Mailman 3 April 2017 - Edu-sig

a short essay about programming
by kirby urner Dec. 8, 2022

Dec. 8, 2022

A common "error" (not too serious) that I see in beginning Python (and no doubt other languages, but Python is the one I'm teaching), is having a while condition that appears to put a lid on things, but then the flow all leaks away through break statements, such that the "front door" condition is never revisited. while guess != secret: guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") break else: print("Nope, try again...") What's messed up about the above code is you never really go back to the top in the case where you'd get to leave. Rather, you exit by the back door, through break. So in that case, wouldn't have been simpler and more elegant, even more "correct" (dare I say it) to have gone: while True: # no ifs ands or buts guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") break else: print("Nope, try again...") I see lots of heads nodding, and that could be the end of the matter, but then a next question arises: wouldn't this also be a more correct solution?: while guess != secret: guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") continue # instead of break else: print("Nope, try again...") We're back to having a variable while condition, not a boolean constant, but this time we actually exit by means of it, thanks to continue or... while guess != secret: guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") else: print("Nope, try again...") ... thanks to no continue. This last one is getting a thumbs up, but then I'd pause here and say "continue" can be easier on the eyes. It's unambiguous where it takes you, in contrast to having to scan on down the gauntlet, looking for possibly other open doors. "What happens next" should not require scanning ahead too far. Help us not to get lost. Be a civic-minded coder. I'm thinking of a programming style that advises two things: (a) if you use a while condition that's variable, that's expected to change, then your goal should be to always exit because of that, i.e. that should be your only exit point. Even if some other criterion suggests exiting, you have the option to flip that "lid" at the top, to crack that front door, and bounce the ball out. (b) which is why 'continue' is your friend. You are showing the user where your 'break' statements are, except you don't use "break" statements, as you've given a non-constant condition, and your aim is to make that your ONLY exit point. In short: never use break to exit a while loop unless your condition is while True. Instead, always flip the condition and exit through the font door. However, as soon as I make that rule I can think of good reasons to break it. The other programmers in the room are shaking their heads. Won't we lose information, needed elsewhere in the program, if we "artificially" force a True condition to False. Aren't we, in effect, lying? That concern could be addressed. Keep all the info true, just treat the "lid condition" (it "keeps a lid on it") as a flag. Go ahead and remember the user's guess. allowed = 5 tries = 1 exit = False while not exit: # no other way out guess = int(input("Guess?: ") if guess == secret: print("You guessed it!") exit = True # instead of break continue print("Nope, try again...") tries += 1 if tries == allowed: print("You've maxed out") exit = True continue I think we all understand the main issue: writing reader-friendly code, and rules for doing so. There's something comforting about approaching a while loop and knowing its not a leaky sieve, riddled with back doors, maybe even an exit( ) time bomb. But in the recursion world we want a minimum of two exits usually: when another round is called for versus when we've "hit bottom". Can we have it both ways? Conclusions: Lets not be too hasty with rules of thumb and: Lets keep the reader in mind when writing code. Just because the interpreter knows to compute the flow unambiguously, doesn't mean all ways of writing it are equally reader-friendly. What may seem a gratuitous gesture, an unnecessary flourish, may actually promote reader comprehension of your code, and that should be a goal as much as satisfying the interpreter. Kirby

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MineCraft with Python
by Jurgis Pralgauskis Dec. 4, 2022

Dec. 4, 2022

Hi, intro: many kids like MineCraft :) probably you know/heared of MineCraft Pi https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-minecraft-pi/ But there seems to be Py for real MC http://coderdojotc.readthedocs.io/projects/python-minecraft/en/latest/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Python-coding-for-Minecraft/ PS.: a nice article (from js4MC world) https://github.com/walterhiggins/ScriptCraft/blob/master/docs/YoungPersonsG… -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://galvosukykla.lt

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turtle coordinates: Y increase downards - as in most graphics API?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis July 2, 2018

July 2, 2018

Hi, usually in computer graphics Y is counted to increase downwards. I casn do it with: setworldcoordinates(0, 400, 600, 0) but then, "right(..)" turns to the left :/ I could swap: right, left = left, right but on errror I get a bit misleading message >>> right() Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#10>", line 1, in <module> right() TypeError: left() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given) I thought to make this hack for kids, so better clearer error msgs... Any Ideas? Thanks :) -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://galvosukykla.lt

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Pre-announcement: nonstandard module
by Andre Roberge April 30, 2017

April 30, 2017

Hello everyone, If you use Python only to teach the very basic ideas of programming to beginners, and if your students normally use a non-ascii based alphabet language (and thus may struggle with entering Python keywords), you might be interested in something I am working on: https://github.com/aroberge/nonstandard nonstandard allows one to use code transformations defined in a simple way to change Python's standard syntax. [This ide of using "simple native language keywords" was mentioned by Terry Reddy as something desirable to implement for IDLE https://mail.python.org/pipermail/idle-dev/2015-October/003642.html.] A list of the available transformations is found here: https://github.com/aroberge/nonstandard/tree/master/nonstandard/transformers As a demonstration, I have included a transformation that makes it possible to use a French version of Python's keywords. Personally, I would not use this version as a teaching tool, since the English alphabet is a subset of the French one, ... but it was the only language I was confident enough to use as a demonstration. ;-) I realize that this may be of interest to only a few people on this list, and do not mind if you reply to me directly André P.S. CS professionals will likely recoil in horror if they look at the code and see what I did to make this work. As someone with no formal CS education, my coding motto is "do the simplest thing that works".

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Welcoming newcomers
by kirby urner April 30, 2017

April 30, 2017

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 9:59 AM, <Jeannine.Coutts(a)use.salvationarmy.org> wrote: > I am also new to this community. I am interested in learning how to > implement Python coding into lessons for elementary students. > > Sincerely, > Ms. Jeannine S. Coutts > Education Technology Specialist > Hi Jeannine, welcome to edu-sig. I'm one of the two listowners currently, Naomi Ceder the other, though for decades on edu-sig that wasn't true i.e. I'm relatively new in that capacity. We've been fortunate over the years to have done a lot of brainstorming, all archived, but then the vista keeps changing so it's not like there's a point where everything we could say has been said. :-D I used to be a high school math teacher long ago and more recently have worked with junior high aged. Only in the last few months have I had much first hand experience in a classroom populated with 1st graders tackling Scratch, or 5th graders tackling Codesters. My sense of what's realistic and possible is still developing. I'm almost 60 years old myself, lots of white hair. What we find at the company I work for is that Chromebooks are adequate for getting into the cloud via WiFi, where a host of on-line tools makes coding accessible even to the very young. However when you have to hunt for every keyboard key, and fight mightily with a track pad, just to slide some blob around, you're hardly ready to do much typing. Codesters.com offers a drag and drop approach to Python programming, free of charge, however it's built to imitate MIT Scratch, with which it helps to be familiar with first. Before Scratch, you have games like at Code.org, which help develop the finer motor skills. Example: https://studio.code.org/hoc/1 (may trigger a promotional video, PR for Learning to Code, then it takes you to an exercise I'm actually seeing used with 1st graders here in Portland, along with MIT Scratch). I'm about to dive into Codesters myself to see if I can get a tic-tac-toe thing going in the canvas, rather than console-based, which is already provided. Here on this list, Andre has developed Reeborg's World: http://reeborg.ca/index_en.html Also, we've enjoyed the presence of Gregor Lingl who maintains the turtle module. Right out of the box, Python comes with turtle graphics, if you have IDLE installed. https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/turtle.html Older debates on this listserv have been about whether kids that young shouldn't be out developing gross motor skills first, like is so much screen time really ideal? However not all kids are alike in their interests and for those really eager to dive in, its great to have some options. Another resource I enjoy: repl.it Just last night I was working on this one: https://repl.it/H7VF/11 (a window pops up asking you to sign up, but you don't have to) There's a ton of stuff out there! More every day it seems. Kirby PS: Here's a talk I'm lining up to give at the Linus Pauling House next Tuesday, a meet-up place in my neighborhood (Portland claims to Linus's or Lini, both Torvalds and Pauling, the latter a 2x Nobel Prize winner, unshared, for both chemistry and peace, though he credited his wife Ava Helen for a lot of his courage in doing peace work). *What Does the Future Bode, in Terms of Learning to Code?* The "code school" business is still shaping up in a rough and tumble world, full of uncertainties. *O'Reilly Media* finally threw in the towel, closing its fledgling *School of Technology*. So then what happened to Wanderer Kirby Urner, one of the school's full time Python mentors (souvenir biz cards will be available)? He's branched out into mentoring much younger folk, in addition to sometimes hosting a night gig for professional adults, off and on (a forty hour ordeal). He did a Python for Wanderers a few years ago, Allen Taylor attending. *Coding with Kids* is the new company, based in Redmond, so you might be thinking Windows, but we use Chromebooks on resources in the cloud, what Kirby plans to project. After school, in schools (both public and private). Given Kirby's unique perspective from the front lines, along with years spent developing curriculum for his Oregon Curriculum Network [1], we should get some interesting discussion going, starting with a 20 minute show and tell (projected) featuring some of the latest tools now in use in education. *Presenter's bio*: Kirby is a former full time math teach (St. Dom's in Jersey City), text book editor, political activist etc., an early childhood denizen of Portland with an upbringing overseas (Rome, Manila) and a degree from Princeton (philosophy a focus). He returned to Portland in his later twenties to met his late wife Dawn Wicca and raise a family. (ISEPP was one of Dawn's bookkeeping clients back in the 1990s). Kirby specialized in writing programs for nonprofits and for medical research. Full resume: http://grunch.net/kirby-urner Want to optionally do some homework ahead of time? Read these to bone up on the presenter's views: *On Medium*: https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/is-code-school-the- new-high-school-30a8874170b https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/the-plight-of-high-school-math-teachers- c0faf0a6efe6 *Ongoing Debate @ Math Forum*: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2852324 [1] Oregon Curriculum Network http://4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html http://4dsolutions.net/ocn/ http://wikieducator.org/Digital_Math

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Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 165, Issue 9
by Andrew Harrington April 30, 2017

April 30, 2017

awesome list for awesome Python! Dr. Andrew N. Harrington Computer Science Department Graduate Program Director gpd(a)cs.luc.edu Loyola University Chicago 529 Lewis Towers, 111 E. Pearson St. (Downtown) 417 Cudahy Science Hall (Rogers Park campus) http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh Phone: 312-915-7982 Fax: 312-915-7998 aharrin(a)luc.edu (as professor, not gpd role) On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 6:55 PM, José Carlos García <jcg(a)quobit.net> wrote: > > On 30 April 2017 at 00:07, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote: > >> - an awesome-python-edu README.rst repo (with a table of ``.. >> contents::` ) might also spurn contributions of useful resources >> > > > Hi, I'm a secondary school & VET CS teacher in Spain (though I'm 6 years > seconded at the local education administration; so not teaching these > years). > > About Wes Turner's proposal: in the last months I've been collecting lots > of links on https://github.com/quobit/awesome-python-in-education > > But the list is not very well organized for the purpose I think it should > have. My dedication has been very sparse: very short commits (one or two > links each) and poor classification. > > Please feel free to open issues, comment anything or start a conversation > about it (I think this could be named a Request For Comments). Any help > would be appreciated. > > Cheers! > >

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Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 165, Issue 9
by José Carlos García April 29, 2017

April 29, 2017

On 30 April 2017 at 00:07, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote: > - an awesome-python-edu README.rst repo (with a table of ``.. > contents::` ) might also spurn contributions of useful resources > Hi, I'm a secondary school & VET CS teacher in Spain (though I'm 6 years seconded at the local education administration; so not teaching these years). About Wes Turner's proposal: in the last months I've been collecting lots of links on https://github.com/quobit/awesome-python-in-education But the list is not very well organized for the purpose I think it should have. My dedication has been very sparse: very short commits (one or two links each) and poor classification. Please feel free to open issues, comment anything or start a conversation about it (I think this could be named a Request For Comments). Any help would be appreciated. Cheers!

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Helping with Python education
by Santiago Basulto April 29, 2017

April 29, 2017

Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to get in touch with you. I'm a long time Python developer. The reason I'm writing here is because I'd like to see in which ways I could collaborate with the Education efforts carried on by this group. I've been involved with Education all my life and it's one of my passions. 2 years ago I've founded a company that specializes in Python education (rmotr.com). Today I have a little more free time and I'd love to collaborate with the Python community. Sorry if my questions are repetitive, but, Is there any document that lists pending tasks or things which I could collaborate with? Is there anybody specially dedicated to it? What'd be the best way to help in general? Thanks very much for your time. -- Santiago Basulto.- Co-founder @ rmotr.com https://github.com/santiagobasulto https://twitter.com/santiagobasulto

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Re: [Edu-sig] Helping with Python education
by Andrew Harrington April 28, 2017

April 28, 2017

No general list that I know of, but here is a cool broad project, extending a long line of open source / creative commons contributions: http://runestoneinteractive.org/index.html Dr. Andrew N. Harrington Computer Science Department Graduate Program Director gpd(a)cs.luc.edu Loyola University Chicago 529 Lewis Towers, 111 E. Pearson St. (Downtown) 417 Cudahy Science Hall (Rogers Park campus) http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh Phone: 312-915-7982 Fax: 312-915-7998 aharrin(a)luc.edu (as professor, not gpd role) On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 5:58 PM, Santiago Basulto <santiago(a)rmotr.com> wrote: > Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to get in touch with you. > > I'm a long time Python developer. The reason I'm writing here is because > I'd like to see in which ways I could collaborate with the Education > efforts carried on by this group. I've been involved with Education all my > life and it's one of my passions. 2 years ago I've founded a company that > specializes in Python education (rmotr.com). Today I have a little more > free time and I'd love to collaborate with the Python community. > > Sorry if my questions are repetitive, but, Is there any document that > lists pending tasks or things which I could collaborate with? Is there > anybody specially dedicated to it? What'd be the best way to help in > general? > > Thanks very much for your time. > > -- > Santiago Basulto.- > Co-founder @ rmotr.com > https://github.com/santiagobasulto > https://twitter.com/santiagobasulto >

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Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 165, Issue 7
by Jeannine.Coutts＠USE.SalvationArmy.Org April 28, 2017

April 28, 2017

I am also new to this community. I am interested in learning how to implement Python coding into lessons for elementary students. Sincerely, Ms. Jeannine S. Coutts Education Technology Specialist Jeannine.Coutts(a)USE.SalvationArmy.org Tech Cafe Direct Line: 937.528.5243 Internal Office Extension: 75241 Mon. - Fri. 9:00 A.M. - 5:30 P.M. The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center 1000 N. Keowee Street Dayton, OH 45404 http://dayton.salarmykroc.org “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”– Romans 8:38-39 From: edu-sig-request(a)python.org To: edu-sig(a)python.org, Date: 04/28/2017 12:03 PM Subject: Edu-sig Digest, Vol 165, Issue 7 Sent by: "Edu-sig" <edu-sig-bounces+jeannine.coutts=use.salvationarmy.org(a)python.org> Send Edu-sig mailing list submissions to edu-sig(a)python.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://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. Helping with Python education (Santiago Basulto) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2017 18:58:13 -0300 From: Santiago Basulto <santiago(a)rmotr.com> To: edu-sig(a)python.org Subject: [Edu-sig] Helping with Python education Message-ID: <CAH6mLdiH0WYb_iQVJva1Be_nwDrRapJ81T8zM-BBpuhmuT5uJQ(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to get in touch with you. I'm a long time Python developer. The reason I'm writing here is because I'd like to see in which ways I could collaborate with the Education efforts carried on by this group. I've been involved with Education all my life and it's one of my passions. 2 years ago I've founded a company that specializes in Python education (rmotr.com). Today I have a little more free time and I'd love to collaborate with the Python community. Sorry if my questions are repetitive, but, Is there any document that lists pending tasks or things which I could collaborate with? Is there anybody specially dedicated to it? What'd be the best way to help in general? Thanks very much for your time. -- Santiago Basulto.- Co-founder @ rmotr.com https://github.com/santiagobasulto https://twitter.com/santiagobasulto -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: < http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/attachments/20170427/2facb1e2/atta… > ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig(a)python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig ------------------------------ End of Edu-sig Digest, Vol 165, Issue 7 *************************************** ****************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the originator of the message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of The Salvation Army. ******************************************************************

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