[Edu-sig] Re: Best approach to teaching OOP and graphics

[Scott David Daniels]

Linda Grandell wrote:
>> How about making a small graphics library that has Shape objects. You 
>> create a shape object and manipulate it's attributes such as position, 
>> color, size, numOfVertices (triangle, square, pentagram), etc. Then 
>> you can teach subclassing a shape object, and finally making your own 
>> from scratch. PyGame of course is a great environment to build such a 
>> thing.
> 
> This sounds like a good idea. I was thinking about using the pygsear
> package first, mainly because I then would have ready-made material and
> examples to start from. The course starts in three weeks, so I am not
> really spoiled with time here. However, your suggestion should not take
> that long to implement. I will put it on my list of possible alternatives.

Take a look at VPython.  It is the simplest to grasp how to put a
few things on the screen; it has a nice small set of 3-D primitives,
and a quick intro to get a small display going.  Really easier than
most 2-D packages I've seen to start with, and you get to roll it
around.  If you are at PyCon, talk to Kirby about his experiences
using it in his classes.

> 
> /Linda


-- 
-- Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org