Re: Promath

["Odile Bénassy" <obenassy@magic.fr>]

Robert Hopcroft wrote:
 
> Odile, I should first ask about the status of Promath relative to the web site
> information 

it is still early development, I'm afraid

during the spring I've done a little developing in tcl/tk, then I tried
perl because I thought it was ideal for any algorithmical material
yet I found out that the algorithms would be good for further
developement, but the stuff I had to concentrate on, now, was in fact
rather simple so that any language could fit the need

so for a couple of weeks I've been thinking, and beginning some early
developement, in python

why python ?
- because it is a very nice language, very clear
- because it is object-oriented, should be better for maintaining and
further developing
and also, very important :
- because I plan both an Intranet use and a web use for the application,
and when you speak of web use you need to think about what the client
side will be able to understand; I would like part of the machinery to
run on the client, if it wouldn't be so, especially for web use the
quizz machine will be too slow; finally python is able to generate java
bytecode and any browser will understand java bytecode

yet I am still worried with math printing on the screen : I find nothing
really satisfactory...

so : these days I'm learning to generate simple web pages with python

if anybody wants to try, please tell me
if anybody has any help about math printing, please do
and I'm open to suggestions about general conception and choices, as far
as I don't have to spend the rest of my life answering to them...

---------------------------------------
> and your thoughts on what needs to be done next. Also concerning
> quizzes, "What grade or age levels are you interested in and what general areas
> of math"? 

1) grade :
any grade
my own work's scope is part of our "classes de 2nde et 1ere" (15-17
years old
in France)
but I've thought also of very simple computation for very young children
as I already said : "only interface should be different", the mechanics
is still the same 

2) general areas :
many
everything that need training in a rather systematic way
for  example : 
numerical computing - formal computing - algebra - logic - trigonometry
- everything that's similar to algebra in functions, like elementary
differential and integral computation - 
also : reasoning, every kind of job where student has to produce a
well-formed and meaningful sentence to express a mathematical idea, this
situation happens at any grade, already when you ask a 7 years old child
to describe simple situations
 
Thanks for your interest :-) :-)
-- 
Odile Bénassy,
"http://perso.magic.fr/obenassy"