Hi Art From: Arthur Siegel <ajs@ix.netcom.com>
For starters, the kind of list of Python resources that Jason recently posted up for graphics expands exponentially when one includes the ability to use JPython. Java3D, for example, is very well accessible to Python code via JPython. The reality is that there are vaster Java than Python resources in most every category. I found it liberating to know I could explore the Java world of resources while staying close to home, being Python.
Since getting into Python, Java looks more approachable to me. Plus I have seen the graphics stuff improve. I was kind of burned on a project 3 years ago which tried to use Java too soon to some interactive graphics. But 3 years is a long in Internet time I was not successful in JPython last time I tried either.. don't why some paths or installs did not come together right.
I am trying to design what I am doing in Java to be easily scriptable in JPython - the beauty being that if your Java classes are designed to qualify as beans, than you can use normal Python keyword syntax to set the class's attributes on initialization. (I think I said that right).
Python in Java is great idea... What I never managed to figure out is: 1. does JPython give you a Python command line shell in a web browser ? 2. which can access java classes stored on web server? Playing with the JPython 3D demos you sent me Art, reminded me of several things and raised some questions of where your JPython might go... <quick background context> A couple of years ago, before I knew about Python, I spent quite a bit of time looking into 'Mathematica'. I love its design philosophy, its graphics, the Notebooks and the rigor of Wolfram's team. But they were waking up slowly adn carefully to the web. Mathematica is very expensive if you step outside of the academic bandwidth they bless, or are a nomad independent as I am. Their license is machine specific. The Math department of Imperial College in London had a hard time [financially] negotiating acceptable licenses. Alas I think this nixed Mathematica there after several years good development of new curriculum. This not necessarily Wolfram's fault, because UK academic budgets and departmental management may be very hard to understand from Urbana. But they did not help them either.. I was luckier the UK office in Oxford kindly extended me developer license status for some time while I tried to get Mathematica to extend its 3D interactive capabilities. With a Mathematica programmer, we developed a package for visualizing generic nested timelines in 3D - with a view to output as VRML2.0. Partially successful. Then I found an openGL tool developed by the same team who now make MathEngine http://www.mathengine.com/ Then discovered LiveGraphics3D - the clever work of Martin Kraus http://wwwvis.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~kraus/ who developed a pioneering Java3D applet for interactive rendering of Mathematics 3D graphics objects. This was really a much better solution than our VRML one, because it allowed direct use of Mathematica's own Graphics3D format as ASCII script. Just cut and paste. </quick background context> The applet has improved quite a bit since then and has color and some nice interactive querying features. Docs http://wwwvis.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~kraus/LiveGraphics3D/documentatio n.html user action ~ applet reaction dragging (left mouse button pressed) rotating about an axis in the picture releasing left mouse button while dragging spinning about an axis in the picture SHIFT key pressed plus vertical dragging zooming SHIFT key pressed plus horizontal dragging rotating about an axis perpendicular to the picture CONTROL key pressed plus vertical dragging changing focal length CONTROL key pressed plus horizontal dragging changing strength of stereo effect META (ALT) key (or right mouse button) pressed plus vertical dragging stripping parts of the graphics "o" key printing parameter settings to the Java console (aka Java messages window) "s" key toggling between single picture, stereo pictures for diverge fusing and stereo pictures for cross fusing You can see LiveGraphics3D on Mathsource http://www.mathsource.com/Content/Enhancements/Interfacing/Web/0209-281 or go direct to Martin Kraus' own site: http://wwwvis.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~kraus/LiveGraphics3D/index.html with examples http://wwwvis.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~kraus/LiveGraphics3D/examples.htm l See what others have done with it http://wwwvis.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~kraus/LiveGraphics3D/links.html and good work continues... Hidekazu Takahashi has added a 3D knife to slice objects: http://www2.kawase-h.ed.jp/Teachers/~Takahashi/Knife.html I still have a recurring fantasy that next Tuesday or the one after Steven Wolfram will get gently struck by a Robert Crumb meatball, and open up Mathematica, giving source away to all the schools in the world. But it may be too late. And now with Python and NumPy and more it looks increasingly like that may not be needed or even such a good idea... Mathematica is brilliant, but locked in somewhat by its own god and universe. I admire them for sticking to their guns.. but in the long run I think everyone loses. There's is still much to be learned from it. For example JLink which lets you load Java classes into Mathematica, or create and run Java code from Mathematica code. http://www.wolfram.com/solutions/mathlink/jlink/ Also Python connectivity [1998] http://www.mathsource.com/Content/Enhancements/Interfacing/Other/0209-292 What can we learn / use from this? So I wonder what kind of connectivity you envision between JPython 3D and [regular] Python? What kinds of transfer for objects and work would you like to see? best wishes Jason