Mailman 3 May 2000 - Edu-sig

Announcement: Visual
by David Scherer 30 May '00

30 May '00

The public alpha of the Visual library that I promised yesterday is now available at http://download.sourceforge.net/visualpython/visualpython-0.1.exe (Win32 binary). Visual is a retained-mode 3D graphics library designed for extreme ease-of-use in scientific applications. We will be using it in an introductory physics course, where we need to teach students without prior programming experience to write graphical simulations in just two lectures. Visual will hopefully prove useful for other purposes, too. The package includes a lot of things: - A Python 1.5.2 installation - The Visual library - A few example programs for Visual - Numerical Python - An unshared Tcl/Tk library (like Python 1.6) - A modified version of IDLE - executes scripts in a separate process for stability - excludes system modules from tracebacks - usability changes, including reorganized menus - working HTML documentation (F1) - A pseudomodule that changes Python's division semantics: import floatdivision print 3/4 # 0.75 Still in the works: - Packages for Linux - Source code in CVS - A separate download for the Visual module alone - Macintosh support - More features for Visual, of course This is intended to be an all-in-one installation program for our students. We are calling the whole distribution "Visual Python." It might be a good start for anyone else planning to use Python in a pedagogical setting, regardless of whether they plan to use Visual itself. At present you can't get the Visual module except by uninstalling Python 1.5.2 and installing this distribution instead. I apologize if that's inconvenient for you. Bugs or feature requests should go in the bug tracking system at http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=6013 For everything else, contact me (mailto:dscherer@cmu.edu) Dave

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Quadray Coordinates: A Python Implementation
by Kirby Urner 29 May '00

29 May '00

New essay re Quadrays & Python -- more "math through programming" i.e. another example of my "numeracy + computer literacy" approach. Kirby Oregon Curriculum Network ============================== From: Kirby Urner <urner(a)alumni.Princeton.EDU> To: pdx4d(a)teleport.com Newsgroups: comp.lang.python,sci.math Subject: Quadray Coordinates: A Python Implementation Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 13:01:23 -0700 I've just put up a first web-ready edition of: Quadray Coordinates: A Python Implementation http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/pyqvectors.html Thanks to those of you who offered suggestions for improvements (draft text posted earlier to this newsgroup). Kirby

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Not well supported on the Mac?
by Kirby Urner 28 May '00

28 May '00

In a thread starting at: http://forum.swarthmore.edu/epigone/geometry-research/pefrorsken Clifford J. Nelson advises me to forsake a Python-based approach for another language called Clean, because "Python is not supported well for the Mac." I thought I'd run that by comp.lang.python, as well as the Python edu-sig. Given the importance of Mac technology in the schools, limitations re Python on that platform are of some relevance to the "Computer Programming for Everyone" (CP4E) thread. Please reply cc: pdx4d(a)teleport.com -- no need to post a reply to the thread mentioned above, as that's a pure geometry research list and doesn't need to get bogged down in technical discussions re Mac OS, Tkinter, IDLE or whatever (I've already posted enough along those lines, will maybe summarize feedback I get re Mac). Kirby

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Re: [Edu-sig] Python in physics class
by David Scherer 28 May '00

28 May '00

> I'm a high school physics teacher, and I'd like to try some Python > programming in my class next year. Be advised, I teach the > math-lite version of our physics class. > I'm thinking that some basic programming would be an interesting way to > introduce some of the mathematical reasoning and methods that > they'll need. I'm developing "Visual," a 3D graphics library for Python that will be used next year for student programming in the "Matter and Interactions" introductory physics course at Carnegie Mellon University (see http://cil.andrew.cmu.edu/mi.html). Matter and Interactions is a college course that is more advanced than your "math-lite" high school course, but Visual is designed to be as easy to use as possible. Here's a Python program for a 3D animation of a bouncing ball. Notice the lack of explicit graphics code, apart from the creation of the "floor" and "ball" objects: ---------------------------- from visual import * floor = box(length=5, height=0.5, width=5, color=color.purple) ball = sphere(pos=(0,4,0), color=color.red) ball.velocity = vector(0,-1,0) dt = 0.01 while 1: rate(100) ball.pos = ball.pos + ball.velocity*dt if ball.y < 1: ball.velocity.y = -ball.velocity.y else: ball.velocity.y = ball.velocity.y - 9.8*dt ---------------------------- Notice that ball.pos and ball.velocity are vectors; Visual's vector type takes care of the details of vector arithmetic. rate() is a helpful function that limits the number of simulation steps per second, so that the animation runs at the same speed on all machines. A public alpha release of Visual, complete with physics-oriented example programs, will be available within a few days. Since we need to provide students with a single installer, Visual will come packaged with its own Python 1.5.2 installation and a version of IDLE modified to suit our needs. A bare module will also eventually be available. Visual currently runs on Windows and Linux, and we are planning a (hopefully "well-supported," Kirby :) Macintosh version as well. I'll post a link when I have one. Dave

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Python in physics class
by Timothy Wilson 27 May '00

27 May '00

Hi everyone, I'm a high school physics teacher, and I'd like to try some Python programming in my class next year. Be advised, I teach the math-lite version of our physics class. This will be the students' first exposure to computer programming, and many of them are less than stellar math students. I'm thinking that some basic programming would be an interesting way to introduce some of the mathematical reasoning and methods that they'll need. Does anyone have any experience with something like this, or any ideas for activities? -Tim -- Tim Wilson | Visit Sibley online: | Check out: Henry Sibley HS | http://www.isd197.k12.mn.us/ | http://www.zope.org/ W. St. Paul, MN | | http://slashdot.org/ wilson(a)visi.com | <dtml-var pithy_quote> | http://linux.com/

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Things to come
by Arthur Siegel 27 May '00

27 May '00

FWIW - When I had posted up: >"Disney Learning" is the voice over. Not much else said. >I am not dogmatically anti-corporate. >Then why do I consider that a very scary 15 seconds? I had no idea of the Squeak/Disney connection - in fact had no idea of Squeak - which I just came upon in a round-about away via Stephens site to: http://segfault.org/story.phtml?id=391ae457-08fa7b40 Looked quickly at the Squeak world. It seems in fact to be taken quite seriously in academic and educational circles. Am I in Chinatown, or what? ART

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Re: [Edu-sig] ports
by A[r]TA 19 May '00

19 May '00

> You have to be more clear. Explain in more detail. I am a networking > developer and can't tell which of many networking functionality you > are talking about. Regardless I suggest you take this off of edu-sig > since it is way off topic. At best it is a python developer question > which is not a topic for the list. At worst it is not a python > question at all. Sorry, I will. > > Sockets do indeed check to see if someone attempts to open a > port. Sockets are client/server. A server socket waits for a client to > connect. Yeah, I know. > Almost everything the user sees on the net goes through sockets. FTP > and HTTP are socket level protocols. > > Firewalls do indeed have an IP address. Firewall functionality is > usually filtering. They act as routers/gateways and refuse to route > packets depending on various packet characteristics. You are not > realistically going to do anything like this in python mostly for > speed reasons. Speed isn't that important. But I assume Python has the abbilities?? >It is also very platform specific where as sockets are > portable. I just want to write a simple firewall. Just to learn from it and how they work. It could be quite handy if you can block all ports except the usual ones. Like 21 en 80 for FTP and HTTP. The other ports aren't server-sockets but they can "connect" to them with a TELNET-client or with portscanners and stuff like that. How do you block that? Or how do you can read the ports and print a message so you know someone is scanning your ports or is trying to connect with a lame trojan. Again, sorry, for my stupid short mails. I hope someone can help me a bit... A[r]TA We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. - T. S. Eliot

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More thoughts on CP4E (what it means to {Kirby})
by Econoprof＠aol.com 19 May '00

19 May '00

Turn the telescope around the other way. (Sorry, this idea of amateurs not being professionals has me thinking of the very formal relationship between serious amateur astronomers and professionals. ) The reality of it is, the grandkids are teaching the grandparents who WEREN'T techies, how to do things like make web sites, fiddle the graphics, etc. THese are things the kids have figured out how to do on their own. The web has to serve as the missing techie grandma, as has already been pointed out here by others, for kids who don't have someone around to show them how to program. The professional programming world has pretty much adopted the idea of one-on-one mentoring of beginners. Unfortunately, any model of CP4E that relies on one-to-one skills transfers is setting itself up for failure. You could get a lot of people involved by having a volunteer in a local public library at night even one or two nights a month to answer questions that the parents or other involved adults can't answer. You have to publicize it widely. Or have an online equivalent. The Educational Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) at Stanford has an online classroom that works really well. That same model could work for teaching programming on a one-to-many basis. Joan

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Re: Long Integer Fractions
by Matthias Felleisen 18 May '00

18 May '00

Please note that I'm not pushing anything re AP computer science. I'm simply prototyping how to teach a regular, garden variety mathematics curriculum with some computer language as part of the mix. This is the next step after the current "graphing calculator" craze is over. Of course, *I* know and understand what you're doing. The problem is that others won't. We wrote a proposal to NSF in 1996 to re-do the mathematics curriculum with Scheme. We also threw in physical sciences and the dismal science. As soon as you mention "computer" you're no longer considered a "math" person. They need to bring in a "computer specialists" even if they agree that what you do looks like math. Of course, the CS person won't have a clue about this funny stuff you're doing. But then again, this fraction stuff looks like exact real arithmetic and, oh yes, btw, that was done in the AP CS case study from 1994.7 to 2000.5, so you're behind. See how it works? Been there. Done that. Next? -- Matthias

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Re: Long Integer Fractions
by Matthias Felleisen 17 May '00

17 May '00

As I recall, SmallTalk has native integer fractions. Scheme too? Scheme has had precise rational arithmetic from the beginning. You should also know that the first AP case study for the C++ exam focused on large ints. If you approach schools with this material, you must know what exists. Otherwise AP teachers will think you're uninformed and you're just trying to push a new syntax on them. In general, you should know that the teachers on this list are not representative of teachers, esp AP teachers, in general. Most teachers are too undertrained and too busy to understand the fine details of languages, programming principles, and so on. (I suspect most would work in industry if they had more training. There are some dedicated teacher-souls.) Read up on your competition. -- Matthias

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