[Edu-sig] Re: PyGeo

[Kirby Urner]

>And with the advent of decent $150 color printers, the opportunity for
>students to see their work in hard copy is there, I think extremely

And to make T-shirts of their own work.  Office Depot sells
some product making this easy (haven't yet tested myself).

>What hasn't been emphasized in the discussion so far is the PyGeo is fully
>interactive. The top-level script just defines a starting position of
>objects in 3D space.

Yes, this is an important difference.  The ability to grab
something on screen with a mouse and move it is what makes
your app a different animal.  Like any good zoo, or jungle,
a classroom/course should have lots of animals, some exotic.

>You go from there. I think the interactivity has a high fun quotient

Agreed.  This is what we've found with STRUCK (interactive 
Java application -- outputs to Povray, VRML _and_ ActiveWorlds).

STRUCK also makes stuff happen on screen even if the user 
just sits back and doesn't do anything, because the shapes 
are defined using "springs" with tension/compression 
characteristics.  

Lots of times, the network has a hard time "getting comfortable" 
and blobs all over the place. Capturing this dynamism (which
power users learn to control) in successive frames has been 
the basis for a number of interesting AVI and QuickTime 
animations.  Very high fun quotient.

>will generate a "help me
>understand how that happens" factor and  a good "you got my attention now"
>factor.  And, yes, it can work wonderfully I believe to build an intuitive
>understanding of geometric concepts, which to me is not as off topic as may
>appear.

Agreed.

>Manipulate the construction interactively until you are happy with 
>what you see. Write to POV-RAY and get a new level of graphic 
>resolution. Write to a targ or a jpg. Print it out. Hang it up
>
>Killer app, in my opinion.
>
>Any interest in pursuing???

STRUCK is open source (in Java).  Given I'm more familiar with 
this package, I'm wondering about learning more from your work
in order to help me convert pieces of STRUCK into Python and/or
JPython.  

The idea would be for students to learn Python, see how Python 
can implement STRUCK-style concepts (this might include some
OpenGL stuff -- not clear yet), and then make the transition 
to full-fledged Java (which will seem far more readable and 
comprehensible given the strong background in Python).

Were I to undertake the above (sounds like a real challenge), 
I think you and I would find ourselves overlapping quite a bit.
Colleagues in the fluidiom.com circle might jump in as well
(Gerald, STRUCK's principal designer/coder, has been using
Python to show the ropes to his son Mitch -- about the same
age as my 5 year old).

Kirby