I will be out of the office till June 9th. I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!
Brief mention of Python on Math Forum this morning, in same sentence
as Mathematica, though I don't see them as filling the same market
niche (partially overlapping though, yes):
http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1949352&tstart=0
This guy Gary at work one time wanted my analysis of Mathematica vs.
Python in light of their MUMPS thing crapping out, and I was saying
how the former is more for front end analysis and publishing, whereas
Python likes to talk directly to SQL engines (maybe through ORM),
which isn't Mathematica's forte.
However, in saying this, I don't mean to slight Python's libraries
especially geared for front end publishing work, like this
professional color-coding package seems pretty high end for open
source (not my field though, as I'm more back office silo than
marketing, unless you count blogging as marketing (true in some
cases)).
http://code.google.com/p/python-colormath/
Regarding that digital math track I was talking about, there's a
GIS/GPS component in wanting to help students keep track of
environmental factors, such as community garden locations, big in
Portland these days, and feeding the move to bring back Home Economics
as a high school subject, lots of local politics I won't bore you with
(it's not as retro as it sounds, as we're looking at "cooking show" as
a TV production experience, not just breaking eggs and learning
weights and measures).
I haven't tried 3.1 yet, have been using dictionary versus list to
harp on the cardinality vs. ordinality distinction (per Midhat
Gazale), understand there's a "new kind of dictionary" that has
ordinal properties. I mention that here:
http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1949077&tstart=0
Reports from the field? 3.1 lore anyone? My Ubuntu laptop died is
the thing, leaving me somewhat demoralized not to mention
semi-paralyzed, as a curriculum writer. But I'm compensating, using
my "left foot" (WinXP box in a dusty back office). Someday, there'll
be a budget for a replacement (I also have the XO, so could do it in
Pippy maybe).
Chauffeur duty calls, not to the airport this time...
Kirby
OCN/4D
I will be out of the office till June 9th. I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:45:21 +0300
> From: Jurgis Pralgauskis <jurgis.pralgauskis(a)gmail.com>
> To: "edu-sig(a)python.org" <edu-sig(a)python.org>
> Subject: [Edu-sig] Python flavoured Scratch
> Message-ID:
> <34f4097d0906031445p4b7b2566y6ba5dab3dd28a6a2(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hi,
>
> probably most of You know Scratch
> http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Educators
>
> I thought it has quite some pythonic approach
> (especially, because it is easy to learn),
> so I tried to "localize" it to Python ;)...
> You can see the results (and comparison screenshots)
> http://files.akl.lt/users/jurgis/scratch/python_flavour/
This is very cool. Very nice work and nice screen shots.
For me it makes scratch even more attractive.
Charles Severance
University of Michigan
I will be out of the office till June 9th. I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!
Hi,
probably most of You know Scratch
http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Educators
I thought it has quite some pythonic approach
(especially, because it is easy to learn),
so I tried to "localize" it to Python ;)...
You can see the results (and comparison screenshots)
http://files.akl.lt/users/jurgis/scratch/python_flavour/
well, parentheses seem to get in a way a bit..
value assignment "=" and "+=" looks ok
also clauses look nice -- other languages wouldn't manage this ;)
there are problems with placeholders order for lists, but it will be
fixed for Scratch 1.4 (comming in 2 weeks)
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=130068
also there is problem with logical equality comparison
it is hardcoded somewhere, so I can't change "=" to "==" :/
(but Scratch is opensourced, so this is quite feasible :))
Also Scratch uses messages instead of functions.
this is more like throwing/catching exceptions, but still different
so I left this as is "When message <blabla> received"
ps.: What's the use of all this?
well, students could get more used to python while Scratching
then it is possible to export Scratch scripts to xml with Chirp
http://www.chirp.scratchr.org/
so one can translate them to python
Scratch quite follows LOGO paradigm,
so xturtle could be mapped to it somehow, I guess..
by the way, XO TurtleArt has python bindings
http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2009/02/using-python-blocks-in-turtleart.ht…
--
Jurgis Pralgauskis
Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;)
http://sagemath.visiems.lt
Hi Gerry,
I'm cc'ing a number of folks (and a mailing list) on this reply in order to
get you more feedback than I could alone provide. Firstly, the Python in
Education Special Interest Group (edu-sig) is the place to start:
http://www.python.org/community/sigs/current/edu-sig
Dr. Andre Roberge is currently managing that part of the python web site,
and I've included him in the cc list. You may want to consider joining our
mailing list.
Of interest in your deliberation may be the presentation given at PyCon 2009
by the Michigan University CS department on their decision to switch to
Python in their CS 1 course:
http://us.pycon.org/2009/conference/schedule/event/8/
(btw. You can look for TJHSST graduating senior, Filip Sufitchi, in the
audience at the beginning of the presentation ;-)
The essence of their findings is that CS majors performance was not effected
by using Python in the first course, while everyone else (since half the
students in their CS 1 classes are not CS majors), benefitted by leaving the
CS 1 class with a tool they could actually use in their work in other
fields. I included Dr. Charles Severance from U. of Michigan in the cc list
as well. He has a book just out on the Google App Engine:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596800697/
The programming language for the Google App Engine is Python, so this book
includes a good intro. The book is very well written and easy for bright
high school students to understand.
I'm working on a free, on-line, first year text book aimed at high school
students:
http://openbookproject.net/thinkCSpy/index.xhtml
(note: you can't view this document properly with Internet Explorer, but any
other browser should work fine.)
Since I'm not teaching CS this year, work on the book has slowed down, but I
should be able to work on it during the Summer. The first 12 chapters are
finished, making it a perfectly usable resource with which to start out.
I hope this all helps.
Thanks, and good luck! Please let me know if there is anything else I can
do to help.
jeff elkner
On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Berry, Gerry J <GJBerry(a)fcps.edu> wrote:
> Hope things are going well and that you are enjoying your job. I retired
> from TJ this past June but I am still doing some teaching there.
> I have received request for info on what a good first course in CS would
> be. After working with you and Shane Torbert, I think that for most high
> school students Python makes a lot of sense. Can you direct me to some good
> web sites that might help schools who want to set up a Python course at high
> school or middle school level. Any ideas would be appreciated.
>
> Hope you have a terrific summer.
>