[Edu-sig] The fate of vpython

Arthur ajsiegel at optonline.net
Fri Oct 6 14:32:03 CEST 2006


This from the August 10 announcement of VPython 4.0beta5

"""

In the "Recent developments" section of vpython.org you can read a 
summary of the new features, which is also included in the documentation 
contained in the release. This includes a description of remaining known 
bugs, some of which are serious, which means that you may enjoy playing 
with the exciting new features, but be aware that there are problems.

I am not going to be able to do any more work on VPython for about three 
months, as the publisher of the physics textbook Ruth Chabay and I have 
written needs a second edition completed by November. Jonathan 
Brandmeyer has graduated from NCSU and is moving on to other things. So 
unless someone else steps forward, it is possible that this version 4 
beta is frozen for several months.

Bruce Sherwood
""" 

Essentially it reads to me that the 4.xxx branch of vpython is in some netherworld and, probably, deep trouble, with 
serious bugs, and no developer.

Don't know what Bruce's plan might be after completing his textbook work, but I think he would acknowledge that 
he's not the guy to do the hands-on development work to put things back on track.  Problem is, neither am I.

But I will try to begin to take this bull by the horns, as time allows.

My plan at the moment is to try to fork from the latest stable 3.xxx branch, with the initial goal of 
making it Numpy compatible.  As Numpy approaches final 1.0 release as the standard for array processing in
Python, it seems to me that a package such as vpython *needs* to work to support it if it is to survive.
If it  doesn't survive there is a serious hole in the Python educational world, IMO.

Serious educational projects are already suffering from this lack of compatibility.

See "The World is Your Python" 

http://www.physics.cornell.edu/~myers/teaching/ComputationalMethods/python/WorldPy.html


related to a Cornell U graduate physics course

"""
Computational Methods for Nonlinear Systems

This course is a graduate computer laboratory, emphasizing hands-on 
programming with a variety of data structures and algorithms. We focus 
on the next generation of tools for computation, simulation, and 
research in a broad range of fields
"""

where vpython is among the required packages, but where they face:

"""
The current version of VPython, however, is built on top of the older 
Numeric package, and seems a bit fussy when used in conjunction with 
the newer NumPy.
"""

"Fussy" I think being a bit of an understatement

I have gotten as far as to set up my ubuntu environment with necessary dev libraries for building against Python2.5
- boost, gtk2, gtkglarea,etc. and atc. and began to explore the .cpp moudles related to Numeric compatibility.

It would be great to see something concrete come out of all this edu-sig chaos, brainstorming, bickering and worse.

So I would prefer to see this fork of vpython from 3.xxx live as a community project, with *real* C developers involved, 
rather than myself learning as I go and perhaps quickly finding myself over my head and throwing up my hands.

Any interest out there??

Art









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