Etoys tries to open PNG as project

[bert]

Etoys must check the mime-type when resuming a journal object and not just assume it is a squeak project, which fails.

Build: 537

orignal report by Abe-san at http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/etoys/2007-July/000768.html

[jg]

I guess my opinion is that if there is a one line class fix, *and* we have some other big bug that must be fixed requiring a etoys update, fixing this for Trial-2 is conceivable, otherwise not.

[jg]

Me stupid.

This isn't etoy's fault at all (unless the etoys changes claimed etoys should open png's; I'd expect something else (e.g. the web brower) should handle png.

[bert]

Etoys actually declares that we are able to open PNGs, otherwise you could not drag-and-drop images into etoys. It's funny that Etoys somehow becomes the default app, but that's fine by me ;)

I do have a fix for this which makes resuming non-projects from journal work. Will see if other bugs crop up ...

[tomeu]

Declaring dnd support for a type is completely different than declaring that an activity is capable of opening that type.

In Xdnd, deciding which data type an app will receive is negotiated as part of the protocol.

For resuming entries and opening objects from the journal, you have to specify in the activity.info which mime types you understand as full documents, not just as snippets.

For trial2 we don't have any mechanism in the UI for letting the user choose which activity to open the entry/object in, so we need to coordinate the mime types that activities claim to support.

I have opened two tickets for trial3 about it: #2543 and #2544.

[bert]

Replying to tomeu:

For resuming entries and opening objects from the journal, you have to specify in the activity.info which mime types you understand as full documents, not just as snippets.

What do you mean with "full documents, not just as snippets"?

[tomeu]

Dnd and copy&paste are meant as a mechanism for sharing objects between activities: taking some text out of Browse and pasting in Write, or drawing something in Paint and pasting into eToys.

Entries in the journal are representations of the state of an activity when it was stopped.

Until some extent, a drawing, a piece of text or a photograph can be "converted" into full journal entries by the "copy to journal" menu option. So then can be resumed by an activity that claims to understand the format in which that data is saved.

The other way round, the saved state of activities can be transformed into a clipboard object, something that can be pasted or dropped inside an activity.

And opening from the clipboard menu is just a shortcut for "Copy to journal" and then "Resume from journal".

I understand this can be confusing. Eben, looks correct what I said? What's missing there so we can make it more explicit and less confusing?

[tomeu]

forgot to add Eben to cc

[bert]

So if I download a PNG and want to start building a project with it in etoys, it's reasonable to have etoys announce it can open PNGs, right? And so it does.

Anyway, I prepared a fix (1469resumeFix-bf), will be in Etoys-52 once that gets made.

[tomeu]

Replying to bert:

So if I download a PNG and want to start building a project with it in etoys, it's reasonable to have etoys announce it can open PNGs, right? And so it does.

Yes, but we'll find these issues in trial2: #2543 and #2544.

[bert]

Replying to tomeu:

Replying to bert:

So if I download a PNG and want to start building a project with it in etoys, it's reasonable to have etoys announce it can open PNGs, right? And so it does.

Yes, but we'll find these issues in trial2: #2543 and #2544.

... meaning? Do we need to change something in etoys for trial-2 or not?

[tomeu]

Replying to bert:

Replying to tomeu:

Replying to bert:

So if I download a PNG and want to start building a project with it in etoys, it's reasonable to have etoys announce it can open PNGs, right? And so it does.

Yes, but we'll find these issues in trial2: #2543 and #2544.

... meaning? Do we need to change something in etoys for trial-2 or not?

As we don't have for trial2 the mechanism for letting the user choose which activity to open the object with, we are choosing arbitrarily one activity from the available activities that claim support for this mime type.

Looks like Etoys is being chosen.

If we agree is better for Browse to open when displaying png files, then Etoys should stop announcing support for pngs for trial2.

Note that this won't affect the capability of Etoys for accepting drops or pastes of pngs.

[Eben]

I'm not sure that it does make sense for Etoys to claim support for image formats. Clearly it supports them as a component of a project, but it's not a supported file type, just as I wouldn't expect the Write activity to open a .jpg file. I could embed one, but its not a format that it opens.

Of course, I'm just tossing that out; I'm not well versed in Etoys, and I know it's highly capable, so perhaps it does make more sense than I think and my Write comparison isn't the best.

[bert]

Well, "opening files" doesn't really fit with Sugar philosphically anyway. You'ld just start an activity somehow involving that file, right? So etoys would not be special in that regard. I agree etoys should not be the "default" activity dealing with, e.g., images, if there is more appropriate alternative. But offering to start a new etoys project based on some media file is reasonable IMHO. At least it makes discovering activities more obvious - how else should a kid find out which activities support which media?

And pardon me, but how would opening a PNG in the browser be more desirable than opening it in Etoys? In Etoys a kid could at least *do* something with it. Like, add annotations. Or sound effects. Or cut out parts and make a collage. Have it bounce around on the screen. You know, fun, creative stuff, not just dumb watching.

So given that #2544 is marked fixed, do we still need to disclaim support for media types in Etoys?

[tomeu]

In my opinion the etoys developers should know if it makes sense initiate an etoys project from a png, I have read good arguments on both side.

What I suggested was to take that out for trial2, as we don't have a way for the user to choose which activity should open the journal entry or clipboard object.

[bert]

Resuming now works in Etoys v52: #2592

If there is a strong desire that Etoys should not announce that it can open PNG and other media formats, this would be a simple edit in the bundle's activity.info, no need to re-spin the RPM.