December 19, 2007
Needs a location
Fellow Snake Charmers,
First, we’d like to welcome all of the new members! The quality of this group is astounding – and it just gets better. Newbies, all of your contributions and questions are welcomed.
This month we will conduct a Design-Review session where one of our members presents a project they are working on. We will then explore 3 challenges presented by the project and asks for your thoughts and comments. The idea is that as a group we will explore the impact of design choices made during Python development – while identifying the strengths and weaknesses of other options.
This month we will focus on a gaming project called Mekanimo with Python Meet-up member Fahri Basegmez. Mekanimo uses Python and wxPython to create the gaming engine (middleware) and development environment that controls visual elements – including a real world physics engine! But I’ll quote Fahri below to explain more.
Mekanimo’s project goals include,
“Introducing science and technology to people, especially young ones, in a fun environment. It aims to be a powerful and entertaining learning environment for topics as diverse as introduction to computer programming, physics, feedback systems, robotics, mechanical linkages and mechanisms, etc.
Due to combination of smart objects, real time sound synthesis, programmability and provided libraries this tool can also be used to create games, puzzles, mechanical simulations, and multimedia presentations.
Since it seems to be everybody’s favorite subject I will be focusing on the game creation and introduction to programming aspects of the application during my introduction instead of more technical issues like mechanical simulations and robotics. “
The 3 technical aspects we will review are:
1 - Naming conventions: Not getting the in the developers way when building a development tool with Python and wxPython. At first glance this seems like a trivial problem but it is a big issue because of the underlying layers of Mekanimo and wxPython. Considering that this application will be programmed by its users, a consistent naming convention is a must.
2 - Smart objects: Event-Driven Programming with Python and wxPython. These are Mekanimo objects with user defined behaviors. wxPython already has a mechanism to bind events to objects. How do we mix Mekanimo objects with wxPython objects seamlessly?
3 - User interface and application layout details. We all know this is a killer. Looking at the same interface for a long time it is easy to miss sharp corners. So we’ll provide fresh eyes for Fahri and an outsiders’ perspective to spot the obvious problems.
We’ll try our best to get through all of these in one session, but if we go deep in one or another that would be fine too.
I hope you are all as intrigued by this session as I am. Spread the word!
As usual, drinks and pizza will be served – thanks for the donations they go to the cost of food and the use of Meetup.
Thanks!
Peter
Meetup link: https://www.meetup.com/bostonpython/events/6785407/