[Edu-sig] Harmonographs + curves

[Jason Cunliffe]

> http://xahlee.org/SpecialPlaneCurves_dir/specialPlaneCurves.html

ah Yes thanks for the reminder.
Paul Bourke's web site is beautiful monster it turns out. Available on 
DVD [tempting:-)]

http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/index.html

> Note, in particular, that the dictionary is ordered with historical 
> reference.  I am willing to accept it as my own perculiar sensibility, 
> but math has its meaning to me largely through a view of its 
> historical unfolding. I think it is a sensiblity that deserves a seat 
> at the table.
Remember the superb IBM Eames timeline poster of History of Mathematics ?

I am *big* fan of timelines, sequences, historical mappings and 
visualizations.
Believe in the benefits of easily accessible multiple views of life.
Historical ordering always welcome.
However I take a rather cineaste approach to history, enjoying to 
explore a molecular triad HMD of intertwined representations 
[realities]. History / Memory / Documentary

which translate respectively approximately as:

H - recorded cited sequence
M - experienced associative sequence [personal and collective]
D - editorialized selective sequence

sort or the 3 dimensions of a Sierpinski cube which reveal and obscure 
truth in equal measure

What's this got to do with Python? Well some years ago I worked on 
trying to implement these 3 views [History Memory Documentary] as a set 
of functions. First in Mathematica rendering timeline datasets as 3D 
models. Then later using these structures at the heart of a Zope-based 
collaboration server with special emphasis on sequencing visual and 
time-based media. I was not a nearly strong enough programmer at the 
time to pull it off. I fairly drowned in documentation trying to keep up 
with Zope which changed significantly daily then [c1999-2000].
But I had a lot of fun combining mxDateTime and SeqDict


http://www.egenix.com/files/python/mxDateTime.html
http://home.arcor.de/wolfgang.grafen/Python/Modules/Modules.html

I'd like to get back into that soon and give it a fresh go.

Jason