[Edu-sig] re: new graphics.py etc.

[Kirby Urner]

Hi John --

Thank you for sharing your latest graphics.py -- indeed it runs a *lot*
faster, plus it's nice to have the option of watching screen updates as they
happen IF you want to.  This is definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

======

Notes:

With WinXP, Python 2.3.3, IDLE 1.0.2:

* no Tk canvas appears, or, if I add a canvas.flush(), a blank one with an
hour glass cursor appears.  

If I change auto-refresh to True, then I see the canvas being drawn
properly.  Once it's done, it has the last problem (below)

With WinXP, Python 2.3.3, command window:

* no problems with Tk canvas

With Linux (Mandrake 9.2), Python 2.3.3., IDLE 1.0

* Tk canvas appears, no problem.

Both platforms (with or without IDLE):

I notice that loading both the PIL and graphics.py modules at the same time
causes problems.  PIL will fail to show anything if graphics.py is loaded
(same with the older version).  I think this may have to do with both
modules contending for a Tk root, a problem even when running in shell mode.

To address the latter problem, I've separated the PIL and graphics.py Canvas
classes into separate modules (canvas1.py and canvas2.py), so that only one
or the other library gets used.

Both platforms, using IDLE:

if I choose dimensions greater than the screen, or move the Tk canvas off
the edge, portions of the canvas get wiped and don't refresh. 

=====

Note re nks.py

PS:  a more demanding test for nks is t1(30,400,200,3).  That creates a
3*400 x 3*200 (i.e. 1200x600) canvas.  In general, pixelsize (3) multiplies
the width (400) and height (200).  Plus height should be half the width,
given how these particular cellular automata propagate from the center (45
degree slope).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: edu-sig-bounces at python.org [mailto:edu-sig-bounces at python.org] On
> Behalf Of John Zelle
> Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 8:31 AM
> To: edu-sig at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Re: Teaching graphics withPython (was
> Introductoryhighschool programming)
> 
> 
> A number of folks expressed interest, so the newest version of
> graphics.py is now available on my Python page:
> http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python/graphics.py
> 
> The only difference between this version and the previous is that it
> allows the auto-flush of graphics updates to be turned off. This line
> creates a graphics window w/o immediate automatic updates:
> 
> myWin = GraphWin("Example Graphics Window", 300, 300, False)
> 
> The "False" in the last parameter turns off auto-updates. This window
> will be updated when the Tk event loop is idle or when myWin.flush() is
> called.  I tested this out with Kirby's nks.py code, and it makes the
> drawing essentially instantaneous on my machine.
> 
> I normally do not release tweaks to the graphics package until it has
> gone through an entire semester of class-use testing, but I am
> relatively confident that this small change is working. The
> documentation has not yet been updated. Please let me know if you find
> any bugs.
> 
> By the way, for any who are interested in the history of such things,
> versions of my graphics package before 2.0 (the previous release) always
> used lazy updating (the auto-flush False behavior). I added the forced
> updates to version 2.0 to make the package behave better interactively
> under windows with Idle 1.0 and newer (using subprocesses). The newest
> version (2.1) now lets you select which mode you want.
> 
> --John