[Edu-sig] PataPata 0.1.19 release & Stigmergy

[Paul D. Fernhout]

kirby urner wrote:
> In other words:  as I learned long ago, the solo developer is quickly
> outclassed by what teamwork can do, when it comes to finalizing a
> commercial and/or educational product.  We've discussed this several
> times on this list, in connection with game development.

How often true...

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can 
change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

> But a lot of times, one just
> goes for green field development, per the recent Pata Pata example.

Well, it's somewhat green, but as mentioned before, I'm building on the 
shoulders of giants. :-)

I've been pretty quiet on edusig as I've been hard at work. :-)

SourceForge is partially down right now so I can't make a proper release 
in response to your mention :-) but I just added PataPata_v119.zip 
(version 0.1.19) to SVN here:
http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/patapata/trunk/releases/PataPata_v119.zip?view=log
You can download from that web page.

This version includes the current release of Gregor Lingl's xturtle 
library, wrapped as a Morph. (I modified the library slightly to work with 
Python 2.3).

To run the demo (after unzipping the file) use:
   python PataPata.py

It even has some PythonCard compatibility. It can read PythonCard resource 
files and build GUIs for them -- if the widgets are from the limited set 
it supports (Button, CheckBox, TextField, TextArea, Menus, and a few 
others). You still have to link in the code by hand though. I converted 
one example -- the "conversions" sample which converts temperatures, 
currencies, and Morse code. I also converted the menu builder tool GUI but 
it has no functionality yet. (Limited) PythonCard compatibility motivated 
several major improvements in the system (including naming morphs and 
supporting menus and a "visible" flag).

There is also one example using the approach Ian Bicking outlined 
previously here of using metaclasses to read in prototypes defined using 
"class". Also included is an example of how it works just using regular 
python code to construct them, so one can compare the two. It still uses 
the old approach for writing as I explore the new (for me) idea.

There is also a webcast Francois Schnell made of PataPata on ShowMeDo:
   http://showmedo.com/videos/video?name=patapata_tkinter1_fSchnell

So, see, some teamwork going on, though of an "artifact mediated" kind. I 
think of that as a form of "Stigmergy".
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergic
 From there: "Stigmergy is a method of communication in emergent systems 
in which the individual parts of the system communicate with one another 
by modifying their local environment."

--Paul Fernhout