Hi all, Please read below.
Regards JaneW -------- Forwarded Message -------- From: enrike <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: learning progamming with Python Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 12:08:15 +0200 hi Jane, My name is Enrike Hurtado, I am part of an independent HCI research project called ixi (www.ixi-software.net). I am writing you regarding the Edubuntu GNU/Linux distribution. A friend of mine who has attended the Edubuntu summit pointed me into your website as you might be interested on a software project i am developing. Let me explain it briefly. For the last year I have been developing a Python based framework to code ritch 2D graphics applications/games/prototypes. It is based on PyOpenGL but also uses other libraries such as PIL, WxPython and Pygame. We started developing this as a tool to produce prototypes for our own use in the ixi project. However being over the last couple of years more and more involved on teaching we thought this could be a great tool to teach programming multimedia and design students and we have been taking care of writing documentation and constructing it so that it is as easy as possible to use. In the past we have been using propietary software to develop prototypes and to teach programming. We used Macromedia Director mainly. But we reached a point where we saw the need to more on into free software to be able to access a more flexible tool. For this took two directions: Processing (java based, from MIT) and Python+libraries. I am responsible for this second branch. We thought that the current tools available in Python were too much focused on either games (like pygame) or application development (wxpython, pythoncard) and that we had the need for something more 'in between' were multimedia elements such as fast graphics, video, sound, etc... could be combined with GUI elements such as import dialogues, pulldown menus, etc... So we decided to create our own framework based on PyopenGL and wxPython and Pygame . Thanks to a couple of research grants and the technical support of a university in UK, I could expend time ober the current year developing this idea and at the moment we just released the 0.2.5 release of our framework called Mirra. It is available for download from http://www.ixi-software.net/content/body_software_mirra.html and it is listed on the Python software repository at python.org In ixi we are two people and we are both currently involved on PhD studies in two UK universities. As part of ixi we give several workshops per year where we introduce students to tools to program with graphics and sound (Pure Data, SuperCollider, Processing, Python, Director, Flash). We will be teaching now Mirra as we believe it can be a very nice tool to learn programing by manipulating graphics. When we saw that you include drPython, pythoncard and pygame we thought that you might be interested on Mirra. I am not sure that it has reached the development point to be intereting enough for you but maybe in few months it will be as it is evolving pretty fast. As for the future, I will be PhD student for the next 3 years at least and Mirra is a central point in my research as all prototypes will be built using it, so I have plan to develop to much further. Hopefuly soon some other people might join the development and this would speed up the process and quality of the programming/structure/documentation. I hope this has been interesting for you. If you need any kind of info do not hesitate to contact me. best, -- JaneW _____________ Jane Weideman mobile: +27 83 779 7800 Canonical Ltd. -- edubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-devel
