Mailman 3 August 2002 - Edu-sig

Cartoon Laws of Physics
by Jason Cunliffe Aug. 31, 2002

Aug. 31, 2002

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~jnimerof/life/cphysics.html

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Programming Book Titles
by Jason Cunliffe Aug. 31, 2002

Aug. 31, 2002

http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~trebla/humour/programming_books.html

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Python Bibliotheca
by Jason Cunliffe Aug. 31, 2002

Aug. 31, 2002

http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/pyBiblio/

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re: Python for AI
by Jeff Sandys Aug. 27, 2002

Aug. 27, 2002

Norvig has published all the Python code for the next version of _Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approch_ at his web site. If you have the first (lisp) edition you can read the discription of the problems. http://www.norvig.com/python/python.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com

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Python for AI
by Nagarjuna G. Aug. 26, 2002

Aug. 26, 2002

I feel that Python can be used for teaching regular AI topics. I would like to attempt teaching without using traditional LISP/Prolog. Nothing against them, but only to develop material for a Python based course. I would like to know if any of you already know material that would help me in shaping this course or develop examples. Any help will be appreciated. Nagarjuna

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new book out
by Jason Cunliffe Aug. 25, 2002

Aug. 25, 2002

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythoncook/chapter/index.html A new Python book out, edited by the legendary Alex Martelli and David Ascher. Judging by the sample chapter on O'Reilly it's a real honey... Written loosely in a 'patterns' approach -> problem/solution, it appears to address experienced real-world ~ real-python needs. Valuable tips for applying 2.2 features/advantages. Readable and eminently lucid, as you would expect. It's beautifully oriented towards answering "How do I do xyz? in Python?", thus filling a valuable hole in the bookshelf. Random Examples: 1.7 Collecting a Bunch of Named Items Credit:Alex Martelli Problem You want to collect a bunch of items together,naming each item of the bunch,and you find dictionary syntax a bit heavyweight for the purpose. 1.8 Finding the Intersection of Two Dictionaries Credit:Andy McKay,Chris Perkins,Sami Hangaslammi Problem Given two dictionaries,you need to find the set of keys that are in both dictionaries. 1.8 Finding the Intersection of Two Dictionaries Credit:Andy McKay,Chris Perkins,Sami Hangaslammi Problem Given two dictionaries,you need to find the set of keys that are in both dictionaries. 1.8 Finding the Intersection of Two Dictionaries Credit:Andy McKay,Chris Perkins,Sami Hangaslammi Problem Given two dictionaries,you need to find the set of keys that are in both dictionaries. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythoncook/chapter/index.html bravo+thanks ./Jason

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BBC NEWS UK Education A GCSE at six
by Jason Cunliffe Aug. 24, 2002

Aug. 24, 2002

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/2209365.stm Geetha Thaninathan says studying makes her happy """ A six-year-old girl has passed a GCSE in information technology. Geetha Thaninathan, from Maidstone, Kent, who scored a C, is thought to be the youngest child to pass the exam. She began playing on her parents' computer at the age of two. Her father, Kandasamy Thaninatha, who is an electronics engineer said: "Whenever I did some work, she wanted to join me, she came and sat on my lap and said, `Let me do it, I want to do it'. "Initially, it annoyed me, and then I said, I will show you how to do it. "I showed her how to do ABC and then she started with typing her own name." """ ./Jason

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New Just Rewards Email Address
by Nobody Aug. 24, 2002

Aug. 24, 2002

Please use the following email address to email Just Rewards: justrewards(a)justrewardsonline.com

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iCanProgram.com
by Patrick K. O'Brien Aug. 24, 2002

Aug. 24, 2002

Interesting story about iCanProgram.com at http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/4392/1/. -- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech ----------------------------------------------- "Your source for Python programming expertise." ----------------------------------------------- Web: http://www.orbtech.com/web/pobrien/ Blog: http://www.orbtech.com/blog/pobrien/ Wiki: http://www.orbtech.com/wiki/PatrickOBrien -----------------------------------------------

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Python, Pointers, and lots of Languages...
by Peter H. Froehlich Aug. 23, 2002

Aug. 23, 2002

Hi! I am not convinced that Python is all students should learn, but probably for slightly different reasons than mentioned here before. Being exposed to various levels of programming is important, and I would even include assembly for some platform at the lowest level. Helps students appreciate what's going on inside, and makes my job easier when I teach compilers. :-) Having a working knowledge of C is also important. Whether you like it or not, you will probably have to at least read C code in one or the other form for the rest of your life, so you better know how to. Python would be my current language of choice for "prototyping" things, and also for "executable pseudo code" during lectures. It does, however, have one serious drawback in my book: No static type checking. Back in my compiler course, I had to explain a lot of "weird asserts" in my sample code... I believe that students should be exposed to a language with a strict type discipline as well, probably something like Java, Eiffel, or Oberon-2. I'd prefer the latter, just for size reasons, although with Eiffel you could cover more ground (e.g. generics, contracts). Finally, giving students an understanding of modern functional programming through either ML or Haskell seems desirable as well. The whole type inference business provides a nice trade-off between what you have to declare and what the language will help you with anyway. Ideally, I believe students should run into these languages as part of "normal classes", not just in the upper division "Programming Languages" course. That course should be for the really weird stuff, and for comparisons and emphasis on concepts. Having said all that, let me get back to the pointer thing: I think students should be made aware of the fact that "pointers" are a different beast in different languages. Addresses in assembler, mostly addresses in C, not at all addresses in the rest of the languages I listed. Wirth's old "variables whose values are (anonymous) variables" explanation of pointers is much more appropriate at those levels (yes, no variables in Haskell but what the heck), with addresses being one possible implementation for the necessary indirection. Whew, what a rant. Sorry for wasting some bandwidth... :-) Peter -- Peter H. Froehlich []->[!]<-[] http://nil.ics.uci.edu/~phf/ OpenPGP: D465 CBDD D9D2 0D77 C5AF 353E C86C 2AD9 A6E2 309E

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