Re: Blue Sky project OLPC [ was Re: gnuplot projects, terminal modules]

[Ethan A M. <merritt@u.washington.edu>]

On Thursday 08 March 2007 18:29, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> > Several people here have expressed interest in a gnuplot GUI.
> > My first reaction was "who would want one?", but the coincidental
> > arrival of the OLPC invitation may have answered the question.
> > 
> > So here's the challenge:
> >   - design a GUI for gnuplot usable by school-age kids to explore
> >     math and functions.  Probably using GTK+
> 
> What school age?  3rd-6th?  

It's not entirely clear to me what age ranges the OLPC adopters will 
target.  It may vary from country to country.  I wouldn't rule out 
these things being used through high school.

> Are you thinking something where the student types a function 
> in a box and the plot appears?  

That, and buttons to plot data from files.  Think of a class project
to measure things and type the measurements into a file.   The kids
could then call up the gnuplot GUI, use a file browser to select the
data file, and use GUI buttons to play around with averaging, smoothing,
histogramming, etc.  Swap data files by wifi with your friends, plot
them in different colors, and so on.  Basically an all-in-one tool
useful for learning experimental science, maths, and statistics.

An even more integrated GUI could allow data entry from the
clipboard.  Then you could pull up a Wikipedia page with data of
some sort in a browser window,  select it with the mouse, and
tell gnuplot to plot it.

> Then they hit a button that will print out their plot on a printer?   

The OLPC laptops have no output other than screen and wifi.

-- 
Ethan A Merritt
Biomolecular Structure Center
University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7742