[Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev] Tuxmath and tuxtype from upstream maintainer

[David Bruce]

Hi Jordan,

Nice to hear from you!  This is a really busy time right now - the
coding period for Google Summer of Code just ended, and there is lots
to be done to get the student projects merged for a fall release.  We
got quite a lot done on both tuxmath and tuxtype, and it will be a
while before it is ready enough to send out.

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Jordan
Erickson<jerickson at logicalnetworking.net> wrote:
> Hey David,

> Like I said (below), reporting and progress tracking is a must for schools
> to track students and be able to make sure they're learning.

One of the projects was to create a Qt4-based GUI admin tool for
Tux4Kids, with plugins for each of the three programs.  The tuxmath
plugin was the only one to get any real coding over the summer.  Tim
Holy, the other tuxmath leader, is the core developer most involved
with that end of things, but he is pretty swamped with his real job
for the next few months.

> Let me know
> what you think and I will do what I can to help.

It would certainly help to hear specifically what you would most like
to see added to Tux Typing to make it more useful.  The suggestions I
have heard most are:
1. More and better bundled "content".
2. Make it simple for teachers to add their own word and phrase lists.
3. Have students login with their names and generate reports of their
performance.
4. Make it into a browser game so the school just has to worry about the server.

The first three are all high on our TODO lists.  #4 would be a total
re-write, so it isn't at all likely. However, we are definitely moving
toward more network-awareness in simpler ways like making file paths
be configurable to network locations.

As far as other assistance is concerned, the biggest issue is always
convincing folks with the needed coding skills that our project is a
good use of their free time.  There aren't many school systems with C
programmers on staff to make use of the "free as in freedom" aspect of
our games.

Best,

David