Re: [Tutor] Design question: Web-based vs. desktop-based vs. desktop-based with data backed up to web server with a tablet thrown in for all cases?
On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 12:49:50AM -0500, boB Stepp wrote: > In this thread, I kept it very general on purpose. I was probing this > community for their thoughts on two things: 1) Should I make the > software web-based or desktop-based? 2) What would be the best way of > handling the data involved, particularly the data that impinges on > student privacy concerns. Not to be a wet blanket, but this is way off-topic for this mailing list. However, you're a regular in good standing, and we don't have a strict rule about staying on-topic (such rules are tiresome and annoying if they allow for no exceptions), so let's go with it. I would start with the simplest thing that can work. With an initial user-base of one person, especially one who is quite computer literate, you don't have to worry about backwards compatibility and can feel free to experiment and expand the software as needed. So I would start with something that just runs on the local machine. Since your missus intends to use a tablet, you may want to investigate Kivy for your GUI needs. http://kivy.org/ I'm not sure if it runs on Macs, but it should work on Android, Windows, and Linux, and of course it is entire Python-based. Once you have a proof-of-concept working for your one user, then you can consider how to expand on it by moving the data to a server and possibly giving access to others. In the meantime, keep everything on the local machine. Take backups of the data by exporting to some sort of regular file which can be zipped up and copied onto a USB stick and locked in a safe. You might consider an encrypted file system if the data is particularly sensitive. But that's a separate issue from the application itself. If you use SQLite for the data storage, it should have a simple "dump" function that would let you export the database to a standard SQL dump format, and reconstruct the database from said dump if needed. Otherwise you would have to write your own export/import routines. If you make the decision to provide multi-user access, then you have a large number of problems to deal with: - security of the database server; - access to the database itself; - what to do if the link between the app and the database goes down? - user authentication and permissions (you don't want little Freddy changing his grades, or accessing other people's records); etc. Why deal with those things from Day One if you only have one user? You don't even know if this application is going to be useful. Start with a proof of concept to prove that it is worth the extra effort. Perhaps your wife will decide that the application isn't useful at all, or that it is useful, but it can remain a single person app and no shared database is needed. But you won't know until you have something to actually experiment with. -- Steve ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Design question: Web-based vs. desktop-based vs. desktop-based with data backed up to web server with a tablet thrown in for all cases?
On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 4:58 PM, Brandon McCaig wrote: > Rather than worrying about technology, frameworks, peripherals, > and protocols you need to focus on the real problem. Have her > describe exactly what she'll do with it. Try to get her to put it > into context of what she does NOW without the software so that > you can compare. I'm 29 years old so I've been away from school > for a long time. I don't know what teachers are using computers > for these days, but I cannot imagine it being useful to walk > around the classroom with a tablet (if anything I don't think I'd > want my children's teachers having such a distraction). At least, > not so useful as to commission the development of custom > software. I'm also not familiar with what a Montessori teacher > does, but it sounds even less likely that custom software will be > useful since it sounds like the students' learning is much less > organized than in a traditional school. The Montessori philosophy of teaching is quite non-traditional. Two or more different grades of children are taught in the same classroom, usually with just one teacher, who may or may not have any helpers. My wife often does not have help, or, if she does, it has not been as helpful as it might. She has 7th, 8th and 9th graders in her class. This coming school year she will have approximately 20 students. At any moment during the school day, all of the students are NOT doing the same thing. Some may be working in small groups. Others will be doing individual work, where it is quite likely that none of these students are doing the same assignment. Each student often has an individualized learning plan. The initial assessment project is quite needful. In the past my wife has wandered about the classroom assessing her students with either a clipboard in hand or trusting her memory until she got back to her desk and able to write down her assessment notes for each student. Note that students do not get traditional grades. Instead, they have a detailed list of skills that they are working towards mastery in. Her assessments will notate each student's progress towards mastery in light of whatever assignments they might be working on. When it comes time to interact with each student's parents, my wife needs to combine all of this assessment data into a report of the student's progress in each skill area to share with the parents. This is quite burdensome to do entirely by hand. The Montessori method of teaching is most frequently associated with children of age three up through sixth grade. There are relatively few examples of junior high/high school Montessori programs and there does not seem to be a good consensus of how to apply the Montessori methods to secondary education. So the main reasons why my wife does not have detailed requirements for what she would like me to program is that she has been working out what is and is not appropriate on her own. After several years of developing her program, she feels she is at the point where software can be a real help for her. BTW, she is very computer literate. She has done programming before when she was a university student and sporadically since then. So she is well aware of what is possible and what can be useful. I have not given you a good idea of what a Montessori education is all about. If you are curious I encourage you to do the usual online searching. In this thread, I kept it very general on purpose. I was probing this community for their thoughts on two things: 1) Should I make the software web-based or desktop-based? 2) What would be the best way of handling the data involved, particularly the data that impinges on student privacy concerns. As I said in the initial thread, some software would be strictly for the teacher's use. Some would be used by the students and the teacher with the potential that the students might have to access that software in their homes (homework). And finally in addition to the students and teachers, some things might be desirable for the parents to be able to monitor their student's progress from home. And then to make things at least a little more concrete I gave a very broad outline of the first project that she (perhaps foolishly ~(: >) ) hopes to have at the start of her school year. And I have been given some great thoughts by this community to help me on my way! I understand and appreciate your concerns. If the client was anyone but my wife, I would not be attempting this for all of the excellent reasons you gave. But Vonda is kinda the lone ranger here in what she is trying to build, and I think I can give her some real help. And from my perspective it is another opportunity to learn many cool new things and push my limits. I never seem to ever find time to just read and study a Python (or other programming-related) book from beginning to end, but when I have a concrete project to do, then at least I start learning *something* out of sheer necess
Re: [Tutor] Socket Module
On Jul 18, 2015 3:50 PM, "Nym City via Tutor" wrote: > > Thank you all for your responses. I have a follow up question: > > So if gethostbyname_ex() takes only a single hostname string, how can I use it to go through a list of hostnames and get their IP resolution as an output? > Look into loops. If you have a function that works on a single thing, you can use a loop to apply that function for each element in a list. Any good tutorial should show how to do this. Let us know if you run into difficulties. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Socket Module
Thank you all for your responses. I have a follow up question:
So if gethostbyname_ex() takes only a single hostname string, how can I use it
to go through a list of hostnames and get their IP resolution as an output?
This would mean,socket.gethostbyaddr() would also not work for my second
project.
Thank you.
On Monday, July 13, 2015 2:59 AM, Alan Gauld
wrote:
On 12/07/15 23:36, Nym City via Tutor wrote:
> import csv
> import socket
>
> domains = open('top500domains.csv', 'r')
> for domain in domains:
> domain = socket.gethostbyname(str(domains))
You are passing your file object to gethostbyname()
> print(domains + "\n")
> For the code above, I receive the following error on run: socket.gaierror:
> [Errno -2] Name or service not known.
> Variation 2:
> import csv
> import socketdomains = []
I assume the domains bit is on a separate line?
>
> with open('top500domains.csv', 'r') as f:
> for line in f:
> line = line.strip()
> domains.append(line)
>
> hostbyname_ex = socket.gethostbyname_ex(str(domains))
Again you are passing the entire list to gethostbyname_ex()
--
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos
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Re: [Tutor] How to run same lines of code in different order at runtime
On Friday 10 July 2015 02:40 PM, Alan Gauld wrote: On 10/07/15 01:29, Alan Gauld wrote: It would be easierv to access the last element directly rather than looping: lastCity = route[-1] Oops. looping -> calculating. Thank u Steven and Alan, I am sorry to reply late. Your replies were insightful and particularly Steven's which was more specific to my problem, although i had a slight difficulty in understanding them. I will get back to you with the problem on graph with pylab. Although i am also looking into another solutions to the same problem (me a Python newbie and programming hobbyist). i will do some programming and will get back to you with my results. Thanks again. George. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Design question: Web-based vs. desktop-based vs. desktop-based with data backed up to web server with a tablet thrown in for all cases?
On 18/07/15 04:20, boB Stepp wrote: My wife (a Montessori teacher No idea what that is but I'll assume its pretty much a regular type teacher... For her most urgent project to be done before school starts in 5 weeks For the *urgent* project I'd consider using Sqlite for the data and store it on a cloud server. That will enable sync between devices, provided they don't both make changes at once. Its not super secure but it does provide some level of access control on the cloud and the data isn't in a simple text file so can't be trivially read. You can migrate to a bigger client/server solution later if needed provided you build a data access API from the start. And the more extensive security features need to be added later. Treat the 5 week project as a semi-throwaway prototype learning experience. Other than that Laura's advice is pretty much spot on. I do own server space and a domain name that I have never used, but should be adequate for my wife's needs. What software will they allow you to run? The server owners restrictions are likely to be a major factor in your choice of solution. For example do they allow you to install a web framework like Django? Or do you have to use Wordpress or similar? Not all web providers are equal. You may find you are better off using something like Google or Amazon web services. Finally, for a really modern feeling web app you are going to have to use Javascript, possibly quite a lot of it. If you don't already know it, it will be a steep learning curve, so you might want to start reading now! -- Alan G Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
