[IPython-dev] Using IPython notebooks to teach Python

Moritz Beber moritz.beber at gmail.com
Fri Aug 22 04:41:31 EDT 2014


Hi,


> Well unless iPython 3.0 is released very, very soon, I think we don't
> have the time to wait for it so I'll definitely have a look to your
> repository, thanks! Is there any planned date for the release of iPython
> 3.0?
>

According to this: https://github.com/ipython/ipython/wiki/Roadmap:-IPython
fairly soon but any dev will be able to provide a better answer.


>
> > I'm afraid it was written for Python 2 and I've not used it in a while
> but
> > it lets you create user accounts for each student and then runs a
> separate
> > password protected notebook server for each student in a specified
> > directory.
>
> This seems a very interesting starting point for expeimenting!
>
> > You can also use it to push and pull material to/from students'
> > accounts. Naturally, you need su privileges to run it.
>
> Sure. I presume it will be the sme with iPython 3.0? Will the server
> have to be run as root and then, once a user logs in, the serverwill
> continue running as that user? So does it mean that users will need to
> have a full Unix account on the server?
>

I'm not familiar with the plans for the multi-user server in 3.0.  It's
possible that the users will simply be distinguished by login and thus
restricted in their rights but that's just guessing on my part now. What my
script does is create a full Unix account for each student and then start a
separate password protected notebook server for each student. It then
spawns a simple website with links for each student to the appropriate
address/port of their notebook server.


> Any comment on the AppArmor aspect would also be helpful.
>
>
I have zero experience with AppArmor. All I can say is that the users are
running their notebook under their unix user account. So as long as the
unix system is set up properly they should not be able to do any harm.
Furthermore the notebooks are password protected so unless a student
chooses to grant the necessary rights or hands out his password, others
cannot affect it. I have also always clearly announced at the beginning of
a course that a student who tries to mess with the unix system or other
people's stuff will (a) fail the course and (b) be brought before a
committee for academic conduct.  This was obviously at a university so I
don't know if this is relevant to you.

Good luck and feel free to mail me off list or open issues on github if you
have problems with my script.

Moritz
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