tuxmath-devel

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Poll and a release?

[Dave L. <Dav...@Su...>]

#The main thing I wanna know is exactly what teachers think we should do
#with regards to the options screen.  (I'm gonna just go ahead and do the
#best I can pretty soon, if I don't get any feedback. ;) )

	Since I'm not actually a teacher, I'm not sure if you want
to hear from me.  Also, I'm not entirely clear what grade levels you
want targetted.  We home school my 2 & 5 year olds, with preschool & 1st grade
level math.  In the curriculum we're using (mainly Saxon Publishing), I think
Tux Math would be more valuable if we could:

	1.  Select Minimum & Maximum numbers to use in the equations.
	2.  Restrict the operators to specific combinations 
		(only addition, only subtraction, add/sub, et cetera)

	For my preschooler, it would be valuable to have a pre-math for
counting. . .So each failing creature might have some number of dots or
shapes on them (like pips on dice). 

	Note that I don't represent any teachers, or Sun, with these 
comments.

Dave/SE

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Poll and a release?

[Dave L. <Dav...@su...>]

#On Friday 05 October 2001  6:22, Dave Lopata wrote:
#
#Hey Dave, thanks for the comment... It's been forever since we've had /any/ 
#comments on the option screen ;-)
#

#How would we integrate the input with that? Could we expect a pre-schooler to 
#type a number?

	That's a good question.  My daughter can, but she may have more 
computer contact time than most.

	Since we're probably talking something like the numbers 1-12 for 
the most part,  perhaps a panel of large numbers along the bottom of the 
screen that they can click on with the mouse?

Dave/SE

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Poll and a release?

[Samuel H. <cri...@ge...>]

On Friday 05 October 2001 10:29, Dave Lopata wrote:
> #On Friday 05 October 2001  6:22, Dave Lopata wrote:
> #
> #Hey Dave, thanks for the comment... It's been forever since we've had
> /any/ #comments on the option screen ;-)
> #
>
> #How would we integrate the input with that? Could we expect a pre-schooler
> to #type a number?
>
> 	That's a good question.  My daughter can, but she may have more
> computer contact time than most.
>
> 	Since we're probably talking something like the numbers 1-12 for
> the most part,  perhaps a panel of large numbers along the bottom of the
> screen that they can click on with the mouse?

Actually, Bill K.'s already added a feature that would probably work in this 
case. Try running the game with the "--keypad" option:

tuxmath --keypad

And you'll find a handy keypad overlay ;-)

(also, you can see we already have some of the possible options available as 
command line switches by passing the option "-h"

tuxmath -h )

-- 
Sam "Criswell" Hart <cri...@ge...> AIM, Yahoo!: <criswell4069>
Homepage: < http://www.geekcomix.com/snh/ >
PGP Info: < http://www.geekcomix.com/snh/contact/ >
Tux4Kids: < http://www.geekcomix.com/tux4kids/ >

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Poll and a release?

[William K. <nb...@so...>]

On Fri, Oct 05, 2001 at 01:29:31PM -0400, Dave Lopata wrote:
<snip>
> 
> 	That's a good question.  My daughter can, but she may have more 
> computer contact time than most.
> 
> 	Since we're probably talking something like the numbers 1-12 for 
> the most part,  perhaps a panel of large numbers along the bottom of the 
> screen that they can click on with the mouse?

Hmmm...  I think we should focus this game on kids who already know
numbers, and have been, or are in the process of being taught,
the various operations (add/subt/mult/divide).

I'd be happy to work on a counting game (and others) for pre-schoolers,
though!

I'm really interested in doing one of those "suite" games, where the
child can play with various aspects of the game (numbers, colors,
letters, shapes, etc.)


Hey, is there a general "tux4kids" mailing list? :)

-bill!

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Poll and a release?

[Samuel H. <cri...@ge...>]

On Friday 05 October 2001  3:27, William Kendrick wrote:
> I'm really interested in doing one of those "suite" games, where the
> child can play with various aspects of the game (numbers, colors,
> letters, shapes, etc.)

Actually, I have several small games in the queue (meaning, graphics mostly 
done ;-) which could easily be combined into a "suite" game. Let me know if 
interested.

> Hey, is there a general "tux4kids" mailing list? :)

There will be after the domain comes up. The one thing I'm looking to try and 
resolve is what to do with archives.

-- 
Sam "Criswell" Hart <cri...@ge...> AIM, Yahoo!: <criswell4069>
Homepage: < http://www.geekcomix.com/snh/ >
PGP Info: < http://www.geekcomix.com/snh/contact/ >
Tux4Kids: < http://www.geekcomix.com/tux4kids/ >

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Poll and a release?

[Samuel H. <cri...@ge...>]

On Friday 05 October 2001  6:22, Dave Lopata wrote:

Hey Dave, thanks for the comment... It's been forever since we've had /any/ 
comments on the option screen ;-)

> 	Since I'm not actually a teacher, I'm not sure if you want
> to hear from me.  Also, I'm not entirely clear what grade levels you
> want targetted.  We home school my 2 & 5 year olds, with preschool & 1st
> grade level math.  In the curriculum we're using (mainly Saxon Publishing),
> I think Tux Math would be more valuable if we could:
>
> 	1.  Select Minimum & Maximum numbers to use in the equations.
> 	2.  Restrict the operators to specific combinations
> 		(only addition, only subtraction, add/sub, et cetera)

We actually do have a mock-up screenshot of a possible options screen here:
http://www.geekcomix.com/dm/tuxmath/options-screen.png

This has these options in it. We've been trying to figure out if there's 
anything else that's needed as well. (We really don't want to do like what I 
did in Tux Typing with respect to optons and then have the decision come back 
and bite us in the butt a year or so down the line ;-)

> 	For my preschooler, it would be valuable to have a pre-math for
> counting. . .So each failing creature might have some number of dots or
> shapes on them (like pips on dice).

That is a very good idea.  I really like it.

How would we integrate the input with that? Could we expect a pre-schooler to 
type a number?

Or, is the game engine general enough that we could instead have the child 
tap one button X number of times (counting out the dots)? By this I mean, if 
they see a shape which signified "4" (with four dots or whatnot) could we 
make it so the child could tap out four taps to give the answer? (I haven't 
looked at the engine in a while, Bill, so I don't know how much of a pain 
something like that could be.... I'm really just thinking aloud here ;-)

-- 
Sam "Criswell" Hart <cri...@ge...> AIM, Yahoo!: <criswell4069>
Homepage: < http://www.geekcomix.com/snh/ >
PGP Info: < http://www.geekcomix.com/snh/contact/ >
Tux4Kids: < http://www.geekcomix.com/tux4kids/ >