[Visualpython-users] a Vpython "look alike" ... perhaps of interest esp to Mac users ???

[Gary P. <pa...@in...>]

The message below recently appeared on the Enthought listserv.
see http://www.enthought.com

An interesting development.  *Not ready for primetime* ... very alpha.
 But I wonder if it might be of interest to those working on the Mac.
I really have no idea if it has any bearing on a native Mac
application or not; someone will have to look into it.

It exists *only* in the Enthought Tool Suite (ETS) svn.  It is
reportedly slow at the moment. Prabhu hints that he won't be working
hard on this, and solicits help. In my experience, ETS builds easily
on Kubuntu and Windows (but I probably already have all the
prerequisites).  Fernando Perez is excited about it, and loves the way
it interfaces with Ipython.

Personally, I have some kind of video driver issue... it displays an
object then freezes.

FYI,
gary

PS, The Enthought Tool Suite is fabulous.  It is still under heavy
development, and each day two or three *dozen* files are updated in
svn, but it is usable.  Just about everyone, myself included, that has
taken a serious look at it ends up feeling that it will become the
standard platform for python scientific applications.  Documentation
is very weak.  Mailing list support is very strong.  The key feature
is TraitsUI which makes building a GUI very easy.

---------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

A student of mine, Raashid Baig, has developed a simple VPython-like
module called visual that mimics the visual API.  The module itself
can be used as:

 from enthought.tvtk.tools import visual

or in the visual style:

 from enthought.tvtk.tools.visual import *

The API is almost entirely the same as that of VPython but there are
some advanced features that do not work like:

 * handling 3D "click" events etc.

 * 3d sliders etc.  (this is best done via traitsUI so we punted on
 that)

There is also a slight difference in the way frames and axis work.
I've asked Raashid to document this on the wiki.  There are a few
examples that are also checked into tvtk/examples/visual.


Enjoy!
--
Prabhu Ramachandran                 http://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~prabhu