[Edu-sig] Pickling Polyhedra

Arthur ajsiegel at optonline.net
Wed Mar 22 03:40:13 CET 2006


Kirby - 

You might want to check out Yafray

http://www.yafray.org/ 

It's a powerful raytracers, with ties to Blender (with ties to Python), and
a pure XML based SDL.

If my free minute, or next lifetime, I am hoping to do a PyGeo to Yafray
export in addition to PyGeo to Povray as there is now.

Among my motives is simply to get more hands on with XML processing concepts
- which is something I need to do more for business reasons than anything
else.

These kinds of synergies between what I do because I like to do it and what
I do because I can get paid to do it is how PyGeo gets financed - in a
manner of speaking.  

Or that's at least the story to my wife ;)

Art



> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: edu-sig-bounces at python.org 
> >[mailto:edu-sig-bounces at python.org] On Behalf Of kirby urner
> >Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 9:27 PM
> >To: edu-sig at python.org
> >Subject: [Edu-sig] Pickling Polyhedra
> >
> >OK, so this title is somewhat misleading, because pickling 
> >and shelving is one of the things I've not yet gotten around 
> >to, vis-a-vis Polyhedra.  But let me tell you about some of 
> >the other things I've done (classic bait and switch, I realize).
> >
> >First, what data structures to use?  Well, no need to 
> >reinvent the wheel here.  Geometers discovered long ago that 
> >labeled vertices made a lot of sense, which suggests a 
> >dictionary.  But we're not done. 
> >What vertices connect to what?  Just edges (pairs of connected
> >vertices) might seem like the answer but then figuring out 
> >the faces turns out to be hard, relative to how easy it'd be 
> >if the faces were simply a part of the data.
> >
> >And that suggests a list of tuples perhaps, the list being 
> >Faces and each tuple being a face.  Within the tuple, 
> >labels, keys in a dictionary of saved Vertices.  And what 
> >about edges?  They derive from Faces, by means of a simple 
> >algorithm (weeding out duplicates is part of it -- the 
> >native Set type may prove useful).
> >
> >So what about the *values* of our Vertexes dictionary?  
> >[Vertexes: an intentional respelling, per Synergetics -- I 
> >like the 'x-marks-a-rail-crossing' aesthetic].  I vote for 
> >vectors (lovely alliteration).  Of course the Clifford 
> >Algebra people may have other ideas, and I can't say I'd be 
> >against them.  But for now, simple XYZ coordination is 
> >sufficient, or try our newfangled Quadrays, with 
> >only-positive four-tuples (a member of the "simplicial 
> >coordinate system" family -- "simplicial" from "simplex," 
> >our tetrahedron or "minimum system" in synergetic geometry).
> >
> >So that's the data structure:  a dictionary of vertex 
> >vectors, gathered into face-tuples in a list.  There's good 
> >practice with all three main collection types here, plus 
> >strings, if you use those to label your vertices (you could 
> >also just use plain integers, a popular choice among 
> >computational geometers).
> >
> >So one design pattern would be this:  define your Polyhedron 
> >class to "eat" your data structures.  Build in rotation, 
> >translation and scaling.  Have the results of these 
> >operations be new polyhedra, i.e.
> >these are not "changes in place" even if the rotations are minor. 
> >Every change begets a new self.  Very Buddhist, very "be here now".
> >
> >Then, make a Writer superclass as a paradigm consumer of 
> >these Polyhedron objects (an icosahedron say, or rhombic 
> >triacontahedron of 120 T modules).  The polyhedra themselves 
> >are fairly innocent of i/o. 
> >At this superclass level, maybe there's a default data dump, 
> >a YAML or XML generator.  But anything more elaborate and 
> >application specific, such as a VRML, VPython, POV-Ray, EIG 
> >or LiveGraphics3D writer (and I've written all of these in 
> >my day), should simply eat a Polyhedron and scribble the 
> >file.  The Polyhedron class itself remains blissfully 
> >ignorant of all these nitty gritty requirements.
> >
> >>From a students point of view, how might all this work?  
> >XML and file
> >i/o is probably going to come through other topical 
> >segments.  I'm a big fan of using kml files ("camel files") 
> >out of Google Earth.  The syntax of class construction will 
> >likewise already be familiar, as will these basic Python 
> >data structures (dictionary, tuple and list).
> >
> >The Vector concept might be new though.  We could start with that. 
> >Vector algebra is very graphical, plays well with geometry.  
> >A computer graphics savvy curriculum is going to need vectors. 
> >Implement these natively in pure Python.  Then get into the 
> >rotation algorithms.  3x3 matrices should be sufficient (our 
> >newfangled Quadrays come with 4x4s, thanks to Tom Ace) -- no 
> >need for homogenous coordinates at this level.
> >
> >To rotate is to hit every unique vector in the Vertexes 
> >dictionary, and to spit back a new poly (now rotated).
> >
> >My inclination is to focus on POV-Ray early, as this full 
> >featured ray tracer offers hours of fun to those who would 
> >get lost in it.  A Python polyhedron writer only takes 
> >advantage of a small subset of POV-Ray's capabilities, but 
> >there's much more to explore "off camera".
> > A goal is to unleash the artist in each student, to give 
> >them high powered creativity tools.  Yes, mastery of 
> >mathematics is important, but not at the expense of a 
> >well-developed sense of aesthetics. 
> >"Ethics = aesthetics" wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein, in his 
> >Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.  Our Python-based 
> >mathematics aims for some Athenian style panache, not just 
> >for Spartan style bare bones efficiency.
> >
> >Where to go after POV-Ray I'm not so sure.  I'm not sure it matters. 
> >Depends on the curriculum, the teacher, the student.  Plus 
> >I'm expecting the IronPython branch to open new territory, 
> >hitherto unexplored.  VPython is certainly fun, per Arthur's 
> >PyGeo, my Hypertoons, and any number of art-science projects 
> >that others may brainstorm.  I'm looking forward to 
> >witnessing a lot of creativity in these areas, having helped 
> >craft a launching pad or starting gate, with plenty of help 
> >from others (Pythonistas, Pyconistos -- some in full Monty).
> >
> >Anyway, now that we've got Python and Polyhedra in the 
> >picture, I'm thinking mathematics learning will be a lot 
> >more rewarding and fun. 
> >Let the good times roll.
> >
> >Exercise:
> >
> >Relate the above design pattern proposal to the 
> >model-view-controller architecture.  Explain how the above 
> >might be consistent and/or inconsistent with MVC concepts.
> >
> >====
> >
> >K. Urner
> >4D Studios
> >PDX USA
> >2006.3.21
> >_______________________________________________
> >Edu-sig mailing list
> >Edu-sig at python.org
> >http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
> >




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