
Hello all, I am new to the list and Python in general. I want to start using Python in my Into to CS Class in High School. I have previewed a number of books but am having difficulties finding a decent source for: 1) a detailed curriculum (basic class for 100% new programming students) 2) Good examples and problems for projects On another note: I am using OSX 10.2 and am having problem setting up the computers to run a decent IDE. I have tried MacPython and Pyoxide. Any help would be deeply appreciated. Thanks, Mike Hanna

Hello all, I am new to the list and Python in general. I want to start using Python in my Into to CS Class in High School. I have previewed a number of books but am having difficulties finding a decent source for: 1) a detailed curriculum (basic class for 100% new programming students)
Hi Mike -- Have you already looked through the resources listed at: http://www.python.org/sigs/edu-sig/ (e.g. Background materials)?
2) Good examples and problems for projects On another note: I am using OSX 10.2 and am having problem setting up the computers to run a decent IDE. I have tried MacPython and Pyoxide. Any help would be deeply appreciated.
Wish I could help you more here, but I don't have a Mac :-( http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/download.html indicates that there's a binary installer MacPython-OSX specifically for 10.2. According to http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/macpython-osx.html it contains an IDE (PythonIDE). Is that the version you already tried? Kirby

Mike, mhanna@pvcsd.org wrote:
Hello all, I am new to the list and Python in general. I want to start using Python in my Into to CS Class in High School. I have previewed a number of books but am having difficulties finding a decent source for: 1) a detailed curriculum (basic class for 100% new programming students) 2) Good examples and problems for projects
If you've not already checked it out, my CS1 textbook might be appropriate for you. See http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python if you're interested.
On another note: I am using OSX 10.2 and am having problem setting up the computers to run a decent IDE. I have tried MacPython and Pyoxide. Any help would be deeply appreciated.
We use IDLE for our intro classes, and it works well. Unfortunately IDLE uses the Tkinter package, which is not included in the default OSX python. I have a colleague who is using IDLE and Python on his Mac by running XDarwin and the Python available from the fink project (http://fink.sourceforge.net). It works great for him, but I can't vouch for how it would work in a lab setting. I believe it is also possible to do a native install of Python and tcl/tk from source under OSX, but I have not had a chance to try that out yet. --John
-- John M. Zelle, Ph.D. | Wartburg College Associate Prof. of CS | Dept. Math/CS/Physics john.zelle@wartburg.edu | Waverly, Iowa

2) Good examples and problems for projects
If you've not already checked it out, my CS1 textbook might be appropriate for you. See http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python if you're interested.
By the way, has anyone seen "Programming Challenges" yet? http://www.programming-challenges.com/pg.php?page=index Springer has recently published a book of "challenges", and so far, all the challenges I've read are interesting and approachable. The material focuses on concrete problems and techniques that programmers encounter all the time. And many of the examples motivate the programmer to use techniques like sentinels, sorting, and good case analysis. Please forgive me for gushing so much, but I'm very impressed by the concrete content in the book. I feel that the exercises are perfectly applicable for someone who's learning Python. Hope this helps!

This list may be interested in the alpha release of Active Learning Environment (ALE) at http://virtualschool.edu/ale. Its an ambitious application of Java, XML and Velocity for web-based experiential learning. This is relevant to Python for historical reasons, to education for obvious ones. The first version was in Perl, the second in Zope, the third in Java and Jython (via the BSD bridge). On yes, there was a Ruby version along the way somewhere. Gave up on Jython when the Jython-Java bridge proved fragile and slow and returned to the Java+Velocity approach I tried just after Perl. I'm not really a fan of Velocity (or Java for that matter), but the current approach seems to be working out well and avoids the bridge issues I had with Jython. Users see a dynamically checked environment; java developers a compile-time-checked one, which seems like the right compromise. Your comments and suggestions would be MOST appreciated! Still working on the tutorial and installation instructions but most of the system is there now. -- Brad J. Cox, PhD, 703 361 4751, http://virtualschool.edu http://virtualschool/ale Action Learning Environment http://virtualschool.edu/mybank Digital Rights Management System http://virtualschool.edu/jco Java Cryptographic Objects (JCO) http://virtualschool.edu/jwaa Java Web Application Architecture (JWAA) http://virtualschool.edu/java+ Java Preprocessor (Java+)
participants (5)
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Brad Cox
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Danny Yoo
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John Zelle
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Kirby Urner
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mhanna@pvcsd.org