[Edu-sig] Robot vs. Robot vs. Robot

[kirby urner]

I'm upgrading to 2.6, 3.0.1 in the background, also need a newer VPython...

Recent agit prop on Chipy (Chicago UG) included mention of "Logo
robotics" which some will take to be a typo (did I mean Lego?), others
will consider ambiguous as to whether "robot" means "virtual" or not,
as in the case of a "Logo turtle" (a kind of robot, e.g. GvR
http://gvr.sourceforge.net/  )

I'm reminded that in South Africa, a 'robot' is a traffic light (what
we'd call it on Hawthorne Ave.), so you could say like "go straight,
turn right at the next robot", a good classroom example for talking
about "namespaces" and "name collisions" (the former being a solution
to the latter).

Here I'm deliberately colliding (mashing) "robot" as in "virtual
avatar" and "robot" in the sense of floor-bound machine and/or Mars
rover.  Rough synonyms:  doll, piece, sim ("dolls" also virtual these
days, per  http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2009/01/playing-with-dolls.html
).

I think that's an appropriate move (to have "robot" also refer to
virtual versions) because:

(a) the API could be the same and
(b) a "virtual" robot may be replaced with a real one at some point and
(c) when Logo first came out, the "turtle" was a real robot, only
became virtual later, here's a picture:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2006/04/london-knowledge-lab.html

I've been kicking it back and forth with Steve Holden, realize Guido
also an admirer of MIT Scratch (as is Dethe) -- something more to
agree on.

I'm using one of the workshop handouts as a recruiting tool (dual
purpose) and so sent a pointer around on Chipy.  I'd like Chicago area
teachers to know more about what we're up to in Portland:
http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/py4t_notes.pdf

OK, 3.0.1 is installed (used altinstall, using install for 2.6 i.e.
that'll be my main one, however VPython 5, the one recommended,
although technically a release candidate (and no stereo!), is
compatible with 2.5 only, so I'm definitely keeping that one, if for
no other reason).  2.6, done!  Ubuntu 8.04  - the Hardy Heron -
released in April 2008.
				
http://vpython.org/contents/download_linux.html  (on a scale of 1-10,
I'd say compiling and installing this was 8 or 8.5 -- relative to say
installing Python itself with is like 2 or 3 when you factor in
needing zlib and stuff...).

Kirby
4Dsolutions.net
ISEPP @ Pycon2009