Mailman 3 November 2003 - Edu-sig

PyCon education track update?
by Arthur Dec. 3, 2003

Dec. 3, 2003

Happens that for myself, study and programming is larger a winter sport. My garden gone til the spring and golfing finished for the season ... so I have recently jumped back, with both feet, into extending my understanding of math/geometry. PyGeo is a working tool in those efforts, and the extension and improvement of PyGeo mostly a byproduct. But PyGeo is getting extended and improved. Decent documentation as usual being back burnered. It not being something *I* need to use and enjoy PyGeo. But am I needing to make time for a proposal for PyCon? Any prognosis on the fate of the education track? Art

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Tim Tyler's Home Page
by Jason Cunliffe Nov. 30, 2003

Nov. 30, 2003

http://timtyler.org/

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Simulated physics using virtual atoms
by Jason Cunliffe Nov. 30, 2003

Nov. 30, 2003

http://atoms.org.uk/

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. U N I V E R S I T Y . D I P L O M A S . kbvjiosidiy
by Adela Dodson Nov. 28, 2003

Nov. 28, 2003

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SYSTEM CLEAR in Python?
by abc-100036＠apc.edu.ph Nov. 28, 2003

Nov. 28, 2003

Anybody knows the syntax of system clear in Python? In visual c++, this is the code for system clear: -> system("cls") tnx!!! -- Angelo Cruz CSIT-Computer Network Engineer Asia Pacific College ________________________________________________________________________________________ This email message was delivered to you by <http://www.apc.edu.ph> Asia Pacific College. Scanning and Virus Filtering is delivered by <http:///www.ravantivirus.com> RAV Antivirus. For more information, please visit our website or email the system administrators at mailto:sysadmins@apc.edu.ph.

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tool for teaching/learning programming
by Paul Boehm Nov. 28, 2003

Nov. 28, 2003

[originally sent to a less technically oriented mailinglist] hi, i've written a 2d robotwar game engine i use for programming lessons. maybe others on this list also find the code helpful when trying to teach programming. a beta is available here: http://soniq.net/~paul/pyrobots-0.0c.tgz the engine is written in python, and currently i'd consider it usable, but incomplete (and lacking documentation). the core of the engine is very hackish, but the interface provided to bot-writers is clean and simple (cooperative multitasking instead of event oriented, which makes it easier for beginners) the basic idea is to first play a bot that takes userinput(keyboard) and after understanding how you would play the game, you can write your own bot to play for you, and compete against other bots (in online arenas). the game uses simple textfiles as maps. example: 70 ####################################### # # # T # # # # t # # T # # # # t # # 0 t # # 1 t # # # # T # # # # # ####################################### #'s are walls 0 is player 1 1 is player 2 T is a treasure worth 25 points t is a treasure worth 10 points in this map the player who first gathers 70 points wins. the engine can visualize what is happening both in text (like above), or graphically (using pygame, right now lacking a pretty tileset) maps can be arbitrarily sized. the graphical view atm scales with size, but in the future might do scrolling (doesn't make sense before network support is in, though) more complex levels (think pacman, sokoban, ...) are planned for the future, different game modes (fog of war, powerups, ...) and network support too. nothing's set in stone yet though, i'll see what modes make the game most fun and understandable to inexperienced programmers and newcomers, and improve on that. lg, paul

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zoo blender index == les blendies francophones
by Jason Cunliffe Nov. 27, 2003

Nov. 27, 2003

http://www.zoo-logique.org/3D.Blender/index.php3

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MakeHuman
by Jason Cunliffe Nov. 27, 2003

Nov. 27, 2003

http://www.dedalo-3d.com/makehuman_intro.html

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Blender Basics Tutorials
by Jason Cunliffe Nov. 27, 2003

Nov. 27, 2003

Yeah it is strange bird... If you can clarify what is confusing/hard that would be helpful Although Blender is free they sell books to help support it. Check the main site. A new one in the works looks like it should be the clearest one yet. I imagine a lot of people would like a good CD/DVD by a Blender guru to show the rhythm of using it. I would. Perhaps one is already in the works in France or Netherlands.. There are quite a number of website tutorials out there, including pretty well illustrated ones. The problem with Blender learning curve is that it is quite unique [for better and for worse]. It's interface is an odd combination of interactive contextual and postfix design logic. {Maybe its a Dutch game things I don't know.} Blender is designed to be used with two hands - one on the mouse and the other on the hotkeys [keyboard] and your minds eye on the screen. Everyone recommends a 3 button [scrolling] mouse. Context changes everything in Blender so where the mouse is determines hotkey function. Than means tutorials have to use a lot of words where really one needs dynamic illustration. Flash or some such to explain with rollovers highlight what is relevant. I describe it as 'Postfix' also because essential operation like selection and action seem to be in a counter-intuitive sequence to many other softwares. Blender is sort of like Forth meets Modality-zilla. I'll post some more sites later, but here are a few for starters: Slide show tutorial with annotation covers UI basics http://blendedmind.i8.com/tutorials.html#tutorials Blender Hot Keys http://members.chello.nl/j.kassenaar/blender/hotkeys/index.htm http://www.crosseyedmedia.com/0_a_px800/tutorials.html good luck - Jason

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re: A bit o Python in Physics
by Arthur Nov. 27, 2003

Nov. 27, 2003

Jason writes: >..or Blender could interface nicely with your friends data. >[its free] >http://www.blender3d.com/ >http://www.blender.org/ Blender seems to me to be something of a phenonoma - in the sense that a very considerable community of graphics artists and animators, all over the world, has formed around it. More than other than a hand few of other projects of which I am aware, it has quietly - in the sense that not much notice is taken of it within the Python community itself - added to the base of Python competents. SPE - Stani's Python Editor http://spe.pycs.net is relatively new. It is ambitious, releasing often, and the site shows closely to 30,000 hits - in what has to be a relatively short time period. And I can't resist a little bit of my "rap". As someone who took a half-hearted stab - I can assure anyone that Blender is a bear to approach. It is complicated and complex. And despite having one of the most intricate and involved GUI's I have ever seen, Python support was added specifically because even that was found not to be sufficient to achieve the flexibility and degree of freedom that its user base found it craved. It "marketshare" among computer graphics artists - properly termed 'artists' in the sense that most, I'm sure, are pursuing their work out of compelling interest and passion, not within commercial settings - is many orders of magnitude greater than something like Alice. Rich, powerful and empowering - first. Necessarily complex, then. Friendly only to the extent that such can be achieved without the least sacrifice of those first principles. A natural, therefore, for Python compatibility. Art

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