Mailman 3 December 2001 - Edu-sig

Who is teaching Python
by Christine Shannon Dec. 6, 2001

Dec. 6, 2001

At Centre College we have been teaching Python as the first programming language for the past three semesters with very good results. I will be leading a Birds-of-a-Feather session on it at the SIGCSE meeting this year in Northern KY. Our students run the gamut from computer science majors to math and science majors who are taking this for their major to fine arts majors who are exploring. They learn enough about object oriented programming so that those who go on to Data Structures are able to make a good transition to Java. The text book situation is a problem. I have use three different ones so far and have not really been satisfied with any of them. The level is either too elementary or they are written as though this is at least a second programming language for the reader. Most of the on-line documentation is very good but students usually want a book. Christine Shannon

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Who is teaching Python??
by Nora Wirtschafter Dec. 6, 2001

Dec. 6, 2001

Dear Colleagues, I am teaching Python at Widener University, Chester, PA, in CSCI 131, an elective science course for non-computer science majors. I am interested in knowing what other colleges, two- or four-year, are using Python as a teaching language. Is Python offered at different levels in the curriculum? Computer Science majors at Widener use C as their beginning language; what language do your CS majors use as a start? I am also interested in what texts you find appropriate (I have developed my own materials.) Thank you for any responses. Nora W. Wirtschafter, Instructor Widener University nww0002(a)mail.widener.edu

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Re: [Edu-sig] iBooks in Maine Middle Schools
by Kirby Urner Dec. 5, 2001

Dec. 5, 2001

> >Reactions? Thoughts? Anyone close to the issue have something to add? > >Dustin So, how well does Python run on an iBook? Kirby

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iBooks in Maine Middle Schools
by Dustin Mitchell Dec. 5, 2001

Dec. 5, 2001

I know this isn't quite Python in education, but I'm curious to hear reaction to this news from Edu-Sig. I'm a 'non-resident Mainer' teaching Middle School in South Carolina (ugh, hot and *no* school funding) right now, so this kinda hits home. http://www.state.me.us/mlte/MLTEcontractawardPR.html http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/03/2043212&mode=nested Reactions? Thoughts? Anyone close to the issue have something to add? Dustin -- Dustin Mitchell dustin(a)cs.uchicago.edu dustin(a)ywlcs.org http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~dustin/

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ANN: PyGeo V.6
by Arthur Siegel Dec. 5, 2001

Dec. 5, 2001

"Why don't you guys go do some coding!" Fredrik Lundh, python-list, Dec 2, 2001 (quote :approximate, spelling: exact) And so I have. BETTER CODE, REFRESHED SITE http://home.netcom.com/~ajs (check out the animation on the "links" page) NEWS PyGeo is a selected site at the Math Forum http://mathforum.org/library/topics/projective_g >From the PyGeo readme: PyGeo is a 3d Dynamic Geometry toolset, written in Python, with dependencies on Python's Numeric and VPython extensions. It defines a set of geometric primitives in 3d space and allows for the construction of geometric models that can be interactively manipulated, with defined geometric relationships remaining invariant. It was created for, and is therefore particularly suitable for, the visualization of concepts of Projective Geometry. But it can used in more basic ways to create simple constructions illustrating Euclidian principles. And to create colorful designs from geometric ideas. Fun (for all ages) as well as educational for both the mathematically and *artistically* inclined. It is also, hopefully: A take apart toy for folks trying to learn programming A dig at the "Old Dog,New Tricks" adage - having been created by a middle-ager without significant prior programming background. (It took work, it took time) A work-in-process. Art

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New release of LiveWires Python Course
by Paul Wright Dec. 4, 2001

Dec. 4, 2001

The LiveWires Python course is intended to teach Python programming to people who have never programmed before. It is used on the LiveWires summer camp to teach 12 to 15 year old children to program. The course consists of a set of PDF worksheets and a Python package. The worksheets and the code are both under BSD-like licences. We've recently produced another release of the course. The major change is a move from Tkinter to Pete Shinners's Pygame package for the games worksheets. This enables us to take advantage of Pygame's fast, cross-platform graphics and sound capabilities. We hope this will make the games worksheets more exciting. You can download the course materials at http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/ Comments or questions relating to the course should be sent to python(a)livewires.org.uk, which currently points to Paul Wright.

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Re: [Tutor] Need more precise digits
by Kirby Urner Dec. 3, 2001

Dec. 3, 2001

In tutor(a)python.org, "dman" <dsh8290(a)rit.edu> wrote: >Checking equality with floats is bad because of the >approximations that happen. Oh so true. def lazyrange(start,stop,inc): if (start<stop and inc<0) or \ (start>stop and inc>0): raise ValueError,"Illegal parameters" while start<stop: yield start start += inc return Didn't have *that* problem at least. By the way, another application of the generator feature came up for me on another list recently. I was chatting with a community college prof about continued fractions, which have the standard form: q0 + 1 -------- q1 + 1 ---- q2 + .... Where q0, q1... are positive integers. I had this recursive way of doing it which amounted to a right to left evaluation, but he showed me a way of going left to right. That was cool, because one thing I wanted to see was how some continued fractions gradually converge to a key constant. For example, the simplest of all continued fractions is just: 1 + 1 -------- 1 + 1 ---- 1 + .... and so on. The professor had written his algorithm for the TI calculator, but I adapted with hardly any modifications to Python, and now it looks like this: from __future__ import generators def conv(cf): """ Generate partial fractions from partial quotients of a continued fraction, with thanks to: RWW Taylor National Technical Institute for the Deaf Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester NY 14623 """ cfsize = len(cf) n = [0 for i in range(cfsize+2)] # all 0s d = n[:] # copy of n n[1] = d[0] = 1 for i in range(cfsize): n[i+2] = n[i] + cf[i] * n[i + 1] d[i+2] = d[i] + cf[i] * d[i + 1] yield str(n[i])+"/"+str(d[i]) # interim result return So if I feed this a list like [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], it'll yield an approximation with each iteration, because I wrote it as a generator. For example: >>> genphi = conv([1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1]) >>> for fraction in genphi: print fraction 0/1 1/0 1/1 2/1 3/2 5/3 8/5 13/8 21/13 34/21 55/34 89/55 144/89 Of course a 'print' statement in place of yield would accomplish the same thing in this context (that's what a yield is like, a print). But I can imagine an application where I'd want to return the partial fraction, then maybe ask for more precision later on, and conv() would be there, ready to pick up right where it left off. I've written class definitions like this for square roots -- you ask for 30 digits of precision, then come back later and ask for 100 digits, and it doesn't have to start over from the beginning, just goes out from 30, and so on. BTW, as some might already know, the constant we're approaching with this simplest of continued fractions is phi = (sqrt(5)+1)/2 = golden ratio = approx. 1.6180339887498949 >>> 144/89. 1.6179775280898876 Not so close yet. But let's go out to 50 iterations: >>> genphi = conv([1 for i in range(50)]) >>> for fraction in genphi: result = fraction >>> result '7778742049/4807526976' >>> 7778742049/4807526976. 1.6180339887498949 Better. This is where we could write a loop that continues until the difference between the fraction and the floating point goes below some very small value, like 1E-12. Just modify conv() to never stop on its own, and keep looping until you hit the break condition, which should *not* involve an ==, for the reason you mention. Kirby

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Realtimebattle w/ Python
by Robert Rickenbrode Dec. 2, 2001

Dec. 2, 2001

Anyone have any experience using RealTimeBattle (http://realtimebattle.sourceforge.net/) with Python? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: Student Assignment Styles
by Jeff Sandys Dec. 1, 2001

Dec. 1, 2001

Bryce Embry writes: > ... I'm learning a lot of the material as we go along > (I'm a few steps ahead of the students, but not far). > ... > ... I've been using what I consider to be smaller projects and am > wondering if fewer, larger projects would be better for my kids. ... I admire your courage for going ahead with Python without a syllabus, I am still using Logo for middle school students. Since I believe that programming is a craft (not an art or science) we call our after school programming club a Guild. Apprentices learn what the tools are and how to use them. Journeymen work on small projects at my suggestion or as part of a larger project. At this stage they are developing their craft and learning the why of their tools. Once they demonstrate an understanding of programming they become a Master. As a Master they write their own programs and ask teachers if there is something that they could develop for them and their classes, such as a physics simulator or the animal game for understanding classification. All this apprentice, journeyman, master stuff is informal, I don't give tests or allow hazing, the students seem to know what level they are. I strongly encourage the students to work in pairs and teams but allow for loners, who usually will join in the fun later. I'm not sure if this helps, since I volunteer to run this club there is no pressure on me for the students academic performance. Thanks, Jeff Sandys

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