[Edu-sig] Python accessibility
Kirby Urner
pdx4d@teleport.com
Sun, 27 May 2001 09:10:51 -0700
Another longer range concept would be to have a magazine
called 'Python in Education' or something, which would
include advertising. There could be a monthly CD you
subscribe to. Authors would get paid for accepted
articles and the code would go to the CD, which would
be optional. Or some other configuration along these
lines. There'd be a website with selected articles, but
I'm actually thinking of something printed. With any
new subscription including the optional CD, you'd mail
out one of these "starter disks" with Python thereon.
A challenge is the need for multiple platform support.
A lot of schools use iMacs (my own brief experience with
the iMac Python is that version of IDLE doesn't feature
color-coding of key words). Some use RedHat RPMs, but
Debian, for example, has an alternative distro system.
Then you've got the Windows binaries. What most beginners
would find oppressive, beyond getting a download off the
net, is compiling source code. The idea is to provide
unzip-and-run type install files.
In my view, most 'Python in Education' articles would
presume students were operating in IDLE. That's sort
of "home base" for most presentations. Then you might
have special features showing Python running in an
X-term window or in Pythonwin, articles about programming
the Gnome GUI with Python -- other platform-specific
stuff. Each article could be labeled in the sidebar is
to which versions of Python, and which OSes, were relevant
to the article's contents.
Kirby