PhET Progress Report

Sam Reid

Oct. 16, 2008

An online version of this report is available here.

Here’s a pie chart representation of the time distribution.

Phetcommon

· Internal fixes/cleanup (with Chris)

o Refactor PhetApplication/PhetApplicationConfig

o Refactor Updates/Tracking startup

o Cleanup Clock control implementation

· Improve implementation of Cursor handling

· Improve license dialog layout & look

Flash

· Set up application questions with Mike

· Discussed position with applicants

· Email regarding PHP/HTML options for Flash updates

· Prepare for interviews

Eating & Exercise 0.00.84

· Changes

To-Do:

- With the new play/pause/step buttons, it is not at all clear that the step is a "next month". Can you put a label next to it that says "Next Month" as there was before?

>>This has a tooltip; is that sufficient?

- The wiggle me points in the general direction of the play/pause/step buttons, but still not directly at the play button. Can it be made closer to the play button? Or at least to the left so it is directly above the play button.

>>This will be difficult and/or messy

- The time does not stop at 2 years. The play/pause/step buttons should be disabled when you reach the 2 year mark.

- Horizontal zoom should allow you to zoom in from 2 years, and out to a maximum of 2 years.

- The new chart zoom buttons look better, but it would be more consistent if they looked like the vertical zoom buttons on the charts. This is low priority, especially if it is very time consuming.

- Reset all does not reset the calorie axis for the bar charts. Also, when calories drop back down,

the zoom buttons go away but the axis does not rescale, so you can end up with a rescaled axis

that you can not get back to the standard view (unless you add lots of calories to make the zoom buttons return).

- When dragging to the charts, it is fairly easy to set a food item (like pizza) so that it is only slightly on the plate. For instance, if you set a pizza centered on the knife/spoon, it is only about 10% on the plate but remains there. Maybe make it so that the center of the item has to be on the plate when it is dropped?

>>This will be difficult; I'll ask Chris if he can help solve this.

Misc

· Looked at Jgv and JMol as graphics options

· Bugfix in deploy translation process (was using wrong main sometimes in multi-flavor sims), with Marj and John

· Opacity fixes for Piccolo and help glass pane

Upcoming Work

· See ticket report "Sam R: Report" here

High Priority items on my list (see also Eating & Exercise above):

component_name	summary
piccolo-phet	AbstractMediaButton should use the common cursor handler
quantum-wave-interference	JSlider doesn't render properly on Mac
phetcommon	Version information should be added for tracker and messages
phetcommon	Add more tracking messages
piccolo	Test/integrate with latest PSwing changes 392-399
eating-and-exercise	UI Bugfixes for eating & Exercise
<none>	Get VPN working on development machine
website	make translated sims available offline
translation-general	Make sure all sims use proper convention for string property files.
phetcommon	Some remaining issues for Updates/Tracking
flash-launcher	Hire a part time flash developer
all-sims	Licensing issues
all-sims	Localization Issues revealed by Alex's study
piccolo-phet	fix cursor handler behavior (CursorHandle -> CursorHandler2)