At 03:24 PM 05/28/2000 -0400, Paul Fernhout wrote:
Kirby-
This is the reason I raised the issue of cross-platform support on this list on Feb 4, 2000 ("Common Graphical Framework for Python Tutorials?").
Yes, I understand this better now. When I say Python is already finished enough to support my math-through-programming approach, I'm more thinking of the Windows/Linux implementation as the paradigm. Yet schools have a lot of Macs. It still sounds like what I'm up to would work on a Mac, since I'm not doing anything multi-threaded or Tk-based (yet). Mostly, I'm just focussing on math students/teachers who already use calculators a lot, and suggesting Python's interactive environment as a next logical step (i.e. when moving from calculators to computers, let's not focus on spreadsheets, or dynamic geometry software to the exclusion of any real programming language). For this approach to work, you need, at minimum, an interactive command line, and a suitable text editor for writing/saving modules (programming interactively by typing defs at the command line is insufficient). Having keyword color coding in your editor sure helps kids learning the language -- at the command line too, as per IDLE. If the Mac doesn't have this, that's a problem from my point of view. Most of the stuff I'm doing would transfer to DrScheme easily. The one thing I'm not sure about is the lingo of objects as methods + data. DrScheme seems to use the paradigm of "data types" vs. "objects" and the implementation of objects is considered an advanced topic. But I prefer a way of conceptualizing that makes something called "objects" accessible near the bottom of the learning curve, because I want to talk about "vector objects" and "matrix objects" (no, not "types") without waiting for students to reach any guru level in the language. It may be a nomenclature issue. All that being said, I'm entirely in agreement with you that we need to attract a critical mass of new gurus with a commitment to the Mac platform, so that we don't so much rely on the 1% who do all the core enchancements. If, that is, we're serious about CP4E making inroads in schools. Either that, or wait for the UNIX-based MacOS (but that will be a slow upgrade process I think). Kirby