[news.eclipse.technology.ecesis] Re: Copyright and translation issues

[Jeff Mitchell <jmitch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jean Couillaud wrote:
> Ross Gardler wrote:
>
> > Jean Couillaud wrote:
> >
> > > I just downloaded ECESIS and looked at the content, it seems 
> > > interesting and I would be willing to participate as well if there 
> > > was a way to do it nicely.
> >
> >
> > I have not managed to get ECESIS to run at this point as I am running 
> > on Eclipse 3 and it does not appear to work on that platform. However, 
> > I am interested in this project because of the overlaps with our own. 
> > Sooner or later I will download Eclipse 2 so I can look at this project.
>
>
> In fact, I did not run the plugin, I rather looked at the accompanying 
> ppt files

I think you folks are caught in a misunderstanding brought about by some 
admittedly confusing terminology.

"ECESIS" is not something you can download, nor is it a plugin.

ECESIS is simply an umbrella project for education related materials and 
technologies as they relate to Eclipse.  You should think of any of the 
deliverables as a seperate sub-project, each with their own name.

One of the sub-projects is a set of educational materials (Powerpoint 
presentations, etc).  This is what Jean was referring to as "ECESIS".

Another is the Eclipse Training Perspective, which is what Ross was 
referring to as "ECESIS".

These two projects do not relate to eachother, aside from both being 
available under the ECESIS project.  In other words, Jean and Ross, 
you're referring to two different things using the same name.  Hopefully 
this correction will help the discussion along. :)

> > > First of all, maybe it could be wise to use an open source format for 
> > > presentation sources.
> > > I am specifically thinking about OpenOffice.org Presentation format.
> > > This format is an open source format and OOffice can generate 
> > > proprietary format files which would allow anyone to see the files 
> > > (in .sxi for ooffice users and other formats, PowerPoint, StarDraw, 
> > > StarImpress for those who prefer these formats)

OK, we're now talking about the course materials. :)

I am not sure whether this sub-project is still active, and what their 
plans are.

I have sent an email to Dwight Deugo (who originally headed up this 
sub-project) and asked him to come join this discussion.

> > Our own project is an Eclipse based RCP that allows one to create 
> > learning objects from content in multiple input formats and generate 
> > it in multiple output formats, as well as package it as a SCORM 
> > Content Package.
> >
> > One of our supported input formats is OpenOffice (writer and Impress). 
> > We also intend to support MS Powerpoint and Word (actually we already 
> > do but it requires some manual intervention to  make it work at present).
> >
> > We also support a number of other input formats, such as Docbook, 
> > wiki, and XHTML.
> >
> > It is my hope that we can integrate our editing system with ECSESIS 
> > delivery system.
> >
> >  From your post it would seem that the internal format for content 
> > here is some non-standard format. This is not necessarily a problem if 
> > we integrate our code (http://www.burrokeet.org) as we can use it to 
> > convert from the other input formats to the requires ECSESIS format.

OK, now we're talking about the Eclipse Training Perspective.  :)

The Eclipse Training Perspective (ETP) is currently only able to display 
HTML pages, structured according to a SCORM manifest.  The ETP actually 
only supports a subset of what SCORM can specify, really just the parts 
that describe the structure of the course.

The original code base was really a proof of concept, to demonstrate 
some of the things that might be possible when integrating Eclipse with 
the delivery of training materials.

I think that in order for this project to proceed, it would require 
quite a bit of rework.

For one, I'd suggest the run-time engine of the plugin which parses the 
SCORM manifest requires some work to support more of the SCORM standard 
(and to get rid of the bugs for that matter).  Ideally the ETP would 
reuse some other group's SCORM run-time rather than implementing its own.

I've been meaning to look at the sample SCORM run-time that ADL provides 
to see if that could be reused from the ETP:

http://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=rcdetails&libid=740&filterid=3&page=1&keywords=&applyto=libTitle,libAuthor,contentText

From there, the ETP needs to be brought up to Eclipse 3.x, including 
the use of the Browser widget instead of using Windows-only IE and other 
user interface improvements.

Unfortunately I don't have the cycles to throw at it right now, but if 
someone wanted to investigate these issues I'm willing to accept help.  :)

> I am sorry I lead you to a misunderstanding, I know nothing of the 
> internal format apart from the presentations which are powerpoint files.
>
> Once again, I do not have a lot of time to work on the plugin, but I 
> will always have time to participate in the translation effort.
> Maybe we could create a "subproject" for translation purposes ...

OK, back to the course materials.

Again, I would suggest that Dwight Deugo is the right person to comment 
on how translations could be handled.

> > Ross

--
Jeff Mitchell