[Edu-sig] Not well supported on the Mac?

[Kirby Urner]

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