[Edu-sig] Anyone interested in discussing the turtle module?

[Lee Harr]

> It would be a huge help in promoting
> Python's use in education if we could make use of such a potentially
> fine module as the turtle module, but I'm finding it very difficult to
> write curriculum materials that use it since students don't have
> control over the turtle's screen in any easy to use way.


I understand the advantage of using something that
is included in the default install, but I found using
the included turtle module to be unsatisfactory.

For me, one of the biggest problems was the whole
multiple windows thing. It's not too bad on linux
where you can set up focus follow mouse and no
raise on click, but explaining that to someone else
and expecting them to set it up is not reasonable.

Anyhow, that's why I started Pynguin:
http://pynguin.googlecode.com/

With this, I find it extremely easy to get the students
started with writing their own code.


Getting back to the turtle module; I did look at
extending the turtle module when I started pynguin.
It explicitly says in the module that it is designed for
extending with another toolkit, but it also imports
Tk at the top level.

I think what I am going to do is implement a subclass
of Pynguin that implements all of the Turtle methods
and then make turtle-compatibility a configuration
option.


One user sent me a py2exe'd version of Pynguin, so
getting it running on windows should not be too
difficult. I was not comfortable posting the exe,
though, since I have no way of knowing what is
in it.