffice.org Education project

2009-12-18T11:29:00.014Z

The OpenOffice.org Education Project continues the Effort. Ecole Centrale Nantes is a regular contributor, and below, the story.

How was it this year ? Well, change from svn to hg was a bit tricky (headhache caused by the rebase), but at the end, we did it. Jonathan Winandy, mercurial expert created its own repository, and we used it until the end. At the end, I pushed, with Thorsten Behrens and Rene Engelhard precious advices, all the changes into eraser01 cws.

Another part of the work is at issue 97972, but not only. The wiki too does contain a lot of information.

The students who contributed this year, are :

* Nelle Varoquaux
* Jonathan Winandy
* Leo Collet
* Remy Dumas
* Christian Jacques

And the professor who followed that is Morgan Magnin.

Many thanks to all of them !!

For the one interested, the final report is available online : ECN Tablet, final report (2009)

The feature is really great (specifications have been proposed last year) and we are preparing the cws, for the QA. It will be proposed for integration. There will not be a big change, because the option will not be active by defaut. The plan is to add other features in the next semesters.

I'll retain, like the previous time, it was a pleasure to work online with students, and to help them, to discover the OpenOffice.org source code, and more. Other important thing, is that you can work on the core, when you are enough close to the students, to mentor them, and hear carefully their problems. IRC ( channel : #education.openoffice.org , server : irc.freenode.net ) is really great for that.

Last but not least, I got a movie presenting the feature, made by Nelle Varoquaux, but I can't propose a link from there at the moment. Please click again later ;)

OOo4Kids. Recent news (25th nov2009)

2009-11-25T13:22:00.011Z

Last changes for the coming 0.6 :

OOo4Kids is now localized in :

- Italian
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Chinese (simplified)
- Dutch
- english-US (default)

Note: Japanese is postponed (no demand)

A big thank you to :

* Leo Moons (nl version),
* Volker Merschmann and Florian Effenberger (German version),
* Marina Latini and the Italian Team (Italian version),
* Julien Forgeat (simplified chinese version)

On the way :

- Portuguese (missing strings in the MS Intaller)

New versions:

* XO Intel version (both XO-1 and XO-1.5) in spanish, and english (other on demand)
* Portable versions (Windows) in fr, de, es, pt, en-US

Debian port in progress. Thanks to Rene Engelhard ( Debian OpenOffice.org maintainer )

Still waiting my write access at Freedesktop ...

OOo4Kids.activity.xo is available !

2009-11-14T08:16:00.012Z

On XO machines, when using Sugar, an application must respect some criterias, to appear listed as activity. We had in the scope to provide OOo4Kids as activity on Sugar.

...and the first step is done !!

Until yesterday evening (late in the night), Thomas Fontenay and me, worked hard to fix a silly issue we had with the first .xo archive of OOo4Kids. In fact, symlink are prohibited in the activity tree, and we had to modify it. + we had to include the changes in the OOo4Kids build process, similar to the OpenOffice.org one.

For the moment, we only provide en-US, but other locales are possible, like italien, spanish, french, german, and portuguese.

The lucky XO owners can download the archive there

Next steps :

* improve the set, and make its build more robust
* improve performance (simplify, simplify, remove dead code .. )
* work on the Journal implementation
* Study the sharing mechanism, like allow several children to work on the same document, though the network
* improve the python support
As you can see, there is place for a lot of students applications !!

Last but not least, I repeat my thank you to Thomas Fontenay, Abdelkader Belabbes, students at Epitch Paris for their good work.

Education Project ClassRoom : log available

2009-11-12T12:06:00.004Z

Yesterday, was IRC ClassRoom , and we were extremely pleased to receive Heiner Rechtien

As usual, the log is available on the OpenOffice.org wiki

ClassRoom today : OpenOffice.org Migration to Mercurial

2009-11-11T11:46:00.005Z

This is a reminder of the Education Project ClassRoom agenda : today, starting 17:00 CET (Paris Hamburg hour)and we are proud to receive Heiner Rechtien, Release Engineer à Sun Microsystems who will present us the OpenOffice.org migration to Mercurial

This is an IRC ClassRoom

Channel is #education.openoffice.org
Server is irc.freenode.net

Everybody interested is welcome. For the newcomers, we use to let the speaker explain everything and keep the second part for questions.

See you !!