On Wed, 2006-02-01 at 19:31 -0800, Dethe Elza wrote: > Mixing RUR-PLE and Pyro sounds like a good idea to me. My daughter > likes to push things past their limits (she's a good beta tester for > me), so if she was using RUR-PLE and found that it "unfolded" into a > bigger, more complicated, but more powerful world, I think that would > really get her involved.
Yes, I think it would be good to think about making it easy to move from rur-ple to pyro. > Does Pyro yet run natively on OS X (without requiring X windows/Gnome/ > fink)? In a word, yes. It is still the case that if you want to use the advanced 3D simulator (gazebo) you'll need X (I suspect that someone will eventually write a front end to gazebo in native Mac). But, we now have a simulator written in 100% Python that simulates vision, grippers, and range sensors. You can see some images and the interface here: http://pyrorobotics.org/?page=The_20Pyrobot_20Simulator > > Some of these points may be non-issues because RUR-PLE isn't > > attempting > > to teach robotics. But what if it were? Some of these points we could > > explore by making RUR-PLE talk to the Pyro 2D simulators (one is > > written > > in pure-Python) and by having Pyro connect to the simulator in RUR- > > PLE. > > I'd be interested in sharing lessons learned from that software > > which is > > designed "for kids" versus "for young adults." > > Using robotics to teach programming, vs. using programming to teach > robotics. Two sides of the same coin, IMHO. I think you've raised > some good points to consider, but I know I'd like to see this > combination work out (especially if it runs on OS X). Very well said. I hope we can discuss this further. > > BTW, I use do use Pyro to teach cognitive science students how to > > program. Questions of intelligence make a great way to motivate the > > learning of programming, and of course Python is great for that. Would > > young kids benefit from this same motivation? > > Not directly questioning their intelligence, but praising them for > being smart when they figure something out, yeah, that's a heady > motivator. Actually, I meant that students can question where intelligence comes from, and *that* motivates them to learn about robots. These questions are subtle, and I don't think we have an answer. It doesn't (necessarily) have anything to do with logic. It is akin to "what does it mean to be alive?" and "how can non-living material give rise to life?" How can intelligence come from non-intelligent things? These are some of the great questions of our time. I think Python can help explore them. -Doug > --Dethe > > "Any idea that couldn't stand a few decades of neglect is not worth > anything." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez > > -- Douglas S. Blank Computer Science Assistant Professor Bryn Mawr College (610)526-6501 http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dblank _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
