From missive at hotmail.com Wed Jun 9 00:59:40 2010 From: missive at hotmail.com (Lee Harr) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 03:29:40 +0430 Subject: [Edu-sig] [ANNC] pynguin-0.8 python turtle graphics application Message-ID: Pynguin is a python-based turtle graphics application. ??? It combines an editor, interactive interpreter, and ??? graphics display area. It is meant to be an easy environment for introducing ??? some programming concepts to beginning programmers. http://pynguin.googlecode.com/ This release continues to refine the interaction between ??? the code-running threads and the main thread. Please ??? report any strange behaviors, crashes, or freezes! Pynguin is tested with Python 2.6.5 and uses PyQt (4.7.2) ??? for its GUI elements. Pynguin is released under GPLv3. Changes in pynguin-0.8: ??? - fixed strange behavior after KeyboardInterrupt ??? - fixed clear() to put pen back in to correct drawing state ??? - added support for pygments syntax highlighting ??? - exposed Pynguin class directly ??? - added object oriented (Pynguin subclass) examples ??? - added color nudging function ??? - color('random') returns the selected color ??? - polar and Cartesian plot improvements ??? - added padding around exported image ??? - added square() method to Pynguin class ??? - added more programming challenge worksheets ??? - code editor improvements ??? - unified z-value across pynguins to eliminate flicker _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969 From smiles at worksmail.net Wed Jun 9 10:15:13 2010 From: smiles at worksmail.net (C or L Smith) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 14:00:13 +0545 Subject: [Edu-sig] fmslogo turtle question Message-ID: <8D89C0F1CFB44149843A8D6406730E28@csmith> Can anybody give me some help? I am trying to set the heading towards a point that is relative to the current position. This isn't working: setheading towards [xcor+30 ycor+20] It says, towards doesn't like [xcor+30 ycor+20] as input I tried defining two values to use make "x xcor+30 make "y ycor+20 towards [:x :y] and even though it know what :x and :y are it gives the same sort of error as before. It only seems to like a liter pair of numbers within the brackets. Does anyone know how to get towards to take less literal coordinates? /c From da.ajoy at gmail.com Wed Jun 9 16:16:24 2010 From: da.ajoy at gmail.com (Daniel Ajoy) Date: Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:16:24 -0500 Subject: [Edu-sig] fmslogo turtle question In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > Can anybody give me some help? > > I am trying to set the heading towards a point that is relative to the current position. > > This isn't working: > setheading towards [xcor+30 ycor+20] > It says, > towards doesn't like [xcor+30 ycor+20] as input > > > > I tried defining two values to use > > > > make "x xcor+30 > > make "y ycor+20 > > towards [:x :y] > > and even though it know what :x and :y are it gives the same sort of error as before. > > > > It only seems to like a liter pair of numbers within the brackets. > > > > Does anyone know how to get towards to take less literal coordinates? show [some text] [some text] show [:some :text] [:some :text] show [fd 10] [fd 10] show [xcor+30 ycor+20] [xcor+30 ycor+20] show list xcor+30 ycor+20 [30 20] Daniel From kirby.urner at gmail.com Thu Jun 10 08:56:58 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 23:56:58 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] news & views Message-ID: Regarding Logo, there's an esoteric genre of Logo where the turtle swims in a 3D tank, has roll, pitch and yaw type parameters, more like a small airplane. I'm pretty sure we had open source free versions. Lemme go check: ... found some links. Anyone recommend a 3D Logo page? My approach was to write turtle like commands that would parse into static instructions in ray tracing language, so you didn't see any output by the turtle in real time. Very low budget (zero). The L-systems paper I wrote captures some of the flavor: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/lsystems.html (lotsa broken links) http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/numeracy3.html (scroll down for fractal tree) These days I'm interested in 3D/4D Logo because of the Mite, Syte and Kite discussion.** These are space-filling shapes, with the Mite being a center- piece of some of my Saturday Academy classes in so-called Martian Math (wherein Python gets used): http://wikieducator.org/Martian_Math http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/sets/72157622961425831/ Also, I'm anchoring for Holden Web while Steve sojourns at Pycon / Singapore, which is starting today. http://pycon.sit.rp.sg/ Holden Web is part of an OST group developing curriculum for intermediate Python students (beginner already on-line). The interface is Ellipse, a student version of Eclipse. Steve is the curriculum writer, packs a lot in. Here's a screen shot from earlier today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/4686547486/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Python1 module comes with a 2.x version of Python in a Nutshell (Martelli). I need to go find a 3.x version, suggest OST use that instead, given course content. This is state of the art, meaning Python 3.1, with all the related challenges of finding drivers and adapters. I'm glad for that PEP moratorium, giving library maintainers more of a chance to keep up. On another front, I've been helping my friend in Indonesia with his wxPython + Visual connection. The wx GUI is to set parameters only, with VPython hosting its own window (embedding the latter in the former is a trick I've not seen done yet -- they say use PyOpenGL). Some kind of physics problem (he's in a technical college). On yet another front (or more on the polyhedra front), MIT's ConceptNet is ready for business with Python bindings. You'll find a huge database of words associated with other words -- not the same as a thesaurus, more like "free association" semantic webs of olden days. They kind of goof on "tetrahedron" though, suggesting it's a polygon and/or "sides" must all be the same (both assertions false): http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/4680326861/in/photostream/ http://csc.media.mit.edu/docs/conceptnet/overview.html Saw some action on Diversity, with mention of edu-sig. Maybe someone wants to report (some overlap in foci & concerns). Kirby ** (explaining my cryptic nomenclature more): Mite (minimum space-filler) = AAB (plane nets on-line) http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/4676742214/ http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s09/figs/f5400b.html Sytes = Mite + Mite http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/4679491702/in/photostream/ Kites = Syte + Syte http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/4678858801/in/photostream/ OST = O'Reilly School of Technology From da.ajoy at gmail.com Fri Jun 11 16:50:30 2010 From: da.ajoy at gmail.com (Daniel Ajoy) Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:50:30 -0500 Subject: [Edu-sig] news & views In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 23:56:58 -0700 > From: kirby urner > > Regarding Logo, there's an esoteric genre of Logo > where the turtle swims in a 3D tank, has roll, > pitch and yaw type parameters, more like a small > airplane. I'm pretty sure we had open source free > versions. Lemme go check: > > ... found some links. Anyone recommend a > 3D Logo page? http://neoparaiso.com/logo/galeria-mswlogo.html FMSLogo is free and does have 3D, and not just wireframes but polygons, lighting, perspective. https://sourceforge.net/projects/fmslogo/files/ Daniel From kirby.urner at gmail.com Fri Jun 11 20:10:57 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:10:57 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] news & views In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thank you Daniel, this makes my day. Downloading now... Kirby On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 7:50 AM, Daniel Ajoy wrote: >> Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 23:56:58 -0700 >> From: kirby urner >> >> Regarding Logo, there's an esoteric genre of Logo >> where the turtle swims in a 3D tank, has roll, >> pitch and yaw type parameters, more like a small >> airplane. ?I'm pretty sure we had open source free >> versions. ?Lemme go check: >> >> ... found some links. ?Anyone recommend a >> 3D Logo page? > > > http://neoparaiso.com/logo/galeria-mswlogo.html > > FMSLogo is free and does have 3D, and not just wireframes but polygons, lighting, perspective. > > https://sourceforge.net/projects/fmslogo/files/ > > > Daniel > > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > From roys.anna at gmail.com Sun Jun 13 23:22:58 2010 From: roys.anna at gmail.com (Anna Roys) Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:22:58 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Part-time Online Python, C ++ Teacher Needed Message-ID: From another list - an opportunity ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 9:34 AM Subject: Part-time Online Teacher To: teched at list.nsta.org Gifted LearningLinks, the online provider of Center for Talent Development is looking for interested teachers to teach part-time technology courses beginning September 15, 2010. Courses in need of an instructor are Computer Gaming Academy, Introduction to Computer Programming in Python and Honors Programming in C++. For additional information about our program, please visit http://ctd.northwestern.edu/gll If interested in applying, send your resume and a cover letter to gll at northwestern.edu ================= -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From schliep at cs.rutgers.edu Mon Jun 14 19:57:05 2010 From: schliep at cs.rutgers.edu (Alexander Schliep) Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:57:05 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Announcement: Gato & CATBox Message-ID: <2B0FD40E-28F7-449D-B813-C708077A8D3A@cs.rutgers.edu> Hello everyone, Winfried Hochstaettler, from the FernUniversit?t Hagen in Germany, and myself have been working for quite some time on Gato, the Graph Animation Toolbox, and CATBox, the Combinatorial Algorithm Toolbox, which is an interactive course in combinatorial optimization published by Springer Verlag. Gato and the algorithms itself are all written in Python and the algorithm animation is provided through animated data structures. There is more information, screencasts and dowloadlinks at http://schliep.org/CATBox. Gato itself is LGPL licensed; the book and the algorithm implementations used are copyright Springer. Gato and CATBox has been used in university classrooms for several years by colleagues on several continents at the later undergraduate/early graduate level. We would be particularly interested in collaborating with high school/lower level undergrad faculty. Screencast: http://biomaps.rutgers.edu/~schliep//CATBox/Dijkstra.swf Best, Alexander A longer blurb about CATBox: Graph algorithms are easy to visualize and indeed there already exists a variety of packages and programs to animate the dynamics when solving problems from graph theory. Still, and somewhat surprisingly, it can be difficult to understand the ideas behind the algorithm from the dynamic display alone. CATBox consists of a software system for animating graph algorithms and a course book which we developed simultaneously. The software system presents both the algorithm and the graph and puts the user always in control of the actual code that is executed. He or she can set breakpoints, proceed in single steps and trace into subroutines. The graph, and additional auxiliary graphs like residual networks, are displayed and provide visual feedback. The course book, intended for readers at advanced undergraduate or graduate level, introduces the ideas and discusses the mathematical background necessary for understanding and verifying the correctness of the algorithms and their complexity. Computer exercises and examples replace the usual static pictures of algorithm dynamics. For this volume we have chosen solely algorithms for classical problems from combinatorial optimization, such as minimum spanning trees, shortest paths, maximum flows, minimum cost flows as well as weighted and unweighted matchings both for bipartite and non-bipartite graphs. We consider non-bipartite weighted matching, in particular in the geometrical case, a highlight of combinatorial optimization. In order to enable the reader to fully enjoy the beauty of the primal-dual solution algorithm for weighted matching, we present all mathematical material not only from the point of view of graph theory, but also with an emphasis on linear programming and its duality. This yields insightful and aesthetically pleasing pictures for matchings, but also for minimum spanning trees. From kirby.urner at gmail.com Thu Jun 17 07:31:53 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:31:53 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] posts to math forum mentioning Python Message-ID: Sharing these links cuz they yak about MFTDA (textbook), oft mentioned on edu-sig (still here Gary?): http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7099591&tstart=0 http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7099594&tstart=0 This one (below) doesn't mention Python, but is the kind of thing I've used Python to communicate about: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2084375&tstart=0 (why I was asking about 3D/4D Logo, which I've been looking at) E.g. http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/pymath.html (Fig 1 = Mite, compare w/ Fig 10 depiction in PDF by Senechal http://tetrahedraverse.com/tverse/packings/temp2/tetraspace.pdf ) Kirby Urner 4Dsolutions.net -- "Computer science is the new mathematics." -- Dr. Christos Papadimitriou (thx to mp) From kirby.urner at gmail.com Mon Jun 28 00:03:56 2010 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:03:56 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Eclipse as Python3 IDE Message-ID: Just wanted to share experiences using PyDev plugin within Eclipse, with Python 3... I've not been unable to get pickle to work properly, with the error confirmed by others. Sometimes (in at least one case) an error marker will indicate a module name cannot be resolved, and yet it imports and works anyway. Getting proper syntax-coloring around triple-quotes seems problematic, especially when the first line is empty e.g. """ comments go here """ However, I'm able to get the coloring situation to resolve by moving text around later... On the whole, Eclipse is pretty capable in supplying an interactive shell, lots of different windows. There's even a terminal window option if you want to do ssh into a server right from within Eclipse. As the above difficulties get ironed out, I think Eclipse will continue to serve as a development platform for Pythonistas. It's not the only option, given Visual Studio, Wing IDE etc., but it's one of the better free ones (eMacs, vim -- these do everything too, in the hands of experienced users, Notepad not so much). [ I remember how Jason Cunliffe used to post a lot about Leo to this archive. There's a school of thought that's more into "literary programming" as I'd call it, where comments might be relatively copious, with more hypertext relationships. You get these fancy markups... ] Some of you may be familiar with the O'Reilly School of Technology (OST) and its use of Eclipse as a front end to accredited courses in the many languages, databases and so on. Rather than use the free-standing Eclipse, which is an option, you get a customized student version called Ellipse that runs of their servers in a remote desktop session. This seems a creative approach and gets a next generation of developer prepared with one of the state of the art environments, using some of the best industry standard tools (e.g. Python and MySQL). Kirby PS: in other news, I've continued to focus on the plight of the lone FoxPro coder (which was me for many years, but not just me) and possible migration paths for legacy applications. FoxPro is a dialect of xBase nutured by Microsoft over the decades. It competes with their other products and too many people use it for free (not the original business model, unlike Java's) so the plan is to discontinue support for it by 2015 I think it is. This decision is having lots of boat rocking-ripple effects, It's not automatic that the .NET platform is where to go next, certainly not with VB necessarily. New developers don't want to waste time learning a proprietary dead language that might be hard to come by down the road, so there's increasing pressure to migrate those legacy FoxPro apps that still do valuable work. I haven't been tracking closely and don't know if MSFT is taking IronPython that seriously, in terms of marketing and outreach. Server side apps still seem to be gaining over thick clients in many institutional settings, but again, I'm not posing as having a lot of overview here. Gotta read all those IT mags I guess, but who has the time? Pointers to true story use cases welcome.