Season's greetings (was Re: Some Python 2.1 ideas)

[jsboyle at my-deja.com]

In article <928otj02l39 at news1.newsguy.com>,
  "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:

I also have a teenage son,. His experience is java, C, C++. I found
that the python project with the biggest zowie! factor was V-python,
formerly visual python:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/visualpython

This unfortunately requires a special python, for reasons I find
specious,  but allows some really neat 3D graphics (with
animation) using GL.
It runs under windows, Linux, and Mac. It is used at
Carnegie-Mellon in a physics course.

Jim
>
> Me, I had the best Christmas ever since I got my first electric
> train... got to show Python to my son (Pascal and Assembler
> his only previous programming experiences), and again and
> again he got the jaw-drops-"but-it-CAN'T-be-THAT-powerful!"
> effect which I well recall from my early Python days.  (And as
> a cherry on top he kibitzed me for an OKbridge session where
> I got close to 70%, but the Python part alone would have, by
> itself, been quite enough...!-).
>
> One thing I wasn't able to easily answer -- what's the
> *easiest* way for a Python beginner to do function-plots,
> with nicely labeled graphs, minor/major ticks, color,
> auto-scaled, &c &c?  On-screen display the major need,
> though nice printouts wouldn't hurt either.  Speed no
> issue, as his new PC is twice as fast as mine!-)
>
> I tried downloading DISLIN but it appears to embed its
> own Python, need its own setting of PYTHONPATH; and
> (from a superficial look at it) it doesn't seem to do auto
> scaling.  Any suggestions?  I'd like to keep amazing him
> with Python power and ease, as what dad wouldn't like
> for his late-teenage son...:-).
>
> Alex
>
>


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