[Edu-sig] Python accessibility

[Jason Cunliffe]

> 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.

Kirby,

Funny, I was just going to suggest this too!
Print is great + CDROMs are too. They allow a consistent reference base to
be easily and cheaply accessible. DrDobb's had a Python CDROM but has not
been well maintained so less than useful. A well maintained series would be
valuable resource for many people.

I think monthly format is ok, but quarterly is honestly better as a base
structure for Editorial and learning rhtythms. Journal have long folowed
taht rhythm for good reason.

Being dynamic, the web site absorbs the temporal and version offset between
published 'editions'.
Issues are thus quarterly [seasonal] digital/conceptual 'snapshots' of the
Great Project...
Encourages more a thematic approach to material beyond the regular
hunter/gatherer skills.

I suggest the Web site be planned using Zope:
- Python-based
- Free openSource and very cross-platform
- well suited to web publishing
- adapts well to collaborative site development
- Offers chance to include a live CP4E 'web engine' for running code etc
- easier to directly link and or 'embed' other web-based Python/CP4E work
- transfer complex content in single .zexp binary or similar between CP4E
systems.
[CDROM  can also use the same mechanism. Zope can even run direct from it]
- People on EDU-SIG are working with it already

There is now good swell of activity to create a wxPython-based ZopeIDE. As
and when this project matures, it will be an excellent long-term foundation
for CP4E. In effect it would  be a rich 100% Python client interface for
Zope. wxPython uses Scintilla [discussed in EDU-SIG recently], but also has
many useful generic GUI tools and featuers. wxPython GRIDS for exampkle aer
very nice. Can embed ACtiveX on Win32, and provide a consistent lanuch pad
or wrapper environement for other standalone Python developments. In other
words encourtages a modular open development blahblah..

Zope is very easy to install on Windows etc. A special CP4E CRDROM could
thus include Zope using HTML for the all teh documentation and articles with
Python code right there. Lots of great plugin's already for browsing,
indesing, presenting file-based documentation, source code etc. Uploading
many document types into Zope is very simple. There are also now some good
tols for allowing indexing of the content of those. Articles writeen as
MSWord or PDF can be indexed and meta_data stored in Zope or elsewhere.

Zope runs nicely as a 'local' server. People tend to think of Web technology
as only for the WEB. They often overlook the more fundamental features:
widely accepted protocols and tools, hypertext, etc.

CP4E which uses local server allows a good model for groups of people to
work together locally [solo, sneakernet + over LAN], then share and
aggregate their work remotely. This can of course be done more simply, using
conventional tools, but the object architecture runs deep. I am believe one
should always work 'In' the medium - whatever it is.

> 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.

Yes
Single click .exe type installation is very high priority. This is doable,
not without some hassles, but very worth the effort.

> 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.

In many cases obne can and should detect what is being used and adapt to it.
That is another case for using 'local' CP4E Zope. it can detect and store
state, handle various users [with granular permissions], but still launch
special tools IDLE etc if you need/want to.

I am not trying to complicate things by suggesting a Zope-based toolkit for
CP4E. I realize theer is a risk it might complicate things. But it might
simplfy things too!
The 'natural' advantages seem very clear to me for CP4E collaborative CDROM
Magazine WebSite publishing intitiative.

Hope we can all work this out nicely together ...

./Jason