Mailman 3 July 2006 - Edu-sig

Mindstorm NXT and Python ?
by francois schnell 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

Hello, I've just read the open source move of Lego concerning it's new Mindstorm NXT: http://slashdot.org/articles/06/05/02/111245.shtml http://mindstorms.lego.com/press/2057/Open%20Source%20Announcement.aspx The firmware sources and blue tooth protocols will be available. :) This definitely interest me and I'll buy one as soon as available (in August). I didn't find anything about using Minstorms with Python yet but it looks like there'a a SDK for Microsoft Visual Studio Express with VB, C#, J#, C++: http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/lego/default.aspx Even if Iron Python is not integrated in Visual Studio (I believe), using the classes with IronPython shouldn't be a problem (I imagine). Anyway I'm not a fan of .Net/Mono and I'll probably try to explore other ways . I want to see what can be done with Python and this Mindstorms NXT in particular in an "educational/constructivist" context. If you know any projects already using Python and the actual Mindstorms I'm also interested or your thoughts on the subject. Thanks francois

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Crunchy name
by Andre Roberge 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

Hi everyone, seeing that the name "Crunchy Frog" originated on this list (thanks Dethe), I thought I should point those interested in a potential name change to this discussion: http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/42943 We now resume our regularly scheduled program. André

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Re: [Edu-sig] A python teaching success
by james＠dis-dot-dat.net 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

On Mon, 31 Jul, 2006 at 11:04PM +0100, Michael spake thus: > Hi James, > > I'd like to second the request to see what your syllabus looks like. This is > partly because whilst I work in BBC R&D, I'm currently looking to build a > collaboration with Manchester University (I went to university there, and by > chance they're doing work that meshes with my research area), and there's > been questions of Python's accessibility. > > If you're willing to share more details about your course, lesson plan and > notes, I'm sure there's other places that would be really interested... Sorry. I did try, and messed it up. I assumed the list did reply-to munging, stupidly, when it doesn't. So, the parent post got a private reply which I'm copy/pasting here, with some more info. %These first two lectures use the turtle from the interpreter. We %start setting the scene for later ideas, such as functions and loops, %by pointing out the limitations of typing out all of the commands to %draw a spiral, say. \item [Lecture 1] Getting Started. \item [Lecture 2] Python Basics. \item [Lecture 3] Boolean Algebra. \item [Lecture 4] Choice. \item [Lectures 5-6] Repetition: Recursion. %By now, they're drawing koch and dragon curves \item [Lecture 7] Repetition: Iteration. \item [Lecture 8] State. \item [Lectures 9-10] Compound Types. \item [Lecture 11-12] Searching and Sorting. %They have seen functions already, but they were introduced without %fuss, so they never felt threatened by them. Now they hear a lot more \item [Lecture 13-14] Functions and Modules. \item [Lecture 15] Input / Output. \item [Lectures 16-18] Object Oriented Python. \item [Lectures 19-20] Python Extensions. % And by now, they're writing games. Frogger, space invaders, % allsorts. The number of students that have become engrossed with % programming at this point is unheard of at Coventry. Whole clusters % of people appreciating each others' code. %% Plus two extra lectures on language transfer Sorry it's in LaTeX markup, but it made it clear where comments end and lecture topics begin. > Best Regards (and congrats on the review!) Thanks! James > Michael. > > On Monday 31 July 2006 13:42, james(a)dis-dot-dat.net wrote: > > Hi all. > > > > This last academic year, we used Python for the first time in our > > introductory programming modules. > > > > This is in place of Java (horrible first language, IMNSHO). > > > > It went VERY well. We've just had our external examiner's report > > and I got so excited, I blogged it and then ran here to yell about > > it. > > > > http://blog.dis-dot-dat.net/2006/07/we-officially-rock.html > > > > :) > > > > James > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Edu-sig mailing list > > Edu-sig(a)python.org > > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig >

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(Fwd) S. Papert en SqueakFest '06
by Daniel Ajoy 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

------- Forwarded message follows ------- SqueakFest '06 July 19-21, 2006 Columbia College, Chicago Thursday, July 20th 9:00 Keynote Address: Dr. Seymour Papert * mp3 87MB * mp3 Small 21MB * Windows Media 174 MB http://interactive.colum.edu/partners/squeakfest/sfPrelimProgram.aspx Daniel ------- End of forwarded message -------

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A python teaching success
by james＠dis-dot-dat.net 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

Hi all. This last academic year, we used Python for the first time in our introductory programming modules. This is in place of Java (horrible first language, IMNSHO). It went VERY well. We've just had our external examiner's report and I got so excited, I blogged it and then ran here to yell about it. http://blog.dis-dot-dat.net/2006/07/we-officially-rock.html :) James

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Game of Life on a Hexapent
by kirby urner 30 Jul '06

30 Jul '06

I've added a minimalist web page to my CP4E collection: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/life.html I'm still looking for possible errors in logic, as my "no change = 4" rule was netting me some "ghost edges" (somewhere between alive and dead). When I further simplified and refactored, plus tweaked the rules, the results looked better. I need to go back and look at that "no change" rule again. Because alive and dead cells share edges, I expire first, then draw births. Any unchanged alive cell should also be redrawn. If you've programmed the game of life before, you'll already know how handy it is to have a data structure that just gives you a cell's neighbors with a simple name lookup. No fancy tricks with indexing (blech). The main job of a cell class in this implementation is to self-colorize, by first distilling edges from the face-tuple (= self.address i.e. name), and then turning them the appropriate color (because edge verts are sorted, they're also unique handles to VPython cylinder objects). If you download Adrian's Packinon, you can generate a higher frequency ball as an OFF file (in geodesic -c 2,3 2 | pol_recip | off_util -O > output.off, up that 2nd 2 to like 3) and all the same source code *should* work (but I haven't tested it yet). Kirby

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Re: [Edu-sig] digits of pi
by kirby urner 30 Jul '06

30 Jul '06

Also, Art, I wonder if you've heard anything about Pohlke's Theorem. I looked it up and it seemed like a projective geometry thing. I mentioned on math-teach that I'd be running it by you (but of course feel free to pass -- I did, for now (busy with hexapents etc.)): http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=4947994 Kirby On 7/29/06, kirby urner <kirby.urner(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On 7/28/06, John Zelle <john.zelle(a)wartburg.edu> wrote: > > Here's a generator I coded up based on a paper by Gibbons: > > http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/work/jeremy.gibbons/publications/spigot.pdf > > << SNIP >> > > # pi.py -- imlementation of Gibbons' spigot algorithm for pi > > # John Zelle 4-5-06 > > I made note of this post by John Zelle over on the Math Forum: > http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=4968441 > > Don't be alarmed that the Python source has all the whitespace sucked > away, an artifact of the web display program. The underlying > plaintext has it right (optional view) plus I link back to here, where > Python Mailman does a better job. > > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html > > Kirby >

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Re: [Edu-sig] digits of pi
by Daniel Ajoy 29 Jul '06

29 Jul '06

On 29 Jul 2006 at 12:00, edu-sig-request(a)python.org wrote: > From: John Zelle <john.zelle(a)wartburg.edu> > Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] digits of pi > > Here's a generator I coded up based on a paper by Gibbons: > http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/work/jeremy.gibbons/publications/spigot.pdf > > It's simple to code, but I think you have to read the paper to figure out what > it's doing. (I just translated some code, so I really can't tell you :-) In > the paper, this was done in a lazy functional language. I was mostly > interested to see how it would translate to a Python generator. Are both things: Python generators and lazy evaluation, two different tools that solve the same domain of problems? Daniel

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digits of pi
by Michel Paul 28 Jul '06

28 Jul '06

When a student first sees Long integer capabilities a question often is "How many digits of pi can it show?" There's a slight disappointment when they find out that though there's a Long integer, there is no Long decimal. I would like to be able to show them a good way to compute a list of an arbitrary number of digits in the decimal expansion of of pi. I think they might find that interesting. Any recommendations for a good way to do this? I'd like to implement a math/CS class utilizing Python. As it turns out, I will have a group of students next fall where I can explore things like this. I appreciate the ideas that appear on this list, like the Phi-bonaccis. Also - I'd be interested in some ideas for Python Shell explorations with students. I would like students to see how you could use this as a really super scientific calculator. And, aside from strictly numeric stuff - how you could make truth tables and things that you normally can't do on a typical calculator. I'd like to weave some Python lab days into my regular math classes. A lot of students in a math class turn off to the idea of programming, because they regard it as more "work", but doing some effective Shell explorations might make them take enough interest to want to add their own functionality to this bizarre calculator. And it's free! Why spend the $ when you can just download it and go? Thanks, Michel Paul

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HexaPents Again (bonus feature)
by kirby urner 28 Jul '06

28 Jul '06

Framework: HexaPents in VPython (back to using Python 2.4) Re: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/hexapent.html (recently modified). So Adrian (author of open source Packinon) tells me you need to twist it that way to make the hexagons lie flat. The Rick Bono way (dome.exe -sb), of punching out faces in a Class I icosasphere (Fig 2), gives hexagonal and pentagonal regions, but not with a flat horizon, or so goes the tale. I've taken the OFF file generated by Packinon, intermediate to the POV-Ray file used for the rendering (Fig 1), and fed it through my neighbor finder (brute force) to come up with a globalmatrix data structure, per my posts earlier this month. This data structure is used in tandem with a VPython rendering of the hexapent itself (in terms of edges -- I keep a handle on all of them to facilitate easy resizing and recoloring). The demo starts somewhere, then randomly flits about the globe, turning the current hexagon (or pentagon) red, and leaving those visited green (Fig 3). White is the default (untouched) color. You can study a random walk and see how many cycles, on average, you might need to turn the whole sphere green -- other games (I'm sure you'll think of some, if you get into it). Kirby

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