From christian.mascher at gmx.de Thu Sep 24 17:42:47 2015 From: christian.mascher at gmx.de (Christian Mascher) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 17:42:47 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig list offline? Message-ID: <560419F7.2000507@gmx.de> Hi all, as a long-time lurker I seem to be getting no more postings on this list. Has everybody moved to EduWG, or are you all just very busy at the moment? Cheers, Christian From kirby.urner at gmail.com Thu Sep 24 18:49:11 2015 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:49:11 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig list offline? In-Reply-To: <560419F7.2000507@gmx.de> References: <560419F7.2000507@gmx.de> Message-ID: I'm here, posting more the mathfuture these days, even though Python content is high. https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/mathfuture Kirby On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 8:42 AM, Christian Mascher wrote: > Hi all, > > as a long-time lurker I seem to be getting no more postings on this list. > Has everybody moved to EduWG, or are you all just very busy at the moment? > > Cheers, > > Christian > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 17:46:49 2015 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 08:46:49 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] followup to older post... re Pi generator Message-ID: I'm still interested in finding more bibliographic sources for this one, not necessarily in Python syntax i.e. did Euler come up with this or who? def pi_digits(): k, a, b, a1, b1 = 2, 4, 1, 12, 4 while True: p, q, k = k*k, 2*k+1, k+1 a, b, a1, b1 = a1, b1, p*a+q*a1, p*b+q*b1 d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 while d == d1: yield int(d) a, a1 = 10*(a%b), 10*(a1%b1) d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 [ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2012-December/010728.html ] >>> pi = pi_digits() >>> "".join([str(next(pi)) for i in range(100)])) '3141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067' ... so far what we know is some high school student handed it in for homework. Kirby -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tim.peters at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 18:41:42 2015 From: tim.peters at gmail.com (Tim Peters) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 11:41:42 -0500 Subject: [Edu-sig] followup to older post... re Pi generator In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Copying Guido because he's the actual original author of this code. I remember it being in a very early intro to Python, which I can't find now. And it used to be included in a Python distribution's Demo directory. But, e.g., you can see it in this mailing list message from Guido in 1994, during an early discussion of what eventually became Python's generators. Guido, do you remember where this algorithm came from? http://legacy.python.org/search/hypermail/python-1994q2/0429.html scroll down to point "6)" [kirby urner ] > I'm still interested in finding more bibliographic sources for this one, not > necessarily in Python syntax i.e. did Euler come up with this or who? > > > def pi_digits(): > > k, a, b, a1, b1 = 2, 4, 1, 12, 4 > while True: > p, q, k = k*k, 2*k+1, k+1 > a, b, a1, b1 = a1, b1, p*a+q*a1, p*b+q*b1 > d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 > while d == d1: > yield int(d) > a, a1 = 10*(a%b), 10*(a1%b1) > d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 > > [ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2012-December/010728.html ] > >>>> pi = pi_digits() >>>> "".join([str(next(pi)) for i in range(100)])) > '3141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067' > > ... so far what we know is some high school student handed it in for > homework. From kirby.urner at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 19:03:06 2015 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 10:03:06 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] followup to older post... re Pi generator In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Wow, I never even guessed Guido had anything to do with this code. The world shrinks again! Fun! Kirby On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 9:41 AM, Tim Peters wrote: > Copying Guido because he's the actual original author of this code. I > remember it being in a very early intro to Python, which I can't find > now. And it used to be included in a Python distribution's Demo > directory. But, e.g., you can see it in this mailing list message > from Guido in 1994, during an early discussion of what eventually > became Python's generators. Guido, do you remember where this > algorithm came from? > > http://legacy.python.org/search/hypermail/python-1994q2/0429.html > scroll down to point "6)" > > [kirby urner ] > > I'm still interested in finding more bibliographic sources for this one, > not > > necessarily in Python syntax i.e. did Euler come up with this or who? > > > > > > def pi_digits(): > > > > k, a, b, a1, b1 = 2, 4, 1, 12, 4 > > while True: > > p, q, k = k*k, 2*k+1, k+1 > > a, b, a1, b1 = a1, b1, p*a+q*a1, p*b+q*b1 > > d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 > > while d == d1: > > yield int(d) > > a, a1 = 10*(a%b), 10*(a1%b1) > > d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 > > > > [ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2012-December/010728.html ] > > > >>>> pi = pi_digits() > >>>> "".join([str(next(pi)) for i in range(100)])) > > > '3141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067' > > > > ... so far what we know is some high school student handed it in for > > homework. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tim.peters at gmail.com Tue Sep 29 19:47:53 2015 From: tim.peters at gmail.com (Tim Peters) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 12:47:53 -0500 Subject: [Edu-sig] followup to older post... re Pi generator In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks! It's pretty clearly using a generalized continued fraction algorithm converging to pi, but I'm not clear on which - it's excruciatingly clever ;-) Here are some possibilities for those motivated enough to dig into it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continued_fraction#Generalized_continued_fraction On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 12:23 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote: > I adapted this from an ABC program by Lambert Meertens. I don't know where > he got it from, but I wouldn't be surprised if he came up with it himself. > The algorithm basically shows off rational arithmetic in either language. > > On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 10:03 AM, kirby urner wrote: >> >> >> Wow, I never even guessed Guido had anything to do with this code. The >> world shrinks again! >> >> Fun! >> >> Kirby >> >> >> >> On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 9:41 AM, Tim Peters wrote: >>> >>> Copying Guido because he's the actual original author of this code. I >>> remember it being in a very early intro to Python, which I can't find >>> now. And it used to be included in a Python distribution's Demo >>> directory. But, e.g., you can see it in this mailing list message >>> from Guido in 1994, during an early discussion of what eventually >>> became Python's generators. Guido, do you remember where this >>> algorithm came from? >>> >>> http://legacy.python.org/search/hypermail/python-1994q2/0429.html >>> scroll down to point "6)" >>> >>> [kirby urner ] >>> > I'm still interested in finding more bibliographic sources for this >>> > one, not >>> > necessarily in Python syntax i.e. did Euler come up with this or who? >>> > >>> > >>> > def pi_digits(): >>> > >>> > k, a, b, a1, b1 = 2, 4, 1, 12, 4 >>> > while True: >>> > p, q, k = k*k, 2*k+1, k+1 >>> > a, b, a1, b1 = a1, b1, p*a+q*a1, p*b+q*b1 >>> > d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 >>> > while d == d1: >>> > yield int(d) >>> > a, a1 = 10*(a%b), 10*(a1%b1) >>> > d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1 >>> > >>> > [ http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2012-December/010728.html ] >>> > >>> >>>> pi = pi_digits() >>> >>>> "".join([str(next(pi)) for i in range(100)])) >>> > >>> > '3141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067' >>> > >>> > ... so far what we know is some high school student handed it in for >>> > homework. >> >> > > > > -- > --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido) From andre.roberge at gmail.com Wed Sep 30 20:50:41 2015 From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:50:41 -0300 Subject: [Edu-sig] Research on best language to use for teaching beginners Message-ID: Hi everyone, Google has failed me, and I'm hoping that someone on this list could help... About a year or two ago, I read a study comparing different programming languages used for beginners. I believe there were at least four different languages that had been looked at, one of which was Python. I also believe that the (main) author including their newly created language as comparison. As I recall, the author looked at the reading comprehension (and writing ability?) demonstrated by the students for basic programming structures. One thing that jumped at me was that one of the structures used by Python (likely the for loop) was not very understood by the students. I'd appreciate if anyone could turn the above poor description into an actual link to the actual article I'm attempting to describe! ;-) Andr? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: