[Python-ideas] Framework for Python for CS101

[Wes Turner]

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 3:32 PM, Andrew Barnert <abarnert at yahoo.com> wrote:

> On May 26, 2015, at 11:19, Wes Turner <wes.turner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ways to teach Python from first principles:
>
>
> What you're suggesting may be a reasonable way to restrict Python for
> teaching (although, as others have argued, I don't think it's
> necessary)--but it isn't a reasonable way to get what Rustom Mody says he
> wants.
>
> While his first paragraph started out talking about restricting Python to
> a subset, only one of the four examples I've seen actually is a
> restriction. He wants procedures and functions to be fundamentally distinct
> things, defined differently and called differently. You can't do that by
> restricting the token list, or by using RPython instead of Python, or by
> executing code inside a container. And the one that actually _is_ a
> restriction isn't at the grammar level, it's just hiding a bunch of methods
> (list.append, presumably list.__setitem__, etc.).
>
> Of course you _could_ do everything he wants by forking one of the Python
> installations and heavily modifying it (I even suggested how that
> particular change could be implemented in a CPython fork), or by writing a
> new Python-like language with a compiler that compiles to Python (which, at
> its simplest, might be reducible to a set of MacroPy macros or a source
> preprocessor), because you can do _anything_ that way. But then you're not
> really talking about Python in the first place, you're talking about
> designing and implementing a new teaching language that just borrows a lot
> of ideas from Python and is implemented with Python's help. And none of the
> rest of your suggestions are relevant once that's what you're doing.
>

I must have misunderstood the objectives.

All of these suggestions are relevant to teaching [core] python in an
academic environment.


>
> * Restrict the syntactical token list ("switch features on and off")
>   * Fork Python
>   * RPython -- https://rpython.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
>   * https://pypi.python.org/pypi/RestrictedPython
>   * http://pyvideo.org/video/2585/building-and-breaking-a-python-sandbox
>   * OR: execute code in container (e.g. LXC, LXD, Docker (JupyterHub);
> virtualization)
>
> * Add a preprocessor with a cost function to limit valid tokens for a
> given code submission
>   (see the links to the Python grammar, tokenizer, compiler linked above)
>
> * Modify nbgrader to evaluate submissions with such a cost function:
>   https://github.com/jupyter/nbgrader
>
> * Receive feedback about code syntax and tests from a CI system with
> repository commit (web)hooks
>   * BuildBot, Jenkins, Travis CI, xUnit XML
>
> https://westurner.org/wiki/awesome-python-testing#continuous-integration-ci-and-continuous-delivery-cd
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 1:56 AM, Andrew Barnert via Python-ideas <
> python-ideas at python.org> wrote:
>
>> On May 25, 2015, at 22:36, Rustom Mody <rustompmody at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > I am talking of a framework for a teacher to chart a course through
>> python, not any changes per se to python itself.
>>
>> How exactly can you allow a teacher to "chart a course through python"
>> that includes separate function and generator function definition
>> statements, procedures as distinct from functions, etc. without changing
>> Python? Python doesn't have the configurability to switch those features on
>> and off, and also doesn't have the features to switch on in the first place.
>>
>> > A teacher wanting to chart a different course through python should be
>> free (and encouraged) to do that as well.
>>
>>
>> I would like a framework for a teacher to chart a course through driving
>> the Nissan 370Z that would allow me to start off teaching hoverpads instead
>> of wheels, but a teacher wanting to chart a different course should be free
>> to start with sails instead. And I want to do this without changing
>> anything about the 370Z.
>>
>>
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>
>
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