visualpython-users

Re: [Visualpython-users] Problem printing '%' with Text object

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Glad you like the new stuff!

I was aware that & doesn't display in labels on Windows, and I don't
yet know the cause. It does display on Mac and Linux.

The problem with % is a simple mistake, which none of my tests
happened to uncover. In shapes.py the statement

totlen += (vector(contour[j])-vector(contour[j+1])).mag

should read

totlen += (vis.vector(contour[j])-vis.vector(contour[j+1])).mag

You can make this change yourself, and of course it will be
incorporated in future versions. It seems likely that as people try
the new extrusion machinery (and the text object which now shares the
same machinery) they'll find bugs of this kind. I'll wait a little to
see what turns up and then release 5.51. Thanks for the clear report.

Bruce Sherwood

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Symion <kn...@ip...> wrote:
> First I would just like to congratulate Visual 5.50 developers.  Wow!
> Text and Extrusion are amazing!
>
> However there seems to be a problem displaying the "%" character with text
> object.
>
>
> from visual import *
> txt = text(text="%")
>
> Generates the following error!
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<pyshell#78>", line 1
>     txt = text(text="%")
>   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\primitives.py", line 687, in
> __init__
>     self.paintText()
>   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\primitives.py", line 715, in
> paintText
>     spacing=self.__spacing, vertical_spacing=self.__vertical_spacing)
>   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\shapes.py", line 854, in text
>     totlen = lenctr(contours[i])
>   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\shapes.py", line 844, in lenctr
>     totlen += (vector(contour[j])-vector(contour[j+1])).mag
> NameError: global name 'vector' is not defined
>
> Also...
>
> lab = label(text="&")
>
> The "&" character is unprintable.
> (I think I may have mentioned this for an earlier version of Visual.)
>
>
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[Visualpython-users] Problem printing '%' with Text object

[Symion <kn...@ip...>]

First I would just like to congratulate Visual 5.50 developers.  Wow!
Text and Extrusion are amazing!

However there seems to be a problem displaying the "%" character with 
text object.


from visual import *
txt = text(text="%")

Generates the following error!

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<pyshell#78>", line 1
     txt = text(text="%")
   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\primitives.py", line 687, in 
__init__
     self.paintText()
   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\primitives.py", line 715, in 
paintText
     spacing=self.__spacing, vertical_spacing=self.__vertical_spacing)
   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\shapes.py", line 854, in text
     totlen = lenctr(contours[i])
   File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\vis\shapes.py", line 844, in lenctr
     totlen += (vector(contour[j])-vector(contour[j+1])).mag
NameError: global name 'vector' is not defined

Also...

lab = label(text="&")

The "&" character is unprintable.
(I think I may have mentioned this for an earlier version of Visual.)

Re: [Visualpython-users] VPython 5.50: the extrusion object

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

It's true that support for 64-bit machines is relevant, not just on
Windows but also on Mac and Linux. VPython programs run nicely as
32-bit programs on Windows, so it's not an urgent problem. Perhaps
more of an issue is that people have had difficulties trying to build
VPython from source on 64-bit Linux.

But the really big scary menacing problem is the Mac. For important
reasons, VPython uses the Carbon framework on the Mac (for creating a
window and interacting with it). Carbon will not be available on
64-bit Macs, and Cocoa for major threading reasons poses a serious
implementation challenge. Whether Apple goes completely to 64 bits, or
Python becomes available for the Mac only as a 64-bit program, VPython
as a pure Mac program is dead unless someone can figure out how to run
it in the Cocoa environment. An out presumably is to retreat to what
used to be the case, that VPython would run only within the X11 world
on the Mac, not as a native-mode application. That's a problem,
because many Mac users were very uncomfortable with that approach when
we used it in the past.

As far as teaching goes, a 64-bit version is almost completely
irrelevant, given the relatively undemanding applications that are
typically encountered in courses, at least until you get to very
advanced classes. But those of us involved in the development of
VPython have always had the desire to support other kinds of usage,
especially research, and in fact there is a significant amount of use
of VPython in the research community.

Bruce Sherwood

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 8:36 PM, gary ruben <gar...@gm...> wrote:
> Another thing that's missing is support for 64 bit Windows. I'm not
> desperate for this myself as I'm currently not involved in teaching,
> but the fraction of 64 bit installations out there is only going to
> increase.
>
> Gary R.

Re: [Visualpython-users] VPython 5.50: the extrusion object

[gary r. <gr...@bi...>]

Another thing that's missing is support for 64 bit Windows. I'm not
desperate for this myself as I'm currently not involved in teaching,
but the fraction of 64 bit installations out there is only going to
increase.

Gary R.

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 2:00 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> What's missing is 3D constructive geometry for Python. Kadir
> Haldenbilen identified the excellent Polygon module which does
> constructive geometry for 2D contours, which led to the text and
> extrusion objects which we developed together. But I gather there
> isn't an equivalent 3D package. An example of an application that does
> offer constructive 3D geometry (for example, subtract a sphere from a
> cube) is Pov-ray, but that's not something that runs in real time.
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 7:35 PM, C Anthony Risinger <an...@ex...> wrote:
>> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>>> At vpython.org are installers for VPython 5.50 which include a
>>> powerful new "extrusion" object developed by Kadir Haldenbilen and me.
>>> The basic idea is that you prepare a 2D shape which you then extrude
>>> along a path that is like the pos attribute of a curve object:
>>>
>>>    extrusion(pos=...., shape=....)
>>>
>>> Libraries of common shapes and paths are provided (rectangle, circle,
>>> arc, star, etc.). Included are tools for creating complex gears, and
>>> shapes made from text.
>>
>> nice work, this is an incredibly useful addition.
>>
>> seems like you could almost crack out a full scale solid modeling app
>> using vpython at this point ...
>>
>> anyways great job; though i don't get to play with it as much as i'd
>> like currently, visual continuous to be one of my favorite projects.
>>
>> C Anthony
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen.
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>

Re: [Visualpython-users] Vpython in the classroom (retrospective)

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Thanks for sharing this, Kirby. I too particularly liked the "millions
and billions" image.

Bruce Sherwood

On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 3:06 PM, kirby urner <kir...@gm...> wrote:
> Lots of good VPython screen shots (actually photographs of screens) in
> this folder:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/sets/72157622961425831/with/4854210430/
>
> Venue:  Reed College, special summer camp for Saturday Academy
> students (pre college, many pre high school).
>
> Examples of student work (after tweaking provided code):
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4863299407/in/set-72157622961425831/
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4854215732/in/set-72157622961425831/
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4863914142/in/set-72157622961425831/
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4854215270/in/set-72157622961425831/
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4863297665/in/set-72157622961425831/
>  (a favorite)
>
> Their parents / guardians were impressed during the open house.  Some
> took video.
>
> Student average age was about 15.
>
> Here's the curriculum:
>
> http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/toc.html
>
> ... based on these background heuristics:
>
> http://wikieducator.org/Martian_Math
>
> Visual Python is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to 3D
> graphics for ordinary mortals.
>
> Kirby Urner
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE:
> Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen.
> Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle.
> Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] VPython 5.50: the extrusion object

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

What's missing is 3D constructive geometry for Python. Kadir
Haldenbilen identified the excellent Polygon module which does
constructive geometry for 2D contours, which led to the text and
extrusion objects which we developed together. But I gather there
isn't an equivalent 3D package. An example of an application that does
offer constructive 3D geometry (for example, subtract a sphere from a
cube) is Pov-ray, but that's not something that runs in real time.

Bruce Sherwood

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 7:35 PM, C Anthony Risinger <an...@ex...> wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
>> At vpython.org are installers for VPython 5.50 which include a
>> powerful new "extrusion" object developed by Kadir Haldenbilen and me.
>> The basic idea is that you prepare a 2D shape which you then extrude
>> along a path that is like the pos attribute of a curve object:
>>
>>    extrusion(pos=...., shape=....)
>>
>> Libraries of common shapes and paths are provided (rectangle, circle,
>> arc, star, etc.). Included are tools for creating complex gears, and
>> shapes made from text.
>
> nice work, this is an incredibly useful addition.
>
> seems like you could almost crack out a full scale solid modeling app
> using vpython at this point ...
>
> anyways great job; though i don't get to play with it as much as i'd
> like currently, visual continuous to be one of my favorite projects.
>
> C Anthony
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] VPython 5.50: the extrusion object

[C A. R. <an...@ex...>]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Bruce Sherwood <Bru...@nc...> wrote:
> At vpython.org are installers for VPython 5.50 which include a
> powerful new "extrusion" object developed by Kadir Haldenbilen and me.
> The basic idea is that you prepare a 2D shape which you then extrude
> along a path that is like the pos attribute of a curve object:
>
>    extrusion(pos=...., shape=....)
>
> Libraries of common shapes and paths are provided (rectangle, circle,
> arc, star, etc.). Included are tools for creating complex gears, and
> shapes made from text.

nice work, this is an incredibly useful addition.

seems like you could almost crack out a full scale solid modeling app
using vpython at this point ...

anyways great job; though i don't get to play with it as much as i'd
like currently, visual continuous to be one of my favorite projects.

C Anthony

[Visualpython-users] VPython 5.50: the extrusion object

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

At vpython.org are installers for VPython 5.50 which include a
powerful new "extrusion" object developed by Kadir Haldenbilen and me.
The basic idea is that you prepare a 2D shape which you then extrude
along a path that is like the pos attribute of a curve object:

    extrusion(pos=...., shape=....)

Libraries of common shapes and paths are provided (rectangle, circle,
arc, star, etc.). Included are tools for creating complex gears, and
shapes made from text.

The 2D shape can be prepared using "constructive geometry" supported
by the Polygon module (which is imported by VPython and included with
the Windows and Mac installers). Polygon objects consist of closed
contours (lists of points in the xy plane), and these objects can be
combined. For example, if R is a Polygon object representing a
rectangle, and C is a Polygon object representing a circle that lies
within the boundary of the rectangle, then R-C is a 2D shape
consisting of a rectangle with a hole in it, which can be extruded
along a path by using the extrusion object. If the circle lies partly
outside the rectangle, R-C is a rectangle with a portion of a circle
cut out of the edge.

The implementation of the extrusion object is quite fast and
efficient, so that not only is it easy to create quite complex
objects, but it is also feasible to make the object change dynamically
by altering the path, the scale factors along the path, the amount of
twist along the path, or even the extruded shape.

After installing VPython 5.50, you are encouraged to run the new
example program

      extrusion_overview.py

which is an interactive tutorial on the extrusion object and also an
interesting demonstration of the tutorial possibilities of VPython.

Kadir Haldenbilen has contributed new example programs
electric_motor.py (the program which produced the attached image),
differential_gear.py, conch.py, medusa.py, and extruded_columns.py
that illustrate some uses of the new extrusion object. He has also
contributed some useful new materials: shiny, chrome, blazed, silver,
bricks, ice, glass, and BlueMarble (earth with clouds), and the
example program material_test.py has been revised to display all the
materials now available.

The text object now uses the extrusion object for its display, but the
extrusion object does not make the text object obsolete, because the
text object emphasizes text-related information such as line widths,
etc. The shapes.text() routine supplies the necessary information to
the text object, and this additional information can be used by you
should you wish to do so.

The curve object has been updated to permit using paths obtained from
the new paths library.

For the benefit of Linux users who might not have installed the
Polygon, FontTools, and ttfquery modules that are needed by the 3D
text object and by the new extrusion object, the imports have been
rearranged in such a way that if you don’t have the necessary modules
installed you can still run VPython, but without being able to use
text and extrusion objects.

A long-standing bug has been fixed in keyboard handling on the Mac, in
which each keypress generated two events, the first one correct and
the second one garbage.
The tutorial program extrusion_overview.py made it clear that the
default font height of 13 of label text was not actually consistent
across Windows, Mac, and Linux. The text has been adjusted so that
labels look quite similar on all platforms.

Bruce Sherwood

[Visualpython-users] Vpython in the classroom (retrospective)

[kirby u. <kir...@gm...>]

Lots of good VPython screen shots (actually photographs of screens) in
this folder:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/sets/72157622961425831/with/4854210430/

Venue:  Reed College, special summer camp for Saturday Academy
students (pre college, many pre high school).

Examples of student work (after tweaking provided code):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4863299407/in/set-72157622961425831/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4854215732/in/set-72157622961425831/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4863914142/in/set-72157622961425831/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4854215270/in/set-72157622961425831/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4863297665/in/set-72157622961425831/
 (a favorite)

Their parents / guardians were impressed during the open house.  Some
took video.

Student average age was about 15.

Here's the curriculum:

http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/toc.html

... based on these background heuristics:

http://wikieducator.org/Martian_Math

Visual Python is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to 3D
graphics for ordinary mortals.

Kirby Urner

Re: [Visualpython-users] gcurve question

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

In the contributed section of vpython.org there is this:

graph-mouse.py lets you explore details of a graph by dragging the mouse

I'd like to see this kind of interactivity in the regular graph
module, and I may implement something (I wrote graph.py). Presumably
it would have to work like the controls module, that you would have to
call the graph module repeatedly to let it look for events.

Bruce Sherwood

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 4:24 AM, Dan Aldrich <dal...@ea...> wrote:
> The online documentation mentions that you can highlight a point on a
> gcurve using dot=True. I'd like to let the user select a point on a
> curve either with the mouse or a slider. Anyone have a code snippet
> that shows how to do that?
>
> Thanks,
> -d
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE:
> Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen.
> Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle.
> Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb
> _______________________________________________
> Visualpython-users mailing list
> Vis...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/visualpython-users
>

[Visualpython-users] gcurve question

[Dan A. <dal...@ea...>]

The online documentation mentions that you can highlight a point on a 
gcurve using dot=True. I'd like to let the user select a point on a 
curve either with the mouse or a slider. Anyone have a code snippet 
that shows how to do that?

Thanks,
-d

Re: [Visualpython-users] lighting: luminosity decay with distance?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

The short(est) answer is that not every desirable thing that could be
useful has been implemented yet, due to time being finite.

The slightly longer answer is that a few years ago Jonathan Brandmeyer
made a stab at implementing intensity variation for local lights, but
the API was overly technical and the effort was abandoned in the midst
of far-reaching restructuring that led to Version 5.

The deepest answer is that VPython is open source, so if you feel a
strong need for correct intensity variation (1/r^2, not 1/r^3),
consider implementing this and proposing your changes as a possible
enhancement.

Bruce Sherwood

P.S. I'll mention as an aside that the CVS repositories at
sourceforge.net, where the source for VPython is housed, have been
unavailable for some days. There was an attack on sourceforge and the
sourceforge team is working hard to make sure that none of these
repositories were corrupted.

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 8:11 PM, Marcos <sta...@gm...> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm rather new to VPython, using V5 w/Python3.1 and just wondering why
> I'm not seeing luminosity decay when I move a simple sphere away from
> a (local) light source.   It does nicely with reflectance across the
> curved surface (decaying as the angle gets towards the tangent), but
> nothing seems to decay as it goes farther from the light source.
> Physics says it should decay at a factor r^3 (imagining photon
> emission at a constant rate, it should strike farther distances with
> less probability).  If implemented, the perceptual depth-cueuing to
> the brain would be MUCH more effective than the (currently simple)
> size adjustment.   But perhaps I'm just not perceiving it.(?)
>
> Am I stuck with manually decreasing the (gray-scale) color of the
> sphere as the objects moves away from the light source??
>
> Cheers and such an easy-to-use package!
>
> marcos

[Visualpython-users] lighting: luminosity decay with distance?

[Marcos <sta...@gm...>]

Hello,

I'm rather new to VPython, using V5 w/Python3.1 and just wondering why
I'm not seeing luminosity decay when I move a simple sphere away from
a (local) light source.   It does nicely with reflectance across the
curved surface (decaying as the angle gets towards the tangent), but
nothing seems to decay as it goes farther from the light source.
Physics says it should decay at a factor r^3 (imagining photon
emission at a constant rate, it should strike farther distances with
less probability).  If implemented, the perceptual depth-cueuing to
the brain would be MUCH more effective than the (currently simple)
size adjustment.   But perhaps I'm just not perceiving it.(?)

Am I stuck with manually decreasing the (gray-scale) color of the
sphere as the objects moves away from the light source??

Cheers and such an easy-to-use package!

marcos

Re: [Visualpython-users] Building vpython 5.4 in Ubuntu 10.10

[Patrick S. <pat...@gm...>]

Just an update in case anybody having the same problem as me comes
across this.  I have found that visual works fine for me in Ubuntu 9.10
and earlier.  I also compiled the 9.10 version of the python-visual
package (available here:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/source/karmic/python-visual ) in 10.10, but
got the same error.  So it seems that the problem is definitely not with
visual itself, but may be related to the intel video drivers (my
computer has an integrated intel graphics chip).  I also tested this on
my macbook (which has an integrated intel graphics chip as well) and got
the same resutls:  visual works fine in Ubuntu 9.10, but gives the
"exceeded max instructions" error in 10.10.  On another computer with an
nvidia graphics card, visual works in 10.10 with no errors, so I'm
assuming this may be a problem for computers with intel graphics cards
in general.  

As you said, it seems like it would be hard to track down exactly what
is causing the error, especially since I haven't seen any other problems
with the video besides the error when trying to run visual.  For now,
the best solution for people with intel graphics cards is probably to
just downgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 (this is fine for me since I don't
specifically need any features of 10.04 or newer).  



On Sat, 2011-01-15 at 13:03 -0700, Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> For what it's worth, Visual works fine for many people on Ubuntu
> 10.10, both the package python-visual and building from source. Thanks
> for the link to a bug report. This is very puzzling and frustrating,
> and I don't see how to get at the problem, which presumably is
> hardware-related, and/or an issue with particular graphics drivers.
> 
> Bruce Sherwood
> 
> On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Patrick Shea
> <pat...@gm...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Never mind, I tried compiling again, this time doing it from the source
> > directory rather than creating a new directory, and I got it to work and
> > install properly.  I also had to install the Polygon, fonttools, and
> > ttfquery modules to get visual to load (I missed that part in the
> > INSTALL.txt instructions last time).
> >
> > Unfortunately I still have the same problem with the version I compiled
> > as I was having with the python-visual package from ubuntu's
> > repositories.  When I open a vpython window by doing say:
> > import visual
> > visual.sphere()
> > I get the error message:
> >
> > i915_program_error: Exceeded max instructions (318 out of 123)
> >
> > and vpython runs extremely slow (interacting with the mouse takes 5-10
> > seconds to respond).  3D graphics seem to work very well otherwise on
> > the computer, so I thought it might have been a problem with ubuntu's
> > version of visual python, but I guess it must be something else.  After
> > googling, I found some people with the same problem:
> > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=598896
> > but nobody seems to have found a solution.
> >
> > On Sat, 2011-01-15 at 12:16 -0400, Patrick Shea wrote:
> >> Thanks for your reply!  Unfortunately, for me running sudo make install
> >> just copies the cvisualmodule.so file
> >> to ../visual-5.4_release/site-packages/visual/cvisualmodule.so.  Here's
> >> what I did in detail:
> >>
> >> 1. Make a directory on the same level as the source directory, and copy
> >> visual-5.4_release/src/gtk2/makefile into it. (I also had to edit a
> >> couple of things in the makefile: I changed the name of the source
> >> directory to visual-5.4_release from vpython-core2, and changed the
> >> -lboost_python-mt flags to -lboost_python-mt-py26, since that's how the
> >> libraries are named in Ubuntu)
> >>
> >> 2. I ran configure from the newly created directory with the makefile in
> >> it, with the --prefix=/usr argument.
> >>
> >> 3. Ran make from the same directory
> >>
> >> 4.  Then when I run sudo make install, it just says
> >> cp cvisualmodule.so ../visual-5.4_release/site-packages/visual,
> >> and nothing gets copied into /usr/lib/python2.6
> >>
> >> Thanks for your help,
> >> Patrick
> >>
> >> On Fri, 2011-01-14 at 23:29 -0700, Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> >> > You need to execute "sudo make install" to move the various components
> >> > into the right places. For cleanliness, it would be a good idea first
> >> > to remove the Visual stuff from site-packages.
> >> >
> >> > Also, because site-packages is no longer (alas) on the Ubuntu Python
> >> > module search path, you need to follow these instructions in
> >> > INSTALL.txt:
> >> >
> >> >        You will also need to copy vpython-core2/src/gtk2/site-packages.pth to
> >> >        /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages to put /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages
> >> >        on the Python search path.
> >> >
> >> > You will have to adjust the contents of site-packages.pth text file if
> >> > you are installing to /usr/lib rather than /usr/local.
> >> >
> >> > Hope this helps!
> >> >
> >> > Bruce Sherwood
> >> >
> >> > On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 8:27 PM, Patrick Shea
> >> > <pat...@gm...> wrote:
> >> > > I tried building visual python 5.4 following the directions in the
> >> > > INSTALL.txt file.  I made a directory at the same level as the
> >> > > "visual-5.4_release" source directory and ran configure and make.
> >> > > Everything seems to work fine, and the cvisualmodule.so file is
> >> > > generated.
> >> > >
> >> > > The only thing I'm confused about is that running "make install" just
> >> > > copies the cvisualmodule.so file back into the visual-5.4_release
> >> > > directory.  I'm just not sure which files I am supposed to move where to
> >> > > be able to use vpython.  I tried just copying the whole
> >> > > "visual-5.5_release/site-packages" directory into
> >> > > "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages" (making sure it was in python's
> >> > > search path), but I'm not able to load visual.  Doing "import visual"
> >> > > gives the error:
> >> > >
> >> > > ImportError: cannot import name cvisual
> >> > >
> >> > > cvisualmodule.so is in the /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/visual
> >> > > directory, but it apparently can't be imported.  If anyone can help me
> >> > > figure out what's wrong I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >
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> >> > malware threats, the impact they can have on your business, and how you
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> >> > Vis...@li...
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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> > Protect Your Site and Customers from Malware Attacks
> > Learn about various malware tactics and how to avoid them. Understand
> > malware threats, the impact they can have on your business, and how you
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> Learn about various malware tactics and how to avoid them. Understand 
> malware threats, the impact they can have on your business, and how you 
> can protect your company and customers by using code signing.
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Re: [Visualpython-users] Multiple windows into a scene (again)

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

It is still the case that there is no way to do this other than making
the same objects in different windows, or copying them to different
windows.

But it remains a good idea for VPython to support multiple views on
the same objects.

Bruce Sherwood

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 7:18 AM, Aaron Mavrinac <mav...@gm...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> A project I'm working on calls for multiple windows into a scene.
>
> The best approach I have thought of is to wrap all my code such that
> any operations creating or modifying objects are replicated across all
> the windows. Searching for possible alternatives and/or hidden
> features uncovered the following thread from March 2008:
>
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=courier.47E2A132.00003AA6%40averell&forum_name=visualpython-users
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=47E7E0A5.3040006%40ncsu.edu&forum_name=visualpython-users
>
> Has the situation changed at all since then? If not, is there any
> better way to do this?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Aaron Mavrinac
> www.mavrinac.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Special Offer-- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE (a $49 USD value)!
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>

[Visualpython-users] Multiple windows into a scene (again)

[Aaron M. <mav...@gm...>]

Hi,

A project I'm working on calls for multiple windows into a scene.

The best approach I have thought of is to wrap all my code such that
any operations creating or modifying objects are replicated across all
the windows. Searching for possible alternatives and/or hidden
features uncovered the following thread from March 2008:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=courier.47E2A132.00003AA6%40averell&forum_name=visualpython-users
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=47E7E0A5.3040006%40ncsu.edu&forum_name=visualpython-users

Has the situation changed at all since then? If not, is there any
better way to do this?

Thanks!

-- 
Aaron Mavrinac
www.mavrinac.com

Re: [Visualpython-users] I could use some help with python-visual package on Ubuntu 10.10

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Usually what this kind of problem indicates is the need to update the
graphics driver.

Bruce Sherwood

On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 5:11 AM, Shaun Campbell (RIT Student)
<st...@ri...> wrote:
> Hi,
> I've installed the python-visual package on Ubuntu 10.10 (pretty much fresh
> install, all updated). Everything works fine (no errors, zooming, rotating,
> etc.), except that objects are just black and 2D "holes". Sometimes the
> whole windows is just black (I've set the scene background to white to
> verify that there are actually objects), but I can still see output from
> some of the examples in the terminal window. I thought that this happened
> for every object, but it turns out that some things do render fine (i.e
> randombox.py works, except for the outer wireframe box that the others are
> rendered in, gyro.py I can see for a sec and then everything goes black). It
> seems really intermittent, but I would like to know some places to start to
> debug whats going on, as of right now I am not getting any error output. I
> would appreciate any help or suggestions of where to look.
> Ubuntu 10.10
> Lenovo X201
> python-visual_1%3a5.12-1.1_amd64.deb
> I have tried to install from source, but I couldn't get it up and running. I
> figured that this is working, minus the rendering issues, so it would be
> quicker to troubleshoot this.
> Thanks,
> Shaun
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Special Offer-- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE (a $49 USD value)!
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>
>

[Visualpython-users] I could use some help with python-visual package on Ubuntu 10.10

[Shaun C. (R. Student) <st...@ri...>]

Hi,

I've installed the python-visual package on Ubuntu 10.10 (pretty much fresh
install, all updated). Everything works fine (no errors, zooming, rotating,
etc.), except that objects are just black and 2D "holes". Sometimes the
whole windows is just black (I've set the scene background to white to
verify that there are actually objects), but I can still see output from
some of the examples in the terminal window. I thought that this happened
for every object, but it turns out that some things do render fine (i.e
randombox.py works, except for the outer wireframe box that the others are
rendered in, gyro.py I can see for a sec and then everything goes black). It
seems really intermittent, but I would like to know some places to start to
debug whats going on, as of right now I am not getting any error output. I
would appreciate any help or suggestions of where to look.

Ubuntu 10.10
Lenovo X201
python-visual_1%3a5.12-1.1_amd64.deb

I have tried to install from source, but I couldn't get it up and running. I
figured that this is working, minus the rendering issues, so it would be
quicker to troubleshoot this.

Thanks,

Shaun

Re: [Visualpython-users] ImportError: No module named Polygon

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

The problem is that the Polygon module for Python isn't installed.
That's one of the dependencies. As it says in INSTALL.txt, "For Visual
5.3 and later, you need the Python modules FontTools, ttfquery, and
Polygon. Be sure to get ttfquery 1.0.4 or later."

However, the only object affected by the absence of the Polygon (and
FontTools and ttfquery modules) is the 3D text object, so if you don't
need to use the text object, and you don't want to go to the trouble
of satisfying the dependencies, you could comment out the imports of
these modules in visual/visual_all.py, vis/__init__.py, and
vis/primitives.py. In fact, I'm working on a new version of Visual
which will among other things in the absence of these modules give a
warning that you can't use the text object but you can do everything
else.

Bruce Sherwood

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 6:19 PM, Vineyard, Michael F.
<vin...@un...> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm trying to get VPython running on my 64-bit fedora 14 machine. It seems to build OK, but when I try to run a program I get the following error:
>
> ImportError: No module named Polygon
>
> Does anyone have an idea what the problem is here?
>
> Mike
>
> --
> Michael F. Vineyard
> Frank & Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics
> Department of Physics & Astronomy
> Union College
> Schenectady, NY 12308
> Email: vin...@un...
> Web: http://www1.union.edu/vineyarm
> Phone: (518) 388-8353
> Fax: (518) 388-6947
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>

[Visualpython-users] ImportError: No module named Polygon

[Vineyard, M. F. <vin...@un...>]

Greetings,

I'm trying to get VPython running on my 64-bit fedora 14 machine. It seems to build OK, but when I try to run a program I get the following error:

ImportError: No module named Polygon

Does anyone have an idea what the problem is here?

Mike

--
Michael F. Vineyard
Frank & Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308
Email: vin...@un...
Web: http://www1.union.edu/vineyarm
Phone: (518) 388-8353
Fax: (518) 388-6947

Re: [Visualpython-users] Building 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

To build an X11 version of VPython, a reasonable place to start is the
tar ball available on the Linux download page at vpython.org.
Alternatively, go to the VPython project at sourceforge.net, where the
relevant CVS branch is vpython-core2.

The file INSTALL.txt has detailed information about building on Linux,
but much of this is relevant for Unix as well. Also see the file
MAC-OSX.txt, which starts out talking about building on Carbon, but
there is a later section labeled "Obsolete" which describes building
in the Fink environment. Martin Costabel has continued to build
VPython for Fink and can advise as to what in the "Obsolete" material
is truly obsolete.

It is certainly desirable to have an X11 version of VPython on the
Mac, because it will satisfy the needs of many users, and it's great
that Martin has maintained such a version. However, the reason why the
Carbon version came into being was that many Mac users were vocally
very unhappy about VPython running in a way that did not have the look
and feel they expected. Moreover, many nonexpert users were put off by
having to install and use Fink before they could install VPython (this
problem was eventually addressed by extracting from Fink just the
libraries needed by VPython and bundling them into the VPython
installer). Remember in this context that VPython is deliberately
positioned to be easy to use not only by programming experts but also
by users who may not be programming experts, and for whom the Unix
environment can feel exceptionally daunting.

No, I didn't know about Stackoverflow.com; thanks for the tip. A
couple years ago I did interact on the Cocoa and Carbon mailing lists
about the issue. An amusing interaction occurred on the Cocoa list. I
attempted to explain the problem (it has to do with who can be the
main thread) and was yelled at for being stupid, followed by a more
knowledgeable person saying, "No, there really is a major problem.
Basically the same problem made it extremely difficult to get Java to
work with Cocoa." It's really sad that Apple is eliminating Carbon, as
its architecture is more similar to architectures on other platforms,
which makes it much more feasible to port from other platforms.

Bruce Sherwood

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 5:29 PM, Daniel <boy...@gm...> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> So let me get this correct, 64-bit vpython is possible using X11? This is fine for all my (and probably everyone's purposes -- it just a window right?), it doesn't have to be Cocoa. So then:
>
> * Is there a tutorial on how to build 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS? i.e. list of dependencies, useful CFLAGS etc?
>
> >From there is sounds easy to include vpython in homebrew.
>
>> The demise of Carbon
>> has had me very worried, as no one seems to know how to make VPython
>> work within a Cocoa environment.
>
> Bruce, have you thought about asking this on Stackoverflow.com?
>
> Best,
>
> Dan

Re: [Visualpython-users] Building 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS?

[Daniel <boy...@gm...>]

Hi folks,

So let me get this correct, 64-bit vpython is possible using X11? This is fine for all my (and probably everyone's purposes -- it just a window right?), it doesn't have to be Cocoa. So then:

* Is there a tutorial on how to build 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS? i.e. list of dependencies, useful CFLAGS etc?

From there is sounds easy to include vpython in homebrew.

> The demise of Carbon
> has had me very worried, as no one seems to know how to make VPython
> work within a Cocoa environment.

Bruce, have you thought about asking this on Stackoverflow.com?

Best,

Dan

Re: [Visualpython-users] Building 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Ah. Of course. I made the corresponding mistake of forgetting that in
the Fink environment the demise of Carbon isn't a problem. In fact,
Fink may in the future again be the basis for VPython if no one
figures out how to make a Cocoa-based VPython. The problem with that
is that many Mac users very much want the standard Mac look and feel,
as was made clear when the only Mac version was based on X11.

Bruce Sherwood

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Martin Costabel <cos...@wa...> wrote:
> Bruce,
>
> you are right; I keep forgetting that Fink's vpython uses X11 graphics. For
> aqua graphics, the non-existence of some parts of Carbon for 64bit is indeed
> a serious obstacle.
>
> Martin
>
> On 24/01/11 17:21 , Bruce Sherwood wrote:
>>
>> Martin, that's very good news, but puzzling. I thought that there was
>> no support for Carbon within Mac 64-bit programs? The demise of Carbon
>> has had me very worried, as no one seems to know how to make VPython
>> work within a Cocoa environment.
>>
>> Bruce Sherwood
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 5:11 AM, Martin Costabel<cos...@wa...>
>>  wrote:
>>>
>>> On 24/01/11 11:17 , Daniel Farrell wrote:
>>> []
>>>>
>>>> * Is there a fundamentally reason for sticking to 32-bit (e.g.
>>>> dependency difficulties?)
>>>
>>> I can't answer your other questions, but this one I can: There is no
>>> such reason. Fink (an older "community driven package manager for
>>> MacOS") has vpython version 5.40 (package visual-py27) that builds OK in
>>> the 64bit tree.
>>>
>

Re: [Visualpython-users] Building 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS?

[Martin C. <cos...@wa...>]

Bruce,

you are right; I keep forgetting that Fink's vpython uses X11 graphics. 
For aqua graphics, the non-existence of some parts of Carbon for 64bit 
is indeed a serious obstacle.

Martin

On 24/01/11 17:21 , Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> Martin, that's very good news, but puzzling. I thought that there was
> no support for Carbon within Mac 64-bit programs? The demise of Carbon
> has had me very worried, as no one seems to know how to make VPython
> work within a Cocoa environment.
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 5:11 AM, Martin Costabel<cos...@wa...>  wrote:
>> On 24/01/11 11:17 , Daniel Farrell wrote:
>> []
>>> * Is there a fundamentally reason for sticking to 32-bit (e.g.
>>> dependency difficulties?)
>>
>> I can't answer your other questions, but this one I can: There is no
>> such reason. Fink (an older "community driven package manager for
>> MacOS") has vpython version 5.40 (package visual-py27) that builds OK in
>> the 64bit tree.
>>

Re: [Visualpython-users] Building 32-bit/64-bit vpython on MacOS?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Martin, that's very good news, but puzzling. I thought that there was
no support for Carbon within Mac 64-bit programs? The demise of Carbon
has had me very worried, as no one seems to know how to make VPython
work within a Cocoa environment.

Bruce Sherwood

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 5:11 AM, Martin Costabel <cos...@wa...> wrote:
> On 24/01/11 11:17 , Daniel Farrell wrote:
> []
>> * Is there a fundamentally reason for sticking to 32-bit (e.g.
>> dependency difficulties?)
>
> I can't answer your other questions, but this one I can: There is no
> such reason. Fink (an older "community driven package manager for
> MacOS") has vpython version 5.40 (package visual-py27) that builds OK in
> the 64bit tree.
>
> --
> Martin
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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