[Edu-sig] Factory functions: synthesizing top-level names

[kirby urner]

> By what magic might we turn a string object into
> a top-level name:  that is the question this lesson
> addresses.

I do have an answer in the queue, my proposed solution.

However I'd be happy to see others toss in some ideas,
just to test whether my lesson plan is clear enough to
get across what the challenge is.

Maybe not.

On another front, I'm wanting to tell the story of free
and open source software to a next generation of teen,
and wondered if FOSS veterans here would have any
feedback regarding the following thumbnail:

<LORE>

GNU = GNU is not Unix and was the original inspiration for the
free software movement, centered on what become known as
the GNU Public License (GPL).

The GPL was a way for copyright holders to insist that their hard
work not be used only selfishly by others, that the fruits of their
labors achieve maximum positive benefit for omni-humanity, to
put a Global U spin on it.

Once the GPL was out there getting the work done (e.g. Linux),
a safe-enough ecosystem was developed for a bevy of alternative
licensing schemes, some of which allow shops to take something
inhouse, transform it, and release it under a more restrictive
license agreement, if they release it at all.

[ Python could be an example of this, in that developers of the
IronPython codebase have been enabled to start with CPython,
the original version, with the resulting codebase being free and
open source under a different set of rules from the GPL or even
from whatever the original Python was using.  Actually, the story
is more complicated than that, in that Jim H. first worked on the
Java implementation before moving to C# in an attempt to prove
the CLR (common language runtime) engine was unsuitable for
dynamic languages.  He came to the conclusion that the CLR
engine could work, hence the IronPython project. ]

</LORE>

The original context is some Google group (a new one).  The
relevant thread is accessible from this blog post FYI:

http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2010/05/math-reform.html

Where it says:
Rhombic Triacontahedra etc. (Synergetics list) -- Urner

(I'm still adding to this list of May 2010 math reform writings).

Kirby