[Edu-sig] 3d and Python

[Arthur]

Kirby writes -
 
> I'm not sure what Arthur's objection is to big money backing software
> projects aimed at the education market.  What's the difference between
> Disney doing it and Microsoft doing it, and are Magic School Bus CDs a bad
> thing?  It's already a huge market, and I think each product should be
> judged on its merits.  And it's rare that we find anything so elaborate as
> a
> complete curriculum, except in publishing -- and that's big money too.

I'm  implying more than that.  I'm implying big money's interest in the
privatization of education = not selling CDs here and there. I was actually
sympathetic to the idea of vouchers and the like until I began to get an
idea of what it would mean when the Big Boys got into the act. And convinced
that the Big Boys would become the act. Fast food.
> 
> Disney's imprint is entirely missing from Squeak in any case.  Had they
> really gotten behind it, the interface would be stocked with stock
> characters:  Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and the rest of the cast.  The
> emphasis would be on animating them somehow.  That'd be the predictable
> outcome.  But Squeak is way too esoteric at the moment.  It's a poorly
> understood product, for the most part.  Disney never managed to overcome
> that.

Something went wrong, thank goodness.

You had asked, I think, about the Panda3D presentation at PyCon at one
point. I'm not sure if my reply made it here.  

Panda3D is s Disney creation.  The creators acknowledged that they were
under some pressure to make Squeak its scripting mechanism.  They ended up
using Python however, finding there was too much ideological baggage
attached to "doing business" with Squeak.  Their interest - and I think that
they were greatly successful - was to create an Open Source, industrial
strength Entertainment Engine. The end.  

Working with it is indeed educational, I am sure, in the sense David points
to,  for anyone looking to make the commitment to get their arms around the
intricacies of industrial strength entertainment technology. Hard stuff. And
if  you master it, you a likely to make a living at it. It's a multi-billion
industry.

There is no educational pretense beyond that. 

Disney should be commended for understanding the advantages of open sourcing
this effort, for understanding the sense of using Python for it, and for
understanding that we look to them to take the forefront when it comes to
this kind of technology. And mostly, in my opinion, for being unambiguous
about what Panda3D is intended to be about.   

Art