[Edu-sig] The Crunchy Way

[David MacQuigg]

At 11:30 AM 3/27/2009 -0500, kirby urner wrote:

>PyWhip is moving in the same direction.
>
>Using unittest is another option (instead of doctest).

So far, I've been able to get doctest to do anything I need in testing, even some fairly complex tests involving multiple functions, pre-test setup, post-test analysis, etc.  The unittest module feels more like a tool for professional programmers working on a big Java project.  Even with all that complex setup, you still need doctests, so you'll end up doing both.

doctest is cool, because the learning barrier is zero!  Test your function by calling it from the >>> prompt.  Cut and paste to the function's docstring, and your doctest is complete.


>So Croquant is like a delivery tool, where the lesson plans
>accumulate.  PyWhip is similar but more static (making the content
>Wiki based is likely to promote organic growth).

Not quite sure what you mean here.  Could you be more specific?

Anyone can contribute problems to PyWhip, including students.  I expect we will have a huge accumulation, and the final quality will be determined by how well we chose the best, and how well get these collections organized into a good learning sequence.

Currently PyWhip more like Citizendium than Wikipedia.  Teachers (editors) control the content.  We are talking about expanding this to allow anyone to be a teacher, and register a setup.  Students who select that setup, will then see whatever problems their teacher wants them to see.

-- Dave