Re: [Tuxpaint-devel] [Fwd: [K12OSN] TuxPaint 0.9.16 vs. KidPix a teachers perspective]

[Albert C. <aca...@gm...>]

On 12/16/06, Bill Kendrick <nb...@so...> wrote:

> (Note: There seem to be numerous versions of Kid Pix out there, and, in fact,
> it seems like two versions created by two companies, for OSX.  I'm not sure
> which version of Tux Paint (I assume latest) is being compared to which
> version of Kid Pix.)

Yeah, that's messed up. How can two competing companies
share the same product name?

> > "here are a few different things in Tux Paint that KidPix doesn't have
> > that are nice: The magic function (but it selects outside the area you
> > want to edit sometimes, i.e.. lighten/darken)

The problem here is that magic choices conflict with brush choices.
The magic can be divided into several categories: actions on the
whole image, actions on a small well-defined area (which would work
well with the brushes) and actions on a small ill-defined area.

Screen space is a serious concern.

There is also the need to resist adding complicated features. The UI
needs to remain workable for the 3-year-olds. At some point you just
have to say "use a grown-up program" or "use a special-purpose tool".

> > Realistic stamps -

See? People DO like actual photos. Cartoons are yucky.

> > stamps have more size options (but no index, have to scroll through
> > everything) The undo function goes back more than one step (nice!) Slide
> > show easy to set up, but can't save it.
>
> I've been curious as to how a 'saved slideshow' would work.  One way I've
> imagined is to create an animated GIF out of the various PNGs, but then
> I'm not sure how or if we'd want to be able to load the _GIF_ back up for
> playback in Tux Paint.

No way. This is terrible creeping complexity for little gain.

There are tools for slide shows: OpenOffice.org Impress

> > "There are some things [TuxPaint] doesn't have [that KidPix does] that
> > are useful:
> >
> > - Text is not reselectable/movable once you switch to a different
> > function

You can color over it, then write new text.

Anything else would be too complicated for the little ones.

> > No backgrounds to select (KidPix has a lot)
>
> Do Tux Paint's "starters" not cover this?  (e.g., the reef, skyline, etc.)
> I know there aren't so many, yet...

The starters look like saved images. This is confusing. There are
numerous other usability problems, some fundamental to the whole
idea of a background.

Consider changing the background after something has been drawn.
Go from white to black. How???? Can it be done without leaving ugly
white halos around every object? Remember, Tux Paint alpha blends
against the background. FYI this can be made to work, but it greatly
changes the CPU requirement. (or requires a complete rewrite to use
3D graphics hardware, which often doesn't have open source drivers)

> > - Not as many characters to select - for illustrating a story (would
> > like more in KidPix even)
>
> Characters?  I assume you're talking about Tux the Penguin?  If so, I
> certainly would love more 'people' to put into Tux Paint.

We seem to have lost a fireman.

Note: people with exposed flesh can easily turn into some nasty political
correctness problems. The typical result is one white woman and one
man of African ancestry going by whatever name is currently in fashion.
Outside the USA, there are places that take offence to any pictures of
women.

> They could even
> come with clothes/costumes as separate stamps, so you could paste
> 'generic guy' or 'generic gal' on the picture, and then turn them into
> police officers, clowns, football players, etc., by stamping on top of them.

It doesn't work all that well for the cop car.

> > no texture to select within each color
>
> This would, I suppose, be like the 'pattern' option in The Gimp.
> (e.g., draw with a repeating texture, rather than a solid color.)
> Duly noted. :)

There are animated brushes.

> > - Kids can't save to their [own] file - every station would have
> > everyone's art - and can be deleted by anyone
...
> Also, how well Tux Paint works out-of-the-box depends on how bizarrely
> the network/logins are set up.  Seems to be that "everyone shares the
> same account" craziness is the rule, rather than the acception.
> (No offense intended, sorry. ;^) )

I really wonder what these people do.

Do they save to floppies? Have they found floppies to be tolerant
of being taken to the gym, cafeteria, bus stop, etc.? Do the drives
work fine after reading potato chips? When the floppies go bad,
do the kids cry?

Are the kids running with admin rights? Are they the ones who
keep the computers operating?

Elementary schools don't hire good-quality full-time sysadmins.
Perhaps they ought to, but that doesn't fit the politics.

> > - There isn't an import option to bring in pictures saved from the
> > internet or a digital camera.
>
> Files can be dropped into Tux Paint's "saved" folder, and it can load
> various formats (PNG, JPEG, BMP) from the 'Open' screen.

Full filesystem browsing would be a big disaster.

Possibly the installer should allow using the "desktop" directory
as the "saved" folder.