[Edu-sig] Update re what I've been up to...

[Kirby Urner]

Greetings fellow Pythoneers --

I've continued to haunt math teacher lists seeking to spark
some interest in graduating from TI-ville (Texas Instruments
rules the roost in early math ed these days).  I try to show
how Python can be used convergently with traditional math
language to create an interesting hybrid, more robust and
relevant to this day and age.  Old hat around here (plus we
went down this road with Logo, BASIC et al... but we can go
further with Python).

Anyway, my most recent forays into some of the group theory 
stuff are linked from the very bottom of my 'We Shall Overcome' 
"manifesto" at http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/overcome.html
There's nothing extraordinary about the group stuff (maybe let
me know if you find any goofs), but I show how list comprehension,
object syntax, and operator overriding all make a lot of sense
in this context, with the code remaining pretty short and light
(not writing any GUIs here, just simple command line stuff 
in IDLE, using very basic parts of the Standard Library, plus 
subject-relevant modules).  The Python is very simple, in other
words, as is the math (that's by design -- trying to keep the
gradient realistic).

Also, in projects of a more geometric nature, I've gotten my 
polyhedra to spit out in Graphics3D format, meaning I can 
take advantage of the LiveGraphics3D Java 1.1 applet by 
Martin Kraus (he and I have been in touch).  For an example 
of this applet pulling from a file written by my Python 
source code, see:

http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/polynest.html

The corresponding VRML view comes from the same source code
(not on the web yet), and is linked from the above page.

That's it for now.  This is all more of the usual from my 
corner -- the same kinda stuff I've been doing since my first
post to edu-sig (but I think incrementally better as I keep 
going through the iterations).

Kirby

PS:  as a sometime Windows user, I was happy to find CosmoPlayer
back on-line, a fine VRML plug-in that disappeared off the 
Windows radar after SGI bought it -- but now it's back under
the Computer Associates brand: http://www.cai.com/cosmo/
This is the only viewer I've so far used to check polynest.wrl,
which works best with a white background (but VRML 1.0 left 
out a background color specification, leaving this non-standard,
so maybe others will get a black background... etc. etc.).