At 10:51 PM 3/6/2009 -0400, Andre Roberge wrote: >David MacQuigg wrote: >>I started to do this as a downloadable program, then Athar jumped in and said >>he could do it just as easily in Google App Engine. He did in one weekend >>what took several weeks on my own server in an earlier project. >> >>The advantage of a web-based program is you don't have to download or install >>anything. > >I completely agree. I will definitely have to mention it during my Pycon talk >about Crunchy. > >Well done!
The credit so far, goes 90% to Athar, and of course, Nick Parlante (JavaBat.com) for inspiring us to even think of it. Now we need community input. We have 6 problems so far. I'll do strings. We still need math, logic, lists, dictionaries, and recursion. Let's make this the most popular Python site on the planet!! At 10:34 PM 3/6/2009 -0800, kirby urner wrote: >David MacQuigg wrote: >>The advantage of a web-based program is you don't have to download or install >>anything. > >This is true, but I think if you're not going to download Python and >actually run it locally, then you're mostly just kidding yourself if >you think you're committed to learning it. We need both - Python running on our own computers to do quick interactive tests, and PyWhip to see if we got the problem solved, track our progress, etc. PyWhip is not an interpreter, but a test environment. Let's say you are asked to find a particular sequence in a list, and you don't remember Python's indexing syntax. Much easier to try a few quick tests in IDLE, then write the complete solution in PyWhip. I even use Python/IDLE to solve problems in JavaBat!! I find in much easier to work out the solution in Python, then translate to Java. This is especially true for more complex problems, even big projects in Java. I have used Python as an Interface Description Language, and it beats the IDL tools I am aware of. I don't use UML diagrams anymore. I wish Java had an environment like IDLE. The closest I've found is Eclipse, and that is rather cumbersome compared to IDLE. >That being said, having a server running locally (including GAE, which >is designed to work on your laptop as well) is a great idea. If >you're connected to some remote curriculum using this configuration, >well, that's what Subversion is for (like with Django, just ask for an >update and ye shall receive). Subversion is very cool, but it won't keep track of user logins, session state, etc. It's all that "framework" stuff that took so long on my previous project. When you write a program in App Engine, Google provides it all for you, along with Django templates, database support, and a bunch of other stuff you don't have to develop yourself. >I'm more interested in students than teachers. I'd encourage them to >download Python locally, update curriculum source using some checkout >procedure, if that's what's required. How do you handle testing? Seems like automation is essential if you have more than a few students. -- Dave ************************************************************ * * David MacQuigg, PhD email: macquigg at ece.arizona.edu * * * Research Associate phone: USA 520-721-4583 * * * * ECE Department, University of Arizona * * * * 9320 East Mikelyn Lane * * * * http://purl.net/macquigg Tucson, Arizona 85710 * ************************************************************ * _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
