[Edu-sig] PySqueak: "Self" as the source of many ideas in Squeak

[kirby urner]

On 5/5/06, Paul D. Fernhout <pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:

<<SNIP>>

> So, as I reflect on this, the roots of not having Squeak on Python
> *already* may have more to do with Python community culture and history
> and mindset than Python limitations.

Constraints provide form and allow function.

I'm thankful that Python has the heritage Guido gave it:  easy to
learn if you're an adult in a late 1900s technical mindset, already
working around computers, probably already knowing  some C (but
finding it slow going and unproductive).

Python made it easier for astronomers, health professionals,
statisticians, engineers to get work done in a computer language. 
That's a fine place to start, no apologies needed.

I go back to my view that a powerful 3D graphics engine is something
many languages would like to use and there's no reason the Python
community should shoulder the entire developmental effort.  Establish
a common low level API that lots of languages might use.

Such a 3D engine is for data visualization and simulations, but also
for storyboarding and puppet shows -- not unlike Blender in some ways.
 We have cameras (points of view) and shapes with behaviors and
attributes, coordinate systems.  A single Python script could set up
the scene and carry us through a story about a White Monkey.

I'm reminded of a Pycon demo in DC, where we saw a simulator and
language trainer used for English speakers going to Iraq.  Unreal
Tournament 3000 was the game engine.  Python bindings had been
established...

Suddenly, we were in the outskirts of Baghdad, encountering Iraqis
lolling around a coffee shop in a somewhat destroyed landscape.

The dialog was basically:

"Hello [polite introductions] who is your leader and how can we find him?";

detailed instructions provided [left, right, left, straight...];

following instructions; finding and greeting leader [politely].

That's if all went well.

At every decision point, trainees might experience Game Over, perhaps
because of intonation.  A speech analyzer on the other end of the
microphone contained algorithms looking for intelligible Arabic. 
Anything less was unacceptable.

Kirby