Mailman 3 August 2001 - Edu-sig

ANN: PythonCard Prototype 0.4.1
by Patrick K. O'Brien 16 Aug '01

16 Aug '01

I'm sending this on behalf of the PythonCard project. Enjoy. --- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech "I am, therefore I think." PythonCard is a software construction kit (in the spirit of Apple's HyperCard) written in Python. You can download the latest release at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19015 Samples included in the latest release: conversions, dialogs, findfiles, minimal, proof, searchexplorer, sounds, SourceForgeTracker, tictactoe, turtle, widgets, worldclock To see screenshots of some of the samples, visit: http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/samples.html PythonCard home page http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/ SourceForge summary page http://sourceforge.net/projects/pythoncard/ Mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pythoncard/ PythonCard requires Python 2.1 or later and wxPython 2.3.x. wxPython is available at http://www.wxpython.org/ PythonCard relies on wxPython, it will support the Macintosh once wxPython has been ported to the Mac. PyCrust 0.5.2 PyCrust by Patrick K. O'Brien is included as part of the PythonCardPrototype releases. If you would like to find our more about PyCrust or get a separate distribution, please visit the home page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pycrust/ ---------------------------- Changes since release 0.3.1 (2001-08-07): The Property Editor is still only able to display widget attributes, you'll have to use the Shell to actually change an attribute. The Property Editor will work in the next release, and this time I mean it. :) Release 0.4.1 2001-08-16 updated debug.py and pycrustrc.py to support PyCrust 0.5.2 due to changes between PyCrust 0.5.2 and earlier versions you must use the latest version of Pycrust with PythonCard, which is included in the release .zip for convenience added 'border' attribute to TextField and its subclasses to support a 'none' wxNO_BORDER option. updated worldclock and test_widgets.py to show TextField with a border of 'none' used in place of StaticText added empty bitmap support. Image and ImageButton now use the Bitmap class rather than an explicit wxBitmap. the convention is that if the file is '' then an empty bitmap is created. see SourceForgeTracker for an example of the use of empty bitmaps if the layout doesn't look right on Linux or Solaris, you can use the SourceForgeTracker.original.rsrc.py file by renaming it to SourceForgeTracker.rsrc.py fixed worldclock and tictactoe samples to use Bitmap Release 0.4 2001-08-14 added components dictionary find/findByName, createWidget, and deleteWidget were replaced by a dictionary, so that widgets on a background can be accessed as: self.components.button1 see the samples for numerous examples of the new usage. widgets now use dot notation to access their attributes print button1.label # get button1.label = 'hello' # set This was a major revision to widget.py that also impacted many other parts of the framework, so if you have any samples of your own done with release 0.3.1 or earlier, you'll need to update your code. updated all samples to use the new dot notation all widget attributes that can only be set at initialization will now throw an AttributeError if you try and change them. for example button1.name = 'bob' is not legal so you get: 'AttributeError: name attribute is read-only' *** note that while updating all the widget attributes to dot notation I realized that we had never cleaned up the 'selected' attribute for List, RadioGroup, and Choice, so be aware that the name and behavior of 'selected' will probably change in the next release PyCrust is now included as a separate package numerous changes were made to the PyCrust shell, see the PyCrust docs for more information. fixed backgroundColor and foregroundColor in class Background the widgets sample has a button to change the backgroundColor to show off this fix. added pycrustrc.py files whatever python code is in these files will be executed when the shell is first launched. there is a default pycrustrc.py in the package directory. there is another example in the turtle sample directory. changed pythoncard.config.py added options to set the position and size of all the "debug" windows: Message Watcher, Property Editor, Shell added pythoncard.user.config.py this file will override pythoncard.config.py if it exists you should copy pythoncard.user.config.py and update the position of each window for your own screen dimensions; you can update the shell size too added defaultStackPosition option you can add a key:value line to pythoncard.user.config.py to override the stack position that a PythonCard app may or may not specify. The most common would be something like 'defaultStackPosition':(5, 5), to force the window to the top-left of the screen (I prefer this over (0, 0) myself. added 'Debug' menu if any of the 'debug' windows are requested when an application is started, then all of the windows will be created, but only the requested ones will be shown initially. you can choose the window name from the Debug menu to show/hide the window. added an About PythonCard... menu item to the Debug menu displays version numbers and PythonCard project info added SourceForgeTracker sample downloads XML from SourceForge tracker database to display Bug Reports and Feature Requests for the following projects: PyChecker, PyCrust, Python, PythonCard, wxPython. Additional projects can be added. added conversions sample does Fahrenheit <-> Celsius and English <-> Morse Code conversions with a generic framework, so other conversions can be added added tutorial.txt to docs applications can now use the .pyw extension if you don't want an application to have a console window, then rename the application to .pyw, but don't change the file reference in the .rsrc.py file, leave that as .py as an example, you can change worldclock.py to worldclock.pyw ka --- Kevin Altis altis(a)semi-retired.com _______________________________________________ wxpython-users mailing list wxpython-users(a)lists.wxwindows.org http://lists.wxwindows.org/mailman/listinfo/wxpython-users

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Is Edu-Sig owner a subscriber?
by Kirby Urner 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

Apologies for putting this into list traffic, but sent to edu-sig-owner originally with no reply/action. How hard would it be to make the SIGs searchable BTW? Here's a case where finding that short flurry of posts wherein Guido transferred ownership would remind me who took over -- but I don't have an easy way to search the archives by keyword (do I?). Other stuff I'd like to search as well. Kirby =================== To: edu-sig website maintainer: Greetings -- There's a link to: Overcoming the prejudice An essay by Kirby Urner about using Python in the math classroom on http://www.python.org/sigs/edu-sig/ It points to a draft posted to the edu-sig listserv. On my browser, it comes up with a lot of extraneous characters (=20 line ends etc). I have a web version of that essay you could link to instead, at: http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/overcome.html I would encourage you to link there instead. Kirby

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Re: [Edu-sig] Is Edu-Sig owner a subscriber?
by Kirby Urner 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

> >I think this is possible through ActiveState's archives here: > > http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Archives/edu-sig/ > >It appears to be a full-text search thing, but it's fairly good. > > >Hope this helps! Definitely helps! Didn't know about this facility. Took only a few seconds to find the info I wanted, and I look forward to using it more. Many thank yous. Kirby

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Another 'Python in Education' website...
by Kirby Urner 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

Local Oregon site, software industry reaching out to the high school teaching community. http://www.oregon-tips.com/tips/Public/PublicHomePage Kirby

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Sorry about the PyCrust cross-posting
by Patrick K. O'Brien 08 Aug '01

08 Aug '01

Big time mistake. I really messed up when I cross-posted that announcement. It won't happen again. Please accept my apologies. --- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech "I am, therefore I think."

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Announce: PyCrust 0.5 release now available
by Patrick K. O'Brien 08 Aug '01

08 Aug '01

PyCrust version 0.5 has been committed to CVS and is also available as a .zip file at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=31263&release_id=47302 . Please give it a try and see what you think. PyCrust is an interactive Python Shell that can be run standalone, or integrated into other Python applications built with wxPython. PyCrust is built around Scintilla, and requires wxPython and Python 2.1 or greater. http://sourceforge.net/projects/pycrust/ --- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech "I am, therefore I think."

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Programs/Projects suggestions wanted
by WHITSTON＠ltu.edu 08 Aug '01

08 Aug '01

To all: I will be teaching an Introduction to Programming class to incoming college freshman (engineering and computer science students) using Python (and VPython) this fall. The class meets twice a week for 15 weeks. For most of these students, Python will be their first true programming language, and so the purpose of the class is to get them to understand how to design simple algorithms (i.e. input/calculate/output loops mostly) and translate those algorithms into programs or functions. The current language is "C" and most of these students fight the syntax all term without gaining any good programming skills. With this background, I would like some suggestions for programs/projects that these students would find interesting and/or fun. I have checked the archives and I will be including the "Game of Life". Other programs/projects include "Odd order Magic Squares", "Prime number sieves", and "word occurrences in Shakespeare's plays" along with a variety of simpler programs which lead to these projects. I will summarize any suggestions and report back to group later (anyone planning on attending SIG-CSE 2002?) Thank you for any help in this area. Howard Whitston Instructional Technology Specialist/Adjunct Professor Lawrence Technological University whitston(a)ltu.edu

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ANNOUNCE - PyGeo,redux
by Arthur_Siegel＠rsmi.com 07 Aug '01

07 Aug '01

New improved, with VPython rendering and all the good things attendant (Povray export). And a decent site: home.netcom.com/~ajs >From the README: What is PyGeo? --------------- PyGeo is a Dynamic Geometry toolset, written in Python, 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, while defined geometric relationships remain invariant. It was created for, and is therefore particularly suitable for, the visualization of concepts of Projective Geometry. Doesn't sound like it from the above description, but its fun. It is also, hopefully: A take-apart toy for folks trying to learn programming A insult to the "Old Dog, New Tricks" adage - having been created by a middle-ager without significant prior math or programming background. A work-in-process. HELP WANTED.

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Announce: PythonCard just posted a new release
by Patrick K. O'Brien 07 Aug '01

07 Aug '01

I know I haven't been here in a while, and that is because I've been heavily involved in two projects. One is PythonCard, which is a software construction kit (in the spirit of Apple's HyperCard) written in Python. A new version has just been released and development is progressing steadily. You might want to take a look if you have an interest in building GUI apps in Python with the same ease as HyperCard. The other project is PyCrust. It seems that every so often people on the tutor and/or edu lists talk about developing a custom python shell to do tutorials and such. Well, one of the neat things about PythonCard is its built-in shell window, which allows you to manipulate all parts of your application at runtime, with all the syntax coloring, call tips and auto-complete features that you would expect from a python shell. PythonCard uses a plug-in python shell, called PyCrust, which is available for use in any python project. You can learn more about PyCrust at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pycrust/. You can learn more about PythonCard at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pythoncard/ and the details of its latest release are included below. Both projects have mailing lists that you can join and we would love to have more participants. Consider this an invitation. <wink> --- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech "I am, therefore I think." -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Altis [mailto:altis@semi-retired.com] Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 9:48 PM To: Pythoncard Subject: [pythoncard] Announce: PythonCardPrototype release 0.3 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19015 Changes since 0.2.1 added changelog.txt and readme.txt files menubar is now optional if a 'menubar' key is not found in a Stack's resource file then a menubar won't be created. log.py documented proof.py updated to work with log.py changes MessageEvent was removed from proof.py since message sending bewteen widgets is currently disabled The working directory is changed to the directory of the main resource file such as minimal.rsrc.py when PythonCard starts up to avoid problems with filenames in the .rsrc.py files and any data files used by the application. Property Editor and Shell windows can be overlapped by the main app window Due to a bug, the Message Watcher must still remain on top added getCurrentBackground to PythonCardApp class PythonCard now includes PyCrust (-s on command-line) interactivePrompt renamed to shell, all references changed PyCrustFrame class moved to debug.py along with test for PyCrust import PyCrust shell is version 0.3 PythonCard turned into PythonCardPrototype package All samples changed to use the new package naming All samples can now be run "standalone" so any _standalone.py files in the samples have been removed. __version__.py contains the current release number New cvs tree on SourceForge, the old proto tree is no longer used PythonCard.py renamed to loader.py and loader.py overhauled added deleteWidget method added find, deprecated findByName added turtle graphics sample added a Property Editor (-p on command-line) due to time constraints, the Property Editor is only a property viewer in this release. You can use the set methods for widgets to change values inside the shell if you need to. added gainFocus and loseFocus messages to all widgets added StaticLine widget ComponentSpec and AttributeSpec classes added to enhance parsing of spec.py ka --- Kevin Altis altis(a)semi-retired.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Small business owners... Tell us what you think! http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/saFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: pythoncard-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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general newbie guidance
by Jeffry Babb 06 Aug '01

06 Aug '01

Hello All, I teach C++ and Java at a University here in Virginia, but will have the opportunity and pleasure to teach an "intro to programming" year-long course to high school students this comming academic year. I have pored over the materials at Python.org and am not asking a "dumb" question in terms of "what do I do?" but rather, I am asking if anyone on the list has some general guidance and pointers. Specifically, I have been given the freedom to select the curriculum and wish to use Python during the course. Any gems of wisdom, pointers, or "gotchas" that you can provide are greatly appreciated. I have read the "white-papers" on CP4E and very much agree with the perspective, which is why I want to introduce a web-aware, modern, object-oriented "scritping" language to the students as I see that to be the future of programming languages (although a good C/C++ foundation NEVER hurts either). I hope this provides the opportunity for fresh air from the division debates. Thank you, Jeffry Babb Richmond, Virginia

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