[Edu-sig] pygeo, vpyython stats

[Arthur]

FWIW -

Just to get some bearings I just looked at some sourceforge download 
statistics for pygeo and for vpython.

 
                     PyGeo      VPython
Nov 2006        31           24
Oct 2006       113         144
Sep 2006       112         160
Aug 2006        90          193
Jul 2006        114          132
Jun 2006       133          575
May 2006     120            72
Apr 2006      119            43
Mar 2006     118             62
Feb 2006     110             66
Jan 2006      136             53


Both numbers are meager by many standards, but I am not disappointed in 
PyGeo's, in that I have purposefully refrained from promoting it an iota 
for over 3 years, other then discussion of it here, and only here.  My 
thinking is that I will only promote it when it is complete, in the 
sense of suitable for a general audience, e.g.well-documented, and 
having its own editing environment as part of the distribution. And that 
will be when that will be.  Since I don't consider there to be any 
competition for it - it's kind of its own thing - I don't feel under any 
enormous pressure.

But having trouble making sense of the statistics above, since PyGeo 
requires vpython and the PyGeo site points folks to the vpython download 
site.  In many months there are more downloads of PyGeo than Vpython, 
which either means that folks are downloading PyGeo without 
understanding the dependencies, and giving up, or that PyGeo is being 
downloaded as an add-on to existing Vpython installations.

Or that the statistics are unreliable for some other reason that is not 
apparent.

Assuming the statistics are meaningful , it does seem fair to conclude 
that PyGeo is a very  major factor in generating interest in Vpython, to 
the extent such interest exists.

Where I go with that info, not sure.

Art