Mailman 3 September 2010 - Edu-sig

xturtle online via processing.js !?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 28 Sep '12

28 Sep '12

Hi, I am struggling around with interactive online py tutorials with https://launchpad.net/projects/intro-to-code (ith might become securely sandboxed soon, as pypy made it possible http://blog.sandbox.lt/en/WSGI%20and%20PyPy%20sandbox :) but one more thing is I'd like to let access xturtle functionality online - one possible way could be triggering tkinter to save its canvas to ps, and then convert them with imagemagic and show via web (animated gif or static) - but if pyjamas can render GUI for js (http://www.google.lt/search?&q=pyjamas+python ), mayby there is a way to **translate turtle commands to processing.js analogues** http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs/ would it be difficult -- how do you think? -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; jabber: jurgis(a)akl.lt; skype: dz0rdzas; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://sagemath.visiems.lt

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Eclipse as Python3 IDE
by kirby urner 12 Mar '11

12 Mar '11

Just wanted to share experiences using PyDev plugin within Eclipse, with Python 3... I've not been unable to get pickle to work properly, with the error confirmed by others. Sometimes (in at least one case) an error marker will indicate a module name cannot be resolved, and yet it imports and works anyway. Getting proper syntax-coloring around triple-quotes seems problematic, especially when the first line is empty e.g. """ comments go here """ However, I'm able to get the coloring situation to resolve by moving text around later... On the whole, Eclipse is pretty capable in supplying an interactive shell, lots of different windows. There's even a terminal window option if you want to do ssh into a server right from within Eclipse. As the above difficulties get ironed out, I think Eclipse will continue to serve as a development platform for Pythonistas. It's not the only option, given Visual Studio, Wing IDE etc., but it's one of the better free ones (eMacs, vim -- these do everything too, in the hands of experienced users, Notepad not so much). [ I remember how Jason Cunliffe used to post a lot about Leo to this archive. There's a school of thought that's more into "literary programming" as I'd call it, where comments might be relatively copious, with more hypertext relationships. You get these fancy markups... ] Some of you may be familiar with the O'Reilly School of Technology (OST) and its use of Eclipse as a front end to accredited courses in the many languages, databases and so on. Rather than use the free-standing Eclipse, which is an option, you get a customized student version called Ellipse that runs of their servers in a remote desktop session. This seems a creative approach and gets a next generation of developer prepared with one of the state of the art environments, using some of the best industry standard tools (e.g. Python and MySQL). Kirby PS: in other news, I've continued to focus on the plight of the lone FoxPro coder (which was me for many years, but not just me) and possible migration paths for legacy applications. FoxPro is a dialect of xBase nutured by Microsoft over the decades. It competes with their other products and too many people use it for free (not the original business model, unlike Java's) so the plan is to discontinue support for it by 2015 I think it is. This decision is having lots of boat rocking-ripple effects, It's not automatic that the .NET platform is where to go next, certainly not with VB necessarily. New developers don't want to waste time learning a proprietary dead language that might be hard to come by down the road, so there's increasing pressure to migrate those legacy FoxPro apps that still do valuable work. I haven't been tracking closely and don't know if MSFT is taking IronPython that seriously, in terms of marketing and outreach. Server side apps still seem to be gaining over thick clients in many institutional settings, but again, I'm not posing as having a lot of overview here. Gotta read all those IT mags I guess, but who has the time? Pointers to true story use cases welcome.

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revisiting old themes (OOP meets abstract algebra)...
by kirby urner 30 Sep '10

30 Sep '10

Quite a bit of Python in this essay (link below), relating to math teaching. This is a philosophy of education I used to post about here in fire hose quantities, in dialog with Arthur and the OLPC folks, among others. No reason to top-off an already-full tank, right? But maybe some are nostalgic, want to revisit old themes, even start up new debates (if bored by all the quiet -- getting like math-thinking-l around here). http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223356&tstart=0 If you're cross-subscribed with Diversity, you know I'm working to recruit more truckers to Python (why should Java have all the fun -- and Visual FoxPro seems to be fading). No, this doesn't make me a "fossil fuels nut".** Maybe some of those trucks are electric, like in the early 1900s (I've been reading Edwin Black's 'Internal Combustion' so consider me under the influence). I thought this most recent NCTM geometry book: Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making in Geometry ...was somewhat snarky to truckers, as the text protests the sign is correct, in giving the right clearance. But that's not what the situation calls for (what's the sign for, if not to prevent just such accidents?). Here's what I'm talking about: """ Mathematician Henry Pollak (2004) wondered why tractor trailers often got stuck under a certain underpass when the maximum clearance—the height from the roadway to the bridge—was clearly labeled on a sign. """ http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?id=13525 (Read an Excerpt) My review: http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223427&tstart=0 Kirby ** when all the oil companies become one (click for larger view): http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2006/03/big-oil.html Relevant: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/oopalgebra.html (yeah, Java, but same ideas)

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Re: [Edu-sig] python fun geometry
by Daniel Ajoy 18 Sep '10

18 Sep '10

> Now, i have a geometric question about what the authors write: > in sec 1.1.2 they say that the following logo code: > > TO ARCR R DEG > REPEAT DEG > FORWARD R > RIGHT 1 > > produce a circular arc as output, having "DEG" degrees and "R" radius; > and that it's true, actually; > if DEG = 180 the arc is a semicircumference and so on... > > But, the "R" in the code is the single step forward the turtle does in > its path so i can't understand how this R can be seen as the radius of > the circular arc. > Any hint is very appreciated. It is true that R specifies the radius of the arc, but it is not a measure of the radius of the arc: If R is small the arc will have a small radius If R is larger the arc will have a larger radius But R is not the length of that radius. Daniel

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python fun geometry
by roberto 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

Recently, i got a lot of fun going through the examples of turtle geometry in Abelson & Di Sessa original book. (As already stated in previous thread by me) Also, i started translating from logo to python all the examples in the first chapter. I am over the third paragraph at the moment. If anyone is interested in receiving the first whole bunch of these nice codes, just tell me. Now, i have a geometric question about what the authors write: in sec 1.1.2 they say that the following logo code: TO ARCR R DEG REPEAT DEG FORWARD R RIGHT 1 produce a circular arc as output, having "DEG" degrees and "R" radius; and that it's true, actually; if DEG = 180 the arc is a semicircumference and so on... But, the "R" in the code is the single step forward the turtle does in its path so i can't understand how this R can be seen as the radius of the circular arc. Any hint is very appreciated. -- roberto

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Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 86, Issue 3
by Fahreddın Basegmez 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

Could it be Mekanimo? It let's you create circles and polygons and join them together with connectors while automatically generating Python code. Created objects behave like agents. Here are some videos. Physcial proof of the pythagorean theorem http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/0/rQUW5BvdIkc Ragdolls http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/1/CWhg_u4K4ow James Watt's linkage http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/2/K1pdoLi6UPc This shows how to make a platform game with it http://vimeo.com/14469657 Fahri On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 6:00 AM, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote: > Send Edu-sig mailing list submissions to > edu-sig(a)python.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > edu-sig-request(a)python.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > edu-sig-owner(a)python.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Edu-sig digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. python application (roberto) > 2. Re: python application (kirby urner) > 3. Re: python application (Tony Theodore) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 20:58:23 +0200 > From: roberto <roberto03(a)gmail.com> > To: edu-sig(a)python.org > Subject: [Edu-sig] python application > Message-ID: > <AANLkTimifGzpy=ea65_x5Gb0HYJZ=dm=y-qdxwnYaWcd(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > hello, this is a somehow strange request: > a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice > application in python which was also able to let the user snap > together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see > the corresponding code, without even writing it; > > maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! > > if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please > let me know ? > > thank you > ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer > is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of > thousands of other messages, sorry ! > > -- > roberto > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 14:40:40 -0700 > From: kirby urner <kirby.urner(a)gmail.com> > To: roberto <roberto03(a)gmail.com> > Cc: edu-sig(a)python.org > Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] python application > Message-ID: > <AANLkTik5NQftumLBhzFLvP+Xfn2wduViHM-6i4mXx8ep(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > You're not talking about MIT Scratch are you? > > It fits your description to some extent. > > http://scratch.mit.edu/ > > Kirby > > > On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 11:58 AM, roberto <roberto03(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> hello, this is a somehow strange request: >> a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice >> application in python which was also able to let the user snap >> together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see >> the corresponding code, without even writing it; >> >> maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! >> >> if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please >> let me know ? >> >> thank you >> ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer >> is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of >> thousands of other messages, sorry ! >> >> -- >> roberto >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu-sig mailing list >> Edu-sig(a)python.org >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 18:45:41 +1000 > From: Tony Theodore <tonyt(a)logyst.com> > To: roberto <roberto03(a)gmail.com> > Cc: edu-sig(a)python.org > Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] python application > Message-ID: > <AANLkTi=dZdPDk0RUpv-Dupk6Ea3qaHW6MnsmSrSh2pJT(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On 4 September 2010 04:58, roberto <roberto03(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> hello, this is a somehow strange request: >> a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice >> application in python which was also able to let the user snap >> together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see >> the corresponding code, without even writing it; >> >> maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! >> >> if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please >> let me know ? > > PataPata by Paul Fernhout comes to mind, though it's hard to believe > it was so long ago. > > http://patapata.sourceforge.net/ > > Tony > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig(a)python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > > End of Edu-sig Digest, Vol 86, Issue 3 > ************************************** >

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thoughts after djangocon
by kirby urner 13 Sep '10

13 Sep '10

The opening plenary was interesting. We had some university representation, including a guy working on the electronic medical records problem. I wish I'd gotten his name. Bruce or Brian. He worked with Steve Holden on the data visualization challenge, one of the conference puzzles (rewards awarded). Lots of chatter about NoSQL, which I've been blogging about as a possible "scrap booky" solution to some medical record services, i.e. the outermost storage is non-schematic, even if there's schematic data embedded (like on Facebook -- picture a long sheet of butcher paper, unscrolling your whole life....). The private sector is obviously far out ahead of academia but, because of intellectual property concerns, tends to burrow, play its cards close to the vest. There's something oxymoronic about an open source conference where people a keeping so many secrets, but that's life in the corporate fast lane. Governments, on the other hand, have more of an incentive to justify their existence by making whatever software development they pay for stay out there and in the open (if immunized against "national security" memes), a catalyst for further innovation among hose without the budgets to privately fund innovation. SE Linux is one (older) example. This makes governments more naturally partners of academia, although there's sometimes an awkward triangle here, with the private sector trying to get universities to generate more patents and trade secrets, even with public funding (especially with public funding). Congressman Wu (1st district, OR), gave one of the keynotes. He noted the importance of STEM subjects in today's education (science, technology, engineering and math). After leaving the podium, he made a bee line to Steve (of Holden Web, producer of this conference) to ask what happened to all the women. Where do they leak out of the STEM pipeline he wanted to know, realizing this might be a topic for another day. http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/09/serendipitous-opportunity.html GOSCON is coming up in October and we'll likely continue discussing these issues. Oregon is hoping to channel funding into OSU's ODL around this electronic medical records challenge, but I don't know that the caliber of the journalism is sufficient to focus public debate. Without public discussion, the right people fail to learn of one another. Willamette Week did a cover story on precisely this, which was a good sign, but failed to get at all technical, which is not a good sign. Here's my journal entry on the WW article: http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/08/open-source-health-care.html Kirby

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python application
by roberto 04 Sep '10

04 Sep '10

hello, this is a somehow strange request: a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice application in python which was also able to let the user snap together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see the corresponding code, without even writing it; maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please let me know ? thank you ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of thousands of other messages, sorry ! -- roberto

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some notes and links
by kirby urner 02 Sep '10

02 Sep '10

Hey good news about numpy now supporting Python 3. Some of you will have seen that announcement. I'm getting ready for DjangoCon here in Portland, am likely to be 'snake handler' again this year, carry the PSF totem around, a token of friendship when she meets up with Djangopony. I've been looking at some of the swoopy effects in HTML5, thinking about the future of trucking software, such as transportation system managers. http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/tomorrows-guis.html http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/notes-on-trucking.html http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ (not all browsers will handle, I'm using Chrome, worth doing the demo). >From last Djangocon: """ Erich Ocean: HTML5 is a technical spec, but culturally its more a Flash killer. The beefy JavaScript engines are making a big difference. Dynamic languages win again (sorry Java). SproutCore is the HTML5 application framework adopted by and now developed at Apple. It's open source, like WebKit and LLVM. Erich thinks WebKit is the future for the browser, thinks Django is well positioned on the server side. Webkit will run on Windows. HTML5 is moving faster than many think. You'll be able to sneak WebKit in the back door into IE6 even. This talk relates to the anticipated future of low latency push apps that keep updating the browser without waiting for client-side requests i.e. like Comet (see above). HTML5 web sockets... """ http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2009/09/djangocon-day-3.html As always, when I look at industry software, I think about how this could translate to the pre-college curriculum. Given my Geometry + Geography paradigm, I see trucking mixing with Google Street View as a way to learn more about a given topography (anywhere trucks travel, doesn't have to be North America or anything so parochial -- how about Phuntsholing to Samdrup Jonkar by inland mountain road (via Tongsa, Mongar and Tashigang) -- sounds like Lord of the Rings. I've done it the whole way (though not as a truck driver) at one time or another. http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/mm12.html (Geometry + Geography) Or instead of a truck, a bizmo (business mobile): http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2007/10/designing-engineers.html (funny lookin'). I'm off to a meeting on open source in Afghanistan, per recent posting to Diversity. Kirby

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