[Edu-sig] PyKata ready

[David MacQuigg]

In the open-source spirit of "release early", PyKata is now ready!!  The 
website development will be finished ... real soon :>)  Anyone who would 
like to contribute an exercise is now welcome.  If you contributed to 
the old PyWhip website, you might want to copy your contribution over to 
PyKata.  (Sorry we couldn't do this with Google App Engine.  Looks like 
they are rushing ahead with new features for end users, and leaving us 
developers with a few headaches - like not being able to rename a 
project, or even clone an old one to the new name!!)  That said, I am 
very pleased with App Engine.  This is the infrastructure we need when 
we get to thousands of users.

I've uploaded a draft of a new help file - bitsNbytes.py (at 
http://pykata.appspot.com/help).  This topic is not the most important 
right now (we should be filling in the basic topics first), but I'm 
working with a class in cryptography, and we do a lot of bit-level 
manipulations.  What I would like is some comments and suggestions.  The 
examples in this file will be what we expand on with exercises and more 
helpful text.  Have I chosen the right examples?  Do I have the best way 
to do it in each example?  Unlike other areas where we often have a 
clear best choice,  working with bits and bytes in Python seems to have 
a bewildering collection of ways to do it, and not a clear winner.

-- Dave
 
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* David MacQuigg, PhD    email: macquigg at ece.arizona.edu   *  *
* Research Associate                phone: USA 520-721-4583   *  *  *
* ECE Department, University of Arizona                       *  *  *
*                                 9320 East Mikelyn Lane       * * *
* http://purl.net/macquigg        Tucson, Arizona 85710          *
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