Thursday, November 30, 2006

Rur-ple 1.0rc

Rur-ple 1.0 is finally out ... sort of. Actually, it's a Release Candidate version. For the next little while, any free time I'll have is going to be spent on preparing my Pycon presentation (and working on Crunchy as needed to improve it before Pycon 2007). Since I had three more localizations available (German, Turkish and Welsh) than there was on sourceforge, I decided that it was better to release early. In the meantime, someone is working on an Italian localization (and possible lessons translation) which should be included in the final 1.0 version.

14 comments:

TCM said...

Will there any functional difference between the RC-version and the final version or is it just one more language (italian)?

/Håkan

André Roberge said...

In addition to adding one more language, I'm planning a final review of the lessons - I don't expect major changes there. I do not plan to add any new functionality. The 1.0 release should include a ".exe" all included downloading option for Windows users who do not wish to install Python and wxPython separately.

Anonymous said...

firstly this is a fantastic program!
I have just gone through most of it myself (I already knew how to program . . .) it was fun. I look forward to using it to teach my niece how to program!

Secondly, you guys should write a tutorial for using wxpython, the gui is awesome.

Finally, with the most recent version from sourceforge in linux the 'adjust robot speed' slider does not work. (the grabable part of the slider shows up, but it can not be slid as it has no track). I am using:
ubuntu linux edgy eft, with
python 2.4
wxpython 2.6

Gabriel

André Roberge said...

Dear Gabriel:

Thank you for your kind words.

Unfortunately I can't reproduce the problem you noted as I don't have Linux installed; using Windows with Python 2.4 and wxPython 2.6, I don't see this problem.

There is a workaround: you can use
set_delay(time) as an instruction anywhere in a program where time is a number between 0 and 10 (in seconds). "0" will not mean any delay for the screen update; just as fast as it can.

You can see all instruction from a link on the first rur-ple page.

[For information: I am aware that a change in the latest wxPython (2.7+?) version apparently renders rur-ple essentially unusable.]

There are quite a few wxPython tutorials out there. In addition, there is a relatively new book called "wxPython in action". Based on the reviews I read, and what I know of the main author (R. Dunn), I would recommend it highly.

As for me, I am not using wxPython anymore as I work on a new program called "Crunchy". Crunchy is designed to deliver interactive tutorials within Firefox (the web browser). My goal is to eventually have Rur-ple's lessons delivered through Crunchy so that one will be able to both read and write a program on the same page. More information about Crunchy can be found at http://crunchy.sourceforge.net

Anonymous said...

hello. im new with python and have a problem with rurple.. working on windowsxp with python 2.4 and wx2.6 ,in robot world i just cant tipe anything.. keyboard is dead and the report says "key=event.KeyCode()
TypeError:`int`object is no callable"
got my kids all intrested in reeborg
(and myself i must admit) and got stuck in the first steps..
i hope you can help me somehow..
cheers,SvenStp

André Roberge said...

Sven:

Apparently (and I haven't had the opportunity to investigate fully) this is due to a change in wxPython since I last used it. I suggest you edit the file lightning.py and replace event.KeyCode() by
event.GetKeyCode()

I'm planning to do a final release very soon at which time I will download a newer version of wxPython and see for myself if this solves the problem. (It appears it does based on some email I received.)

Anonymous said...

Great program, if it works. It failed several times in the past (ubuntu Dapper), with a segmentation fault or illegal instruction but sometimes it did work. Now it fails continuously (with the already mentioned messages). I had the same issue with the slide as the other Ubuntu user.

I have this problems on my Laptop and Desktop with Ubuntu Dapper.
Another problem if it did work was a crash that freezes the computer. Only restarting the X server would help in this case. Sorry to have no better bugreport, it happened without warning signs.

BTW these problems also occured in the previous version.

Anonymous said...

Hello André,

I enjoy your RUR-ple program. It helps me enormously to get a better understanding of programming with Python.

I was wondering if you would have proper lessons on class and returns. As far as I can see you have outlines of these lessons. Is there any way to see the expanded versions?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Margita

André Roberge said...

Margita:

I've stopped, for now, working on lessons for rur-ple. I'm currently working on "crunchy" which is a program designed to deliver interactive tutorials inside a web browser (only Firefox works properly at the moment). My goal is to have crunchy be able to support simple animations of the kind needed for rur-ple and then simply move over the existing lessons into that new environment (no more need for wxPython).

Once this is done, I will most likely expand on the lessons. Writing tutorials to be used with crunchy is much easier than trying to do the same for rur-ple.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, André. Looking forward to it!

Margita

Anonymous said...

André,

Sorry, but can I clarify soemthing which I don't seem to be able to do?

I have a problem with executing the NOT statement:

if not next_to_a_beeper():
move()
else:
turn_off()

This doesn't work, whatever I try.
The program either tells me that I forgot to turn it off or it keeps moving past the beeper.

Can you, please, shed light on this?

Thanks,

Margit

André Roberge said...

Margita:

Please feel free to contact me directly by email. It might be easier to answer such questions.

Try the following:
put a beeper just in front of the robot.
Have it execute this program (spaces indicated by '.')

def move_until():
....while not next_to_a_beeper():
........move()
....turn_off()
move_until()

See if it behaves as you would expect.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand 1 thing. I was looking at wonderful a video tutorial about Rur-ple robot but I don't know how to download the GUI type screen to my Windows XP so I can use it. How do I do this? Thank you very much.

DB
Raleigh NC USA

André Roberge said...

dave bee:

Rur-ple is a program that makes use of a GUI library (wxPython) to teach programming in Python. To use it, you need:

1. To download Python from the www.python.org site. You can find the link to the download section on the left hand side. I suggest you get the 2.4.4 version.

2. You will then need to download wxPython (www.wxpython.org). I suggest you download a version earlier than 2.7, as there were some changes introduced that are currently incompatible with rur-ple (version 1.0RC).

Both of these will give you ".exe" files that will install things automatically for you.

Once you are done, go to
rur-ple.sourceforge.net
and click on the link that is identified as taking you to the download page. Then, click on the rurple1.0RC release. The file that will be downloaded is a ".zip" file which you will need to extract. Inside the folder created, double click on rur_start.py ... and you will be all set!