GSoC 2015: Additional Educational Libraries

[Al Mo]

Hi,

I was reviewing your GSoC 2015 Ideas and found out this one.

I happen to know NodeJS and HTML/Javascript very well, while at the same time, I have plenty of experience doing things with Processing and p5.js (also, D3, Paper, Raphael and other similar ones). Perhaps I can be of help for that project.

I'd like to ask you more specific details about what do you expect. Regarding processing, for instance:

Do you expect PencilCode to be able to load a p5.js canvas and implement blocks for doing many of the things p5.js already does?

or to use p5.js as another front-end for already existing PencilCode logic? (draw the turtle and make it behave the same, but on a p5.js canvas).

Regards,
Alex.

[David Bau]

The "additional libraries" idea is open-ended, and you would need to scope the ideas as part of the project proposal.

Here are a few questions to think about:

- Programming model questions for the common libraries, for example:

  * Can you use p5 at the same time as a turtle library?  Would they draw on the same canvas?

  * Right now we have checkboxes on a "gear menu" to pick libraries.  Is that the right model as we generalize to other libraries?

  * Alternatively, we should consider adding "ES6-import"-style features to coffeescript?

  * There are lots of library idioms - like require.js; ES6 libraries; etc.  Can students use all of them?

- Questions about how UX should work when adding additional libraries.  For example:

  * if a student selects both the turtle library and p5, should it include block palettes for both libraries?

  * how should students discover, choose, and add a new library?  A finite choice or choose from a large set?

  * how about new students?  should students be able to go into a "mode" where they use certain libraries by default?

  * how do we keep it from being confusing?  If you're using a different library, how do you know?

- Infrastructure issues.

  * Do libraries need to be refactored to generalize pencilcode beyond the turtle?

  * What to do about dependencies between libraries, everybody using jquery, coffeescript, etc.?

  * How can teachers package up lessons that use other libraries?

David

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