From kirby.urner at gmail.com Wed Sep 1 02:53:31 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:53:31 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] some notes and links Message-ID: Hey good news about numpy now supporting Python 3. ?Some of you will have seen that announcement. I'm getting ready for DjangoCon here in Portland, am likely to be 'snake handler' again this year, carry the PSF totem around, a token of friendship when she meets up with Djangopony. I've been looking at some of the swoopy effects in HTML5, thinking about the future of trucking software, such as transportation system managers. http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/tomorrows-guis.html http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/notes-on-trucking.html http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ (not all browsers will handle, I'm using Chrome, worth doing the demo). >From last Djangocon: """ Erich Ocean: HTML5 is a technical spec, but culturally its more a Flash killer. The beefy JavaScript engines are making a big difference. Dynamic languages win again (sorry Java). SproutCore is the HTML5 application framework adopted by and now developed at Apple. It's open source, like WebKit and LLVM. Erich thinks WebKit is the future for the browser, thinks Django is well positioned on the server side. Webkit will run on Windows. HTML5 is moving faster than many think. You'll be able to sneak WebKit in the back door into IE6 even. This talk relates to the anticipated future of low latency push apps that keep updating the browser without waiting for client-side requests i.e. like Comet (see above). HTML5 web sockets... """ http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2009/09/djangocon-day-3.html As always, when I look at industry software, I think about how this could translate to the pre-college curriculum. Given my Geometry + Geography paradigm, I see trucking mixing with Google Street View as a way to learn more about a given topography (anywhere trucks travel, doesn't have to be North America or anything so parochial -- how about Phuntsholing to Samdrup Jonkar by inland mountain road (via Tongsa, Mongar and Tashigang) -- sounds like Lord of the Rings. I've done it the whole way (though not as a truck driver) at one time or another. http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/mm12.html (Geometry + Geography) Or instead of a truck, a bizmo (business mobile): http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2007/10/designing-engineers.html (funny lookin'). I'm off to a meeting on open source in Afghanistan, per recent posting to Diversity. Kirby From gregor.lingl at aon.at Wed Sep 1 20:28:58 2010 From: gregor.lingl at aon.at (Gregor Lingl) Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:28:58 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] some notes and links In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4C7E9B6A.8010900@aon.at> kirby urner schrieb: > Hey good news about numpy now supporting Python 3. Some of you will > have seen that announcement. > > I'm getting ready for DjangoCon here in Portland, am likely to be > 'snake handler' again this year, carry the PSF totem around, a token > of friendship when she meets up with Djangopony. > > I've been looking at some of the swoopy effects in HTML5, thinking > about the future of trucking software, such as transportation system > managers. > > http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/tomorrows-guis.html > http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/notes-on-trucking.html > > http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ This is really a great demo > ... > Given my Geometry + Geography paradigm, I see trucking mixing with > Google Street View as a way to learn more about a given topography > We have a big discussion in Europe at the moment (especially Germany and Austria) concerning the question if google streetview is legal in our countries or should be restricted/forbidden. Concerning html5 and given your Geometry + Geography paradigm you might want to have a look at what can be done with the htlm-canvas element alone: http://www.phpguru.org/html5-examples Regards, Gregor From kirby.urner at gmail.com Thu Sep 2 04:00:11 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 19:00:11 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] some notes and links In-Reply-To: <4C7E9B6A.8010900@aon.at> References: <4C7E9B6A.8010900@aon.at> Message-ID: On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Gregor Lingl wrote: << snip >> >> http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ > > This is really a great demo >> >> ... >> Given my Geometry + Geography paradigm, I see trucking mixing with >> Google Street View as a way to learn more about a given topography >> > > We have a big discussion in Europe at the moment (especially Germany and > Austria) concerning the question if google streetview is legal in our > countries or should be restricted/forbidden. Good hearing from you. People leery (suspicious) in the UK as well. There's a "public roads" argument, i.e. public roads should be accessible to Google's spy vehicles, just as space is to satellites. Gated communities, private property owners, might deny access. However, not every society has a well-defined notion of "public roads". Here's the Blue House where I hang out quite a bit: http://tinyurl.com/238y58r It's an old picture though, the car in the driveway long ago recycled. We also have more vegetables growing in front, thinks to the live-in Global U student (getting a degree in community organizing). > > Concerning html5 and given your Geometry + Geography paradigm you might want > to have a look at what can be done with the htlm-canvas element alone: > > http://www.phpguru.org/html5-examples Way cool, forwarded to Facebook (where some math teachers track me), with attribution to one Gregor on edu-sig (one of the greats). Kirby > > Regards, > Gregor > > From roberto03 at gmail.com Fri Sep 3 20:58:23 2010 From: roberto03 at gmail.com (roberto) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 20:58:23 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] python application Message-ID: hello, this is a somehow strange request: a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice application in python which was also able to let the user snap together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see the corresponding code, without even writing it; maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please let me know ? thank you ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of thousands of other messages, sorry ! -- roberto From kirby.urner at gmail.com Fri Sep 3 23:40:40 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 14:40:40 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] python application In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: You're not talking about MIT Scratch are you? It fits your description to some extent. http://scratch.mit.edu/ Kirby On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 11:58 AM, roberto wrote: > hello, this is a somehow strange request: > a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice > application in python which was also able to let the user snap > together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see > the corresponding code, without even writing it; > > maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! > > if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please > let me know ? > > thank you > ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer > is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of > thousands of other messages, sorry ! > > -- > roberto > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > From tonyt at logyst.com Sat Sep 4 10:45:41 2010 From: tonyt at logyst.com (Tony Theodore) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 18:45:41 +1000 Subject: [Edu-sig] python application In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 4 September 2010 04:58, roberto wrote: > hello, this is a somehow strange request: > a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice > application in python which was also able to let the user snap > together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see > the corresponding code, without even writing it; > > maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! > > if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please > let me know ? PataPata by Paul Fernhout comes to mind, though it's hard to believe it was so long ago. http://patapata.sourceforge.net/ Tony From roberto03 at gmail.com Sat Sep 4 12:56:11 2010 From: roberto03 at gmail.com (roberto) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 12:56:11 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] python application In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: thank you i am sure it is not in the list you gave me actually, it is something very similar to turtle art (but it is not that one): you create a program using blocks and, at the same time, the whole application creates the underlying python code that creates the blocks (but of course the visual code made by blocks does something different from the code automatically generated ) BTW, does TA this job ? have a nice day On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 10:45 AM, Tony Theodore wrote: > On 4 September 2010 04:58, roberto wrote: >> hello, this is a somehow strange request: >> a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice >> application in python which was also able to let the user snap >> together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see >> the corresponding code, without even writing it; >> >> maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! >> >> if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please >> let me know ? > > PataPata by Paul Fernhout comes to mind, though it's hard to believe > it was so long ago. > > http://patapata.sourceforge.net/ > > Tony > -- roberto From mangabasi at gmail.com Sat Sep 4 16:09:31 2010 From: mangabasi at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Fahredd=C4=B1n_Basegmez?=) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:09:31 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 86, Issue 3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Could it be Mekanimo? It let's you create circles and polygons and join them together with connectors while automatically generating Python code. Created objects behave like agents. Here are some videos. Physcial proof of the pythagorean theorem http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/0/rQUW5BvdIkc Ragdolls http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/1/CWhg_u4K4ow James Watt's linkage http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/2/K1pdoLi6UPc This shows how to make a platform game with it http://vimeo.com/14469657 Fahri On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 6:00 AM, wrote: > Send Edu-sig mailing list submissions to > ? ? ? ?edu-sig at python.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > ? ? ? ?http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > ? ? ? ?edu-sig-request at python.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > ? ? ? ?edu-sig-owner at python.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Edu-sig digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > ? 1. python application (roberto) > ? 2. Re: python application (kirby urner) > ? 3. Re: python application (Tony Theodore) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 20:58:23 +0200 > From: roberto > To: edu-sig at python.org > Subject: [Edu-sig] python application > Message-ID: > ? ? ? ? > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > hello, this is a somehow strange request: > a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice > application in python which was also able to let the user snap > together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see > the corresponding code, without even writing it; > > maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! > > if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please > let me know ? > > thank you > ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer > is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of > thousands of other messages, sorry ! > > -- > roberto > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 14:40:40 -0700 > From: kirby urner > To: roberto > Cc: edu-sig at python.org > Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] python application > Message-ID: > ? ? ? ? > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > You're not talking about MIT Scratch are you? > > It fits your description to some extent. > > http://scratch.mit.edu/ > > Kirby > > > On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 11:58 AM, roberto wrote: >> hello, this is a somehow strange request: >> a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice >> application in python which was also able to let the user snap >> together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see >> the corresponding code, without even writing it; >> >> maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! >> >> if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please >> let me know ? >> >> thank you >> ps: if you're thinking why i am not searching in my inbox, the answer >> is you're right but i didn't find the mail again :) among tens of >> thousands of other messages, sorry ! >> >> -- >> roberto >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu-sig mailing list >> Edu-sig at python.org >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 18:45:41 +1000 > From: Tony Theodore > To: roberto > Cc: edu-sig at python.org > Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] python application > Message-ID: > ? ? ? ? > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On 4 September 2010 04:58, roberto wrote: >> hello, this is a somehow strange request: >> a long time ago, a python developer wrote me saying he wrote a nice >> application in python which was also able to let the user snap >> together graphical blocks and at the same time it lets the user see >> the corresponding code, without even writing it; >> >> maybe something similar to turtle art but i am sure it was not that one ! >> >> if anyone (or the developer itself) knows something about it, please >> let me know ? > > PataPata by Paul Fernhout comes to mind, though it's hard to believe > it was so long ago. > > http://patapata.sourceforge.net/ > > Tony > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > > End of Edu-sig Digest, Vol 86, Issue 3 > ************************************** > From kirby.urner at gmail.com Mon Sep 6 03:35:56 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 18:35:56 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 86, Issue 3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 7:09 AM, Fahredd?n Basegmez wrote: > Could it be Mekanimo? It let's you create circles and polygons and > join them together with connectors while automatically generating > Python code. Created objects behave like agents. Here are some > videos. > Hey this Mekanimo thing is fantastic. Amazingly cool use of the wx API for GUI. Really, Python? Thanks Fahri! I relayed my pleasure to mathfuture, a Google group. http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture/browse_thread/thread/d006e2daf0e5110d# Maria D. also expressed appreciation, replying on naturalmath: http://groups.google.com/group/naturalmath/browse_thread/thread/17585b0643e3aabc# mathfuture is where I do some of my Martian Math writing, a curriculum that uses Python quite a bit (including VPython [1]), but is far enough afield to sometimes make more sense in another namespace. Speaking of Martian Math, I feel obliged to cluck about the Buckyball on Google yesterday. I yakked with Josh Cronmeyer about it by email. He and I met up at an OS Bridge before he took off for Australia (that's the Josh mentioned in this blog post -- he's Python programmer of note, works with Thoughtworks.com): http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/09/buckyball-day.html In a couple hours I'm off the PDX (our airport) to fetch Steve Holden, PSF chairman. Holden Web is this the organizer of this year's DjangoCon in Portland. http://djangocon.us/ Kirby [1] if you dig back in edu-sig you will find Arthur Siegel and I doing a lot of the talking. He was some high powered guy in the financial district, NYC, who wisely devoted much of his remaining time to raising his son and doing some esoteric Python programming to explore projective geometry. Pygeo is the name of his free / open source project, which makes heavy use of VPython. Can't think of anything quite like it either before or since. Check it out. http://pygeo.sourceforge.net/ Arthur was a passionate and colorful character and our debates on this list were free ranging (much to the dismay of some). We met twice in New York, also talked on the phone. This old blog post chronicles our 2nd and last meeting: http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2005/05/tree-house.html (paragraphs 2,3) [2] http://djangocon.us/ Holden Web provided me with an exceptional opportunity in April, to lead a 3-day workshop for the Space Telescope Science Institute (Johns Hopkins campus, Baltimore). I'd expressed admiration for Hubble and the astronomer groups using Python, but never dreamed I'd be able to do a Python training with them. I also got to look over Steve's shoulder as he did some curriculum writing for O'Reilly School of Technology. This school offers for-credit distance education courses using a customized student version of Eclipse called Ellipse. Physcial proof of the pythagorean theorem > http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/0/rQUW5BvdIkc > > Ragdolls > http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/1/CWhg_u4K4ow > > James Watt's linkage > http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/2/K1pdoLi6UPc > > This shows how to make a platform game with it > http://vimeo.com/14469657 > > Fahri > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Sun Sep 12 20:18:32 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:18:32 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] thoughts after djangocon Message-ID: The opening plenary was interesting. We had some university representation, including a guy working on the electronic medical records problem. I wish I'd gotten his name. Bruce or Brian. He worked with Steve Holden on the data visualization challenge, one of the conference puzzles (rewards awarded). Lots of chatter about NoSQL, which I've been blogging about as a possible "scrap booky" solution to some medical record services, i.e. the outermost storage is non-schematic, even if there's schematic data embedded (like on Facebook -- picture a long sheet of butcher paper, unscrolling your whole life....). The private sector is obviously far out ahead of academia but, because of intellectual property concerns, tends to burrow, play its cards close to the vest. There's something oxymoronic about an open source conference where people a keeping so many secrets, but that's life in the corporate fast lane. Governments, on the other hand, have more of an incentive to justify their existence by making whatever software development they pay for stay out there and in the open (if immunized against "national security" memes), a catalyst for further innovation among hose without the budgets to privately fund innovation. SE Linux is one (older) example. This makes governments more naturally partners of academia, although there's sometimes an awkward triangle here, with the private sector trying to get universities to generate more patents and trade secrets, even with public funding (especially with public funding). Congressman Wu (1st district, OR), gave one of the keynotes. He noted the importance of STEM subjects in today's education (science, technology, engineering and math). After leaving the podium, he made a bee line to Steve (of Holden Web, producer of this conference) to ask what happened to all the women. Where do they leak out of the STEM pipeline he wanted to know, realizing this might be a topic for another day. http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2010/09/serendipitous-opportunity.html GOSCON is coming up in October and we'll likely continue discussing these issues. Oregon is hoping to channel funding into OSU's ODL around this electronic medical records challenge, but I don't know that the caliber of the journalism is sufficient to focus public debate. Without public discussion, the right people fail to learn of one another. Willamette Week did a cover story on precisely this, which was a good sign, but failed to get at all technical, which is not a good sign. Here's my journal entry on the WW article: http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/08/open-source-health-care.html Kirby From roberto03 at gmail.com Thu Sep 16 19:46:52 2010 From: roberto03 at gmail.com (roberto) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:46:52 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] python fun geometry Message-ID: Recently, i got a lot of fun going through the examples of turtle geometry in Abelson & Di Sessa original book. (As already stated in previous thread by me) Also, i started translating from logo to python all the examples in the first chapter. I am over the third paragraph at the moment. If anyone is interested in receiving the first whole bunch of these nice codes, just tell me. Now, i have a geometric question about what the authors write: in sec 1.1.2 they say that the following logo code: TO ARCR R DEG REPEAT DEG FORWARD R RIGHT 1 produce a circular arc as output, having "DEG" degrees and "R" radius; and that it's true, actually; if DEG = 180 the arc is a semicircumference and so on... But, the "R" in the code is the single step forward the turtle does in its path so i can't understand how this R can be seen as the radius of the circular arc. Any hint is very appreciated. -- roberto From roberto03 at gmail.com Thu Sep 16 20:30:06 2010 From: roberto03 at gmail.com (roberto) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:30:06 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 86, Issue 3 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: really cool it is not what i meant but this is good news for me thanks On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 3:35 AM, kirby urner wrote: > On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 7:09 AM, Fahredd?n > Basegmez??wrote: >> >> Could it be Mekanimo? ?It let's you create circles and polygons and >> join them together with connectors while automatically generating >> Python code. ?Created objects behave like agents. ?Here are some >> videos. > > > Hey this Mekanimo thing is fantastic. ?Amazingly cool use of the wx API for > GUI. ?Really, Python? > Thanks Fahri! > I relayed my pleasure to mathfuture, a Google group. > http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture/browse_thread/thread/d006e2daf0e5110d# > Maria D. also expressed appreciation, replying on naturalmath: > http://groups.google.com/group/naturalmath/browse_thread/thread/17585b0643e3aabc# > mathfuture is where I do some of my Martian Math writing, a curriculum that > uses Python quite a bit (including VPython [1]), but is far enough afield to > sometimes make more sense in another namespace. > Speaking of Martian Math, I feel obliged to cluck about the Buckyball on > Google yesterday. > I yakked with Josh Cronmeyer about it by email. ?He and I met up at an OS > Bridge before he took off for Australia (that's the Josh mentioned in this > blog post -- he's Python programmer of note, works with Thoughtworks.com): > http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/09/buckyball-day.html > In a couple hours I'm off the PDX (our airport) to fetch Steve Holden, PSF > chairman. ?Holden Web is this the organizer of this year's DjangoCon in > Portland. > http://djangocon.us/ > Kirby > > [1] > if you dig back in edu-sig you will find Arthur Siegel and I doing a lot of > the talking. ?He was some high powered guy in the financial district, NYC, > who wisely devoted much of his remaining time to raising his son and doing > some esoteric Python programming to explore projective geometry. ?Pygeo is > the name of his free / open source project, which makes heavy use of > VPython. ?Can't think of anything quite like it either before or since. > ?Check it out. > http://pygeo.sourceforge.net/ > Arthur was a passionate and colorful character and our debates on this list > were free ranging (much to the dismay of some). ?We met twice in New York, > also talked on the phone. ?This old blog post chronicles our 2nd and last > meeting: > http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2005/05/tree-house.html > (paragraphs 2,3) > > [2] > http://djangocon.us/ > Holden Web provided me with an exceptional opportunity in April, to lead a > 3-day workshop for the Space Telescope Science Institute (Johns Hopkins > campus, Baltimore). ?I'd expressed admiration for Hubble and the astronomer > groups using Python, but never dreamed I'd be able to do a Python training > with them. > I also got to look over Steve's shoulder as he did some curriculum writing > for O'Reilly School of Technology. ?This school offers for-credit distance > education courses using a customized student version of Eclipse called > Ellipse. > > >> Physcial proof of the pythagorean theorem >> http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/0/rQUW5BvdIkc >> >> Ragdolls >> http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/1/CWhg_u4K4ow >> >> James Watt's linkage >> http://www.youtube.com/user/fbasegmez#p/a/u/2/K1pdoLi6UPc >> >> This shows how to make a platform game with it >> http://vimeo.com/14469657 >> >> Fahri >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -- roberto From vceder at canterburyschool.org Thu Sep 16 20:52:30 2010 From: vceder at canterburyschool.org (Vern Ceder) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:52:30 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] python fun geometry In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 1:46 PM, roberto wrote: > Now, i have a geometric question about what the authors write: > in sec 1.1.2 they say that the following logo code: > > TO ARCR R DEG > REPEAT DEG > FORWARD R > RIGHT 1 > > produce a circular arc as output, having "DEG" degrees and "R" radius; > and that it's true, actually; > if DEG = 180 the arc is a semicircumference and so on... > > But, the "R" in the code is the single step forward the turtle does in > its path so i can't understand how this R can be seen as the radius of > the circular arc. > Any hint is very appreciated. > Going forward 1 pixel and then turning 1 degree (and then repeating 360 times) gives you as close to a circle as you can get on the screen. If you were go to forward 2 pixels, the circle will be less smooth, but the radius will be twice the size... and so on... HTH, Vern -- > roberto > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder at canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137 The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From da.ajoy at gmail.com Fri Sep 17 18:28:35 2010 From: da.ajoy at gmail.com (Daniel Ajoy) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:28:35 -0500 Subject: [Edu-sig] python fun geometry In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > Now, i have a geometric question about what the authors write: > in sec 1.1.2 they say that the following logo code: > > TO ARCR R DEG > REPEAT DEG > FORWARD R > RIGHT 1 > > produce a circular arc as output, having "DEG" degrees and "R" radius; > and that it's true, actually; > if DEG = 180 the arc is a semicircumference and so on... > > But, the "R" in the code is the single step forward the turtle does in > its path so i can't understand how this R can be seen as the radius of > the circular arc. > Any hint is very appreciated. It is true that R specifies the radius of the arc, but it is not a measure of the radius of the arc: If R is small the arc will have a small radius If R is larger the arc will have a larger radius But R is not the length of that radius. Daniel From kirby.urner at gmail.com Wed Sep 29 01:39:34 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:39:34 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] revisiting old themes (OOP meets abstract algebra)... Message-ID: Quite a bit of Python in this essay (link below), relating to math teaching. This is a?philosophy of education I used to post about here in fire hose quantities, in dialog with Arthur and the OLPC folks, among others. No reason to top-off an already-full tank, right? But maybe some are?nostalgic, want to revisit old themes, even start up new debates?(if bored by all the quiet -- getting like math-thinking-l around here). http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223356&tstart=0 If you're cross-subscribed with Diversity, you know I'm working to recruit more truckers to Python (why should Java have all the fun -- and Visual FoxPro seems to be fading). No, this doesn't make me a "fossil fuels nut".** Maybe some of those trucks are electric, like in the early 1900s (I've been reading?Edwin Black's 'Internal Combustion' so consider me under the influence). I thought this most recent NCTM geometry book: Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making in Geometry ...was somewhat?snarky to truckers, as the text protests the sign is correct, in giving?the right clearance. ?But that's not what the?situation calls for?(what's the sign for, if not to prevent just such accidents?). Here's what I'm talking about: """ Mathematician Henry Pollak (2004) wondered why tractor trailers often got stuck under a certain underpass when the maximum clearance?the height from the roadway to the bridge?was clearly labeled on a sign. """ http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?id=13525??(Read an Excerpt) My review: http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223427&tstart=0 Kirby ** when all the oil companies become one (click for larger view): http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2006/03/big-oil.html Relevant: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/oopalgebra.html (yeah, Java, but same ideas) From kirby.urner at gmail.com Wed Sep 29 22:34:34 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:34:34 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] revisiting old themes (OOP meets abstract algebra)... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 4:39 PM, kirby urner wrote: > > Quite a bit of Python in this essay (link below), relating to math teaching. > << snip >> > > http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223356&tstart=0 > Continuing along in the same thread, linking directly to plaintext to preserve indentation, with the unfortunate side effect that the other guy's input has no line breaks. Sigh: http://www.mathforum.org/kb/plaintext.jspa?messageID=7226167 Nothing too original. Always appreciating Guido's slick implementation of GCD (shorter than what's in MFTDA). I'm also daring to use 'me' instead of 'self' for the name of the instance handle. I see good pedagogical reasons for doing this, including to provoke a first person point of view in object modeling (i.e. "I am a..." versus "It is a..." -- as in "I'm a little teapot, short and stout...", a good beginning for OO-style thinking). I'm also showing off a Compose type the sole purpose of which is to allow functions to be composed using the multiplication operator. I have my reasons... Kirby