Mailman 3 June 2022 - Edu-sig

Part-time opportunities for Python instructors
by Merav Yuravlivker May 7, 2024

May 7, 2024

Hi there, My name is Merav Yuravlivker, and I'm the CEO of Data Society - we deliver data science academies to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and other international organizations. We're currently looking for part-time Python instructors and TAs, and my friend Jackie Kazil recommended I reach out to you and your list serv. All of these opportunities can be available for people who are employed full-time, professors, or grad students. We pay well and provide all the materials for … [View More]

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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 … [View More]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 [View Less]

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MineCraft with Python
by Jurgis Pralgauskis Dec. 3, 2022

Dec. 3, 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, … [View More]

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Call for papers: "The Digital Environmental Humanities. Towards Theory and Praxis"
by NIKOLETA ZAMPAKI June 26, 2022

June 26, 2022

Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies ISSN 1218-7364 All HJEAS’ archived issues are available on JSTOR, the largest, most available website for humanities journals, current issues are also accessible electronically on ProQuest, including the most recent indexed by the SCOPUS database, indexed and abstracted by the MLA International Bibliography. For more about the HJEAS go to: [https://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/hjeas/about]. Call for Papers "The Digital Environmental Humanities. Towards … [View More]Theory and Praxis" Over the past years the rapid technological improvements, innovations and use of digital applications have transformed us into living and working in virtual environments. We are now facing 'oceans' of big data, inaugurating what has been called the “Digital Anthropocene.” Gaining momentum since around the 1950s, the Digital Humanities (previously referred to as Humanities Computing or Computing in the Humanities) “is a diverse and still emerging field that encompasses the practice of humanities research in and through information technology, and the exploration of how the humanities may evolve through their engagement with technology, media, and computational methods.” As we move from the first wave of qualitative data to the second, which is apt to be more critical, interpretative and empirical with the use of toolkits and services (Presner, 2010), the rise of a third wave introduces entirely new interdisciplinary paradigms, convergent fields, new methodologies and concepts as well as new models and patterns while working on cultural texts. Although the disciplines of Digital Humanities and Environmental Humanities appear to work with different methodological approaches (Posthumus and Sinclair, 2016: 370), they can provide a shared space for exploring questions such as how nature could be in dialogue with a computer or how technology could help us to understand environmental issues. Both disciplines adopt common vocabulary such as “environment,” “system,” “network, “collectivism,” “individualism” while approaching texts. The Digital Humanities and Environmental Humanities are “interdisciplinary and collaborative” disciplines (Cohen and LeMenager, 2016: 340) where “[n]ew tools, new metaphors, provide second-order feedback loops that inform the original metaphors of nature and ecology” (Morey, 2012: 119). Their collaborative work aims through new critical tools to shed light on the complex entanglements of nature with the digital sphere, and their relationship to each other when introduced into a system. A well-known concept across research is “digital ecologies” or “digital ecology or environment” (Wellmon, 2012: 77), which describes multiple reading and virtual environments, including their interactions made possible by the use of digital analysis tools while working on a text or database. As Finne Arne Jørgensen notes, the “idea of nature is becoming very hard to separate from the digital tools and media we use to observe, interpret, and manage it” (2014, 109). This interweaving presents a challenge that we have to face while developing and applying digital tools, applications, portals, repositories, and curated interactive objects to expand the research of Digital Environmental Humanities. In this journal issue, we will explore exactly how the disciplines of Digital Humanities and Environmental Humanities can provide us with new perspectives and critical tools. In particular, considering mainly literary studies, philosophy studies, media studies, visual studies and Art, we will explore and discuss the different ways in which concepts such as digital ecologies, digital environments, networks and so forth are approached by these disciplines in both theory and praxis. The new approaches and concepts form a ‘digital turn’ in the humanities, expanding the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world, and the characteristics of such a relationship, under which conditions (hybrid, symbiotic, etc.) and for what purposes, for example, education. Furthermore, the Digital Environmental Humanities offer insights on “Citizen Humanities” in which the involvement of public space, citizens and academia assists the better understanding of the practical aspects of the relationship between the human and the more-than-human world. We invite papers that consider the various interactions between Digital Humanities and Environmental Humanities in order to open up new forms of inquiry for critical approaches to the Humanities. Areas of interest for this special journal issue include, but are not limited to, the following topics: ● Digital Environmental Humanities in Literary Theory (Ecocriticism, Algorithmic Literary Theory) and Comparative Literature ● Digital Geographies and Spatialities ● Digitalocene (e.g. Anthropocene, Capitalocene, etc.) ● Digital Tools, Digital Applications, Digital Repositories and Archives, Data Visualization in/for Environmental Humanities ● Digital Ecologies and Topics from the Continental Philosophy ● Digital Environmental Humanities and Posthumanism, Transhumanism, AI, and Ethics ● Digital Ecologies, Plant Studies, and Animal Studies ● Digital Ecologies, Aesthetics and Art ● Digital Ecologies in Media and Film Studies ● Digital Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice ● Digital Ecologies, Medical Humanities (e.g. Pandemics) and Biotechnology ● Digital Oil and Energy Humanities ● Digital Environmental Pedagogies and Storytelling ● Digital Ecologies in Citizen Humanities, Smart Cities and Citizenship Futures ● Biomimicry and Digital Modeling ● Towards the future of Digital Environmental Humanities as Discipline in Theory and Praxis References Cohen, Jerome Jeffrey, and Stephanie LeMenager. “Introduction. Assembling the Ecological Digital Humanities”, PMLA 131.2 (2016): 340-346. doi: 10.1632/pmla.2016.131.2.340. Jørgensen, Finne Arne. “The Armchair Traveler’s Guide to Digital Environmental Humanities”, Environmental Humanities 4.1 (2014): 95-112. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3614944. Morey, Sean. “Digital Ecologies” in Dobrin, I. Sidney. (2012). (Ed.). Ecology, Writing Theory, and New Media. Writing Ecology (New York and London: Routledge), 106-121. Presner, Todd. (2010). “Digital Humanities 2.0: A Report on Knowledge” in Emerging Disciplines, edited by Melissa Bailar (Houston: Rice University Press). Sinclair, Stéfan and Stephanie Posthumus. (2016). “Digital? Environmental: Humanities” in The Routledge Companion to Environmental Humanities edited by Ursula K. Heise, Jon Christensen and Michelle Niemann (London and New York: Routledge). Wellmon, Chad. (2012). “Why Google Isn't Making Us Stupid…or Smart”. ISAC. The Hedgehog Review. Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture 14:1 <https://lecture.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~cwpgally/references/2012W_RD_Google_essa…>, [accessed 29/05/20222]. Editors Peggy Karpouzou, Assistant Professor in Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece E-mail: pkarpouzou(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:pkarpouzou@phil.uoa.gr> Nikoleta Zampaki, PhD Candidate in Modern Greek Literature, Faculty of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece E-mail: nikzamp(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:nikzamp@phil.uoa.gr> Submissions’ Guidelines and Deadlines Deadline for sending an abstract (approx. 300 words and a short CV) to both Editors’e-mails pkarpouzou(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:pkarpouzou@phil.uoa.gr> and nikzamp(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:nikzamp@phil.uoa.gr>: 31 October 2022. Deadline for sending the full papers to both Editors’ e-mails pkarpouzou(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:pkarpouzou@phil.uoa.gr> and nikzamp(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:nikzamp@phil.uoa.gr>: 30April 2023. More about full papers’ and submissions’ guidelines may be found here: [https://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/hjeas/about/submissions]. Please direct any questions to both Editors’ e-mails: pkarpouzou(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:pkarpouzou@phil.uoa.gr> and nikzamp(a)phil.uoa.gr<mailto:nikzamp@phil.uoa.gr> [View Less]

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High School Mathematics (Silicon Forest, Python ecosystem)
by kirby urner June 10, 2022

June 10, 2022

I'm just winding up the winter-spring term. This was actually an 8th grader cohort, pre highschool, but it's an accelerated curriculum. They're already doing vector cross products in physics. https://github.com/4dsolutions/elite_school/blob/master/ADS_highschool_math… I'm continuing to add new material. This morning I added the section on visualization. Kirby

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