Python as a teaching (visualization) tool

[Arthur]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:11:59 GMT, Kyler Laird <Kyler at news.Lairds.org>
wrote:
>
>What does all of this have to do with Python?  Well, I did build
>the little Hough tool using Python (and PIL), but while I was in
>class thinking "There's got to be a better way to show this" I
>kept thinking in terms of taking advantage of Python's
>interactive nature to whip together tools like this in front of
>a class.  Numeric, PIL, WxPython, SciPy, GGobi, MayaVi, ... if
>an instructor had a basic understanding of some of these tools
>and a handy framework for using them, explanations of many 
>difficult concepts would come very naturally.

I certainly feel there is something substanital to be explored and
exploited here.

My effort to give it realization is PyGeo

http://pw1.netcom.com/~ajs

which uses VPython  for 3d rendering - which I think deserves mention
on your list particularly because of its facility at the interactive
prompt.

And I will in fact be hoping to dazzle with my presentation of PyGeo
at PyCon. 

One concrete thing I think would help spread the gospel as to Python's
usefulness in this area is a LiveCD - Knoppix based, let's say - that
would come pre-configured with a good amount of  this good stuff. 

Getting up and running with some of these tools can otherwise be a
chore that one cannot expect the merely curious to undertake.

I have been contemplating a sourceforge project to produce a LiveCD of
Python related educational/visualization tools.

Would you jump in?

Art