Participate to Freeduc-cd

• there is a mailing list for the communication between contributors/developers of Freeduc-CD. To subscribe, please contact its owner/moderator.
• Freeduc-CD is different from many GNU/Linux distributions because of its strong educational features. Most of them rely on well shaped documents, which are developed as part of the project Freeduc-doc whose file repository is hosted at gna.org. To have developer rights, please contact this project's administrators.
• To get started, pull the sourcecode from cvs. There is no Developer Documentation (only what you find in CVS). The docs included should explain how to build Freeduc-CD. If you have problems, ask in the mailing list.
• the assembly of a brand-new Freeduc-CD is quite fully automatic. It is driven by a database hosted in the National Taiwan University. To be given a login, please contact the administrators of Freeduc-doc.
• some applications not yet included in the Debian project are necessary to build Freeduc-CD. They are stored at OFSET's debian repository, at http://debian.ofset.org/

GK wrote: So the customisation is the core of our activity of CD production. Do you wish to join our effort and build a new brand of Freeduc-CD?

PI wrote: Unfortunately my professional activity lets me few free time.

GK wrote: The development activity bound to Freeduc-CD is now quite shareable. The only hardcore parts, which need one person or a tight team are presently:

• stripping down the last version of Knoppix, to let only background structures: this operation must be meticulous.
• watching the very first build of a brand-new version of Freeduc-CD : as the dependance set between packages is sometimes uncomplete, it may require some clever intervention.

Presently the shareable tasks are the following:

• writing documentations and tutorials bound to an application
• translating a documentation or a tutorial
• pointing out a new interesting application, testing it
• defining the attributes of a new application: icon, title, tooltip, list of packages to feature this application in educational context

• defining a new profile for Freeduc-CD, taking in account a general request, based on the database of the applications enriched with attributes (documentation, tutorial, icon, title, tooltip)
• creating high quality graphics, as screen backgrounds, icons, documentation figures.
• beta-testing new versions of Freeduc-CD, feedback.
• etc.

Generating a new version of Freeduc-CD is presently just a matter of half an hour of computing.

There are two parts in OFSET's factory for Freeduc-CD:

• the application database, with its web interface: this is very specific of Freeduc-CD's needs.
• the building tools for the Knoppix-based ISO image. These can be used for customising more generally Knoppix, without reference to Freeduc-CD.

OFSET's debian repository has a package named freeduc-build, which features the following:

• configuration files (to be customised) describing the structure of your disk's areas to contain Knoppix structures: you need to describe pairs of partitions, one working partition is twinned with one compressed partition, typically sized 2 Gb and 0.7 Gb if you target a CD-ROM production.
• a utility buildtool.py (to invoke via "sudo"), easy to drive remotely by the means of a low-bandwidth link. This utility is a front-end to some useful scripts.

[edit] buildtool.py may be used outside of Freeduc-CD's context

When you invoke "sudo buildtool.py", you are given a curses front-end to many operations (menu item file->operation). The following operations are usable without Freeduc-CD's database:

• chroot into a working partition and hack around
• cloning a compressed partition into another
• cloning a work partition into another
• launching vi to modify the file /etc/buildtool/buildtool.xml
• compress a working partition to the relevant compressed partition
• make an ISO file

the improvement over direct hacking is that you cannot mistype the numbers of the partitions where the data are, as long as the configuration file is sane, and that some useful scripts are launched every time they are needed.

[edit] the database of application enhances buildtool.py's operations

The following operations are useful only in conjunction with our database of applications and documents:

• make documentations for the selected languages
• add selected packages, icons and menus

These operations are important for Freeduc-CD, they build the GUI and the user manual accordingly, so they are consistent.

The documentations and tutorials are called "granules", they are hosted at gna.org. You may write them using OpenOffice, they will be translated to HyperLaTeX to make them exportable to structured HTML and PDF formats. See the section about Freeduc-doc

This task is most important. Interesting educational applications are better reviewed by teachers, and their advice matters. Informations about new educational applications can come from many sources. The best sources are reports of usage of these applications with students, when they are available.

Our application database is managed by a web service hosted by the National Taiwan University.

Each application must bear a set of attributes to be easily embedded into Freeduc-CD. These are:

• Generic name (and translations), which will give a title in the GUI.
• Packages to bring the features to the end user (for example main package, documentation package, and background server package. In most cases the dependances make it sufficient to give only the main package)
• Command to launch the application for the end user. It must be a single command connected to a launcher in the GUI.
• Description of the application (and translation). It will give a tooltip in the GUI.
• name of a LaTeX file providing a complete documentation or a tutorial.
• path to sample files (useful for applications whose features cannot be seen at once)
• icon: this icon will be used in the GUI.

Here are some screenshots taken from the web service:

[edit] attributes for the application algotutor

[edit] attributes and icon for the application ghemical

Every release of Freeduc-CD may be defined by its user interface, with the addition of few "invisible" features. By the means of dependances, every package listed in the attributes of the required applications will build a new list of packages making a coherent set.

For example here are the screenshots of the profile leading to Freeduc-CD version 1.5 (Freeduc-Primary):

[edit] defining the background image in the web service

[edit] defining the menus for the GUI with the web service

Here is another challenging work for Freeduc-CD. Most users of our work are sighted people. An important part of our decisions is driven by quick reactions, as "I like", "I dislike". The graphics database may contain icons and pictures, but it is not restricted to them. Freeduc-CD is based on the window manager XFCE4 since version 1.3. Xfce4, like other modern window managers can be themed.

However each new version of Freeduc-CD comes out quite bugless, due to the strong backgrounds coming from the Debian project, Knoppix and our build-tool, it may still recieve many improvements if we take in account advices of concerned teachers.

Members of the association OFSET are prompted to give some feedback about new versions of Freeduc-CD, this pratice has been very beneficial in the recent past.