[MWForum]MicroWorlds wish list

[Wendy Petti]

Shawn,

Three of us at OpenWorld Learning put our heads together to come up with
our MW wish list.  These ideas come from Daniel Ajoy, Chris Myers, and
myself:

1) Very important:  the plugin should be easier to download and install
and should load faster.  Ideally the plugin would auto-detect if the
user's computer needs the plug-in and would automatically launch an
easy-install screen requiring only one click of a button to
self-install.   In this way, countless more people would begin using
MicroWorlds projects online and would fall in love with MicroWorlds.
Having an easier-to-install plug-in would be the best possible PR you
could develop.

2) (Adding to Graham's suggestion of having the ability to set the
turtle's shape to rotate a certain number of degrees on each click):  It
would be great to have the option of the shape pivoting/angling itself
to match the turtle's heading (just as the turtle itself now pivots).
Since in some projects it is preferable for the turtle's shape to remain
in a fixed orientation, it would be great if there could be a shape
orientation parameter which could be set for turtles:  fixed,
auto-pivot, or pivot-on-click (I guess ideally the user could also set
the number of degrees that the shape would pivot when the turtle is
clicked).

3) The help section would be more functional and easier to use if:
	a) it were more obvious how to access the vocabulary index
	b) the user could see the procedures used in all of the little demo
projects embedded
in the help pages course
	c) the user could bookmark specific help pages of interest
	d) there were printable documentation (including a PDF file of all
vocabulary documentation) and more support materials

4) Include these primitives currently found in MSWLogo:
	repcount
	px
	for	("For" is similar to "dotimes" but takes more inputs and therefore
leads to more efficient coding.)

5) The name of a button should be different from what it executes.

6) Extra images and other multimedia files should be include-able in the
MW project file.

7) As in MSWLogo, it would be useful to have a "label" primitive that
draws True-Type text horizontally, vertically or at an angle.

8) Procedures should be definable with optional parameters.

9) File/Export/Page Image" should have a primitive that allows to save a
rectangular area of a page.

10) Text manipulation in textboxes should be easier and more functional,
including:
	a) a way to center text
	b) customary key commands for dealing with selected text (ex: CTRL-B
for bold)

11) It would be helpful to have a way to create a library of frequently
used procedures which would load automatically when MW starts. The
library procedures should not be visible in the Procedures Tab.

12) Some improvements to the print options are in order:
	a) Provide a means of printing without the project name and page name
appearing in the bottom right corner.
	b) Currently, MW can print single pages or the whole project; it would
be nice to be able to specify a cluster of pages to print from a
project.  (At least on the printer setup I tested, trying to specify a
range of pages from the whole project does not produce the expected
result:  in a 3-page project, setting the range for pages 2 - 3 produces
a printout of page 2 and then page 1.)
	c) The procedures page should print with a wide left (and top) margin
so that pages can be placed in a notebook; currently the procedures
margins are pretty much non-existent.

13) The HTML template should generate HTML that presents an option to
download the project file.

14) It would be good to have a way to determine if the project is run
online or offline.

Wendy Petti
OpenWorld Learning
http://mia.openworldlearning.org


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com
> [mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf Of Logo Computer
> Systems Inc.
> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:17 AM
> To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
> Subject: [MWForum]MicroWorlds wish list
>
>
> Hello,
>
> as you all might already know we are working on a new version
> of MicroWorlds.
>
> Please send me (as soon as possible) any recommendations/suggestions
> that you would like to see implemented in the new version.  I can't
> make you any promises although it won't hurt to try.
>
> Regards.
>
> Shawn Jesty
> LCSI
> --
>
> Logo Computer Systems Inc.
> 1 Westmount Square, Suite 300
> Montreal,QC  Canada
> H3Z 2P9
> info@lcsi.ca
> www.lcsi.ca
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