Teaching Python
Hello, I am planning to teach Python to a group of high school students, who have in-depth interest in programming, hacking etc. I am looking for some good material, what I could use as a basic guide when preparing the classes plan for the course - website or book, what would roll out the topic methodologically gradually. The target audience is someone who knows most basics of the programming, but doesn't mind being reminded about them now and then. Thanks for any suggestions! Passiday -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Teaching Python
Of course, I meant the "tinkering, playing with, etc." meaning. That would be quite strange to look for an advice "how to break the Pentagon's systems" in public forum :) And while I plan to tell them about the "practical programming" (ie, typical tasks what they would be doing when hired), I think the school is still that wonderful time when can afford to do something just for the fun of it. Who knows what will come out of it, when they know how to join several programs together via clever scripting, build some circuit board to handle some household appliances, and set up a webcam for the world to control that. I see them as potential geniuses rather than potential data entry operators with programmer skills. I think Python is a very important language to learn - both easy and advanced, with very wide support in different platforms, with loads of great applications that can be scripted by it, and great community support. I am aware, of course, that the web is full with tutorials, etc. It's the sheer abundance of material what made me post the question, an attempt to narrow the scope down. The book Dive into Python seems like good solution, I think I'll give it a shot. Passiday -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
MIDI message sending and receiving, MID file manipulation
Hello, I'd like to experiment with Python, connecting my Linux PC with MIDI device (standard synthesiser keyboard). I am pretty new to the Python world, so the questions that crop up, I assume, could be pretty basic to someone who had spent some time with it. So, here comes: 1) Is everything what could be done with Python in some IDE (Eclipse for me), can be accomplished in the interactive console? I mean, perhaps Python could be used just as programming language and compiled in binary code, thus allowing access to some binary libraries what might not be accessible from within the interpreter. 2) Is there a way how to run Python script in event-driven mode, ie, run the script, it registers some function as keyboard event handler, and then calls that function whenever I press any key. Is such behaviour possible in the interactive mode? Since I want to test the MIDI message exchange, having a function sitting on the timer event is what I'll need for playback, and an event that is triggered by incoming MIDI message for recording. 3) Of course, I need some Python module to actually get this MIDI communication happen. Sending and receiving MIDI messages to and from my MIDI device. 4) As for manipulating the MIDI files in Python, I have searched up this: http://www.mxm.dk/products/public/pythonmidi However, this lib doesn't try to provide actual communication with MIDI device. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Suggested coding style
Hello, I have started to code random stuff in Python only recently, still lots to learn. So please bear with me if my question sounds like rant. I have been coding in many other languages, most of the time it was Java and C#. I don't like the function mess of PHP (ie, loads and loads of functions without any namespaces etc), but I'd like to think that Python is different. In my brief coding experience I have stumbled upon Python zfill(width) method, and I thought, really, do you have to include such a narrow- purpose method in the basic method set? Perhaps there are more such methods that are nice when you need them, but then again, you don't put all the possible methods in the standard set. Perhaps there is reason such method is in the basic library, and my complaints are unbased? Or, perhaps the language is on course to bloat out and get filled with tens and hundreds of special-purpose methods that render the language structure chaotic? Passiday -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Suggested coding style
Oh, my. Who could expect this topic would iterate to some whining about religion (please don't respond on this remark of mine). Here's a summary of what I take from this longwinded thread: Read the Zen of Pthon for some fun: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020 Read the PEP-8 for some good guidelines: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008 My topic was "Suggested coding style" because I hoped there is some common understanding which of the ancient methods/functions are so not where they should be that the use of them should be depreciated. I can fully understand that when the language evolves, it might implement some ugly methods. Perhaps it was some quick itching need to format some numbers that drove some antique Python programmer so mad that he decided this belongs to the string class, instead of some number/date/string formatting class that attempts to build on existing well established standards. And so, the str.zfill() was born. But I'd expect that there exists some leadership who are brave enough to admit some bad decisions and lead the people by announcing that using certain methods is "bad style". No need to take them out of the implementation, that might unnecessary break some code in obscure places. However, guiding programmers for better coding practice and avoid ugly bloating of nice scripting lang uage should be considered a holy (please don't rant on use of this word) mission. Passiday -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
(don't bash me too hard) Python interpreter in JavaScript
Hello, I am looking for a way how to bring Python interpreter to JavaScript, in order to provide a web-based application with python scripting capabilities. The app would have basic IDE for writing and debugging the python code, but the interpretation, of course, would be done in JavaScript. I'd like to avoid any client-server transactions, so all the interpretation should take place on the client side. The purpose of all this would be to create educational platform for learning the programming in python. I hoped somebody already had done something like this, but I couldn't google up anything. I've found some crazy project emulating PC in JavaScript (and even running Linux on top of it), but not a python interpreter. Of course, I could take the python source and brutally recode it in JavaScript, but that seems like awful lot of work to do. Any ideas how I should proceed with this project? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: (don't bash me too hard) Python interpreter in JavaScript
Thanks Carl, this looks like a good base to start from. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: (don't bash me too hard) Python interpreter in JavaScript
Of course, I am aware of this. But the file system can be emulated, and certain networking can be mediated via the server, too. But for starts, I don't plan to go beyond the basic file operations, if at all. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Can't get Apache2 tp process py (Ubuntu 11.10)
Hello, Sorry if this is not exactly appropriate forum where to ask Apache question, but I though't here would some Apache-experienced people probably hang out. Well, I can't get my Apache2 to process Python *.py files. I checked numerous tutorials how to enable it, and did the install steps: - Installed the libapache2-mod-python package - Added the following lines to the section of /etc/apache2/sites-available/default file: AddHandler mod_python .py PythonHandler mod_python.publisher PythonDebug On I made this simple test.py file: def index(req): return "Test successful"; When I request the file, ie, [url]http://localhost/test.py[/url], I get the download prompt, and the Python script is just downloaded, not processed. The error log /var/log/apache2 shows these lines that kind of confirm that the module is loaded: [Thu Dec 15 15:12:38 2011] [notice] mod_python: Creating 8 session mutexes based on 150 max processes and 0 max threads. [Thu Dec 15 15:12:38 2011] [notice] mod_python: using mutex_directory /tmp [Thu Dec 15 15:12:38 2011] [notice] Apache/2.2.20 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.3.6-13ubuntu3.3 with Suhosin-Patch mod_python/3.3.1 Python/2.7.2+ configured -- resuming normal operations As one can see, there are no any errors that would tell there's something wrong happening. Any ideas what installation step did I do wrong or skipped? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Can't get Apache2 tp process py (Ubuntu 11.10)
Ok, figured this out by myself. There was an apache config conflict, and the config without mod_python enabled took over the config with mod_python enabled. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
