Public and Private folders

[Bruce Sherwood]

Early in the GlowScript project all folders were Public. When Private folders were introduced, it seemed appropriate that a new account would have one of each, to advertise the feature by starting the account with a Private folder (named Private) and a Public folder (named Public). This causes problems, because alphabetical ordering of the folders puts the Private one first, and new users, who naturally tend to use the first open folder, are puzzled when others can't see their programs.

To address this problem, which can be quite annoying for new users, I propose that new accounts only have one folder, and that folder be of type Public. Note that when you create a new folder you are asked whether you want to make it Private, and you can click on the label at the upper left of a folder display to toggle between Public and Private.

A question is, what should be the name of the single (Public) folder? Originally GlowScript just provided one folder, and its name was "MyPrograms". That's maybe not a bad name, but can you suggest a better name, or a better scheme?

Bruce

[Doug Smith]

I like My Programs but maybe could also be: My Public Programs

[Bruce Sherwood]

I've changed glowscript.org so that when one signs in for the first time the user sees two folders, MyPrograms (public) and Private (private, of course). This change will benefit students and instructors in courses that use GlowScript VPython. Instructors had reported confusion when students sent links to instructors who couldn't in fact access the student's program. The Private folder is there to advertise the possibility, but it is the first folder, MyPrograms, that opens when one logs in.

Bruce