OPEN SLATE
PROJECT
| Back to Open Slate Home Page | Date: 2010.02.09 (2010.03.05) |
There is much to be done. Here is a list of small, focused projects you might want to contribute to.
There is a working driver for Ubuntu Linux that allows the Fujitsu T1010 digitizer to function as a mouse in Xorg. It does provide a button-1 (left mouse button) function, but does not provide support of buttons two and three. (See related project elsewhere in this list.)
The most complete implementation can be found here. This one has been tested and known to work.
Some possibly easier top follow preliminary work can be found in this Ubuntu forum thread.
At a minimum this task entails porting the code to FreeBSD. This will require some familiarity with the FreeBSD USB sub-system and associated libraries (man 9 usbdi), and most likely the source code at /usr/src/lib/libusbhid and /usr/src/sys/dev/syscons/sysmouse.c. This task would provide an excellent opportunity to learn about the USB protocol.
The Ubuntu T1010 tablet driver only provides support for mouse button-1 clicks. This task will extend this capability to include buttons two and three. Note that keyboard key combinations will not be available to a tablet.
This task will require familiarity with Squeak and the on-going development effort known as the "Trunk." It will require participation in the Squeak-dev mailing list. An understanding of the Squeak development community would be a plus.
FreeBSD, like Linux, still struggles to implement the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) despite its having been a standard since 1996. At the risk of over-simplification, the problem is that much of the heavy lifting needs to be done by the hardware manufacturer, for each model of computer, and manufacturers only support Windows.
The primary goal of this task is to get sleep mode working. Without sleep mode (ACPI global state S3) a battery powered computer cannot achieve even moderately acceptable battery life. A secondary goal would be to implement S1, such that whenever the system enters the idle state the CPU stops running. The Apple Newton had this capability.
The FreeBSD handbook contains a useful page on ACPI.
Squeak includes a set of morphs called Nebraska that provide collaboration over the network. The current design is peer-to-peer and makes connections via IP addresses, effectively limiting its scope to a small internal LAN and for only a limited time.
The Nebraska morphs provide these services:
More about Nebraska on the Squeak Swiki. Note that the page was last updated in 2007. Essentially this technology has been abandoned. It would be great if OSP could adopt it. All of the existing capabilities should be retained, although some improvements to the UI are desirable.
This task will require familiarity with Squeak and the on-going development effort known as the "Trunk." It will require participation in the Squeak-dev mailing list. An understanding of the Squeak development community would be a plus.
Create a Squeak application to serve as the primary method for delivering course content and conducting classroom activities. Able to integrate prepared material, live annotations (thus the chalk board analogy), and the student's notes, all saved for future review in real time or under user controll. Will include selecting or creating related protocols and file formats.
See Chalk Dust and Super Chalk Board Design for more details. (This task may be more practical broken down into several sub-tasks.)
This task will require familiarity with Squeak and the on-going development effort known as the "Trunk." It will require participation in the Squeak-dev mailing list. An understanding of the Squeak development community would be a plus.
Create a Squeak Morph to display an X application in a morphic window. See the wiki page Squeak X11 Display Morph for more details.
This task will require familiarity with Squeak and the on-going development effort known as the "Trunk." It will require participation in the Squeak-dev mailing list. An understanding of the Squeak development community would be a plus.