🌐 Mailman 3 January 2004 - Python-list - python.org

Building a Course Management System
by graham__fawcett＠hotmail.com Feb. 2, 2004

Feb. 2, 2004

My employer (University of Windsor, Canada) has given me the go-ahead to prototype a CMS (Course Management System, not Content Management), written in Python, to be released under an open-source license (choice of license is TBA). Course Management is a rather broad domain, covering content management, communications tools (e.g., announcements, mail, chat, discussion), assessment (quizzes, surveys, assignments, gradebook), activity tracking, etc. Ideally a good CMS will be portal-based, to aid in managing information- and work-flow. Open-source is finally making headways into the course-management domain, one that has been predominantly commercial for some time. There are a few open-source CMS initiatives out there: Moodle and LogiCampus (both of which are written in PHP) come to mind. We've played with the PHP projects, and though they have some fine features, they also have some drawbacks (PHP as a language choice being among them, but also a number of less-than-ideal design choices, IMO). Needless to say, I'm very excited at the prospect of designing and building such a prototype, and even more excited about the opportunity to open-source it. But for my employer's sake, I must be diligent and survey existing projects, and community interest in such a project. -- Are there other Python-based CMS (Course management systems) that I've overlooked? (Zope4Edu came to mind, but it's commerical, I think; at least, there's no public CVS that I can find.) -- Is there anyone out there who would like to collaborate on a new Python-based CMS? (We do have some specific requirements, and so I might be somewhat inflexible about early design decisions, but there is plenty of room at the party for other designers, programmers, artists and writers.) We're especially interested in partnerships with other academic institutions, though that's not a constraint. Although a formal timeline hasn't been set, I expect that the prototype will be about an eight-week project, starting some time within the next month. At the end of the project, we must produce a useable system with enough functionality to allow for experimentation and beta-testing. In the release-early-release-often spirit, I would hope to publish an early-alpha version within the first week or two of development. Some features will be specific to our needs, but I hope to keep it largely generic. (For those wondering why Python was specified, when little else has been formalized yet: simply put, I get to choose the tools for the prototype, and I choose Python. If I had twice as much time, I'd write it in Java.) I'd encourage any interested people to contact me by e-mail at <fawcett AT uwindsor DOT ca>. (I respect if no one gets excited over a vapourware announcement, but I'd love to have a list of people to contact when the alpha is out.) Regards, -- Graham <fawcett AT uwindsor DOT ca>

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QT usage confusion
by Guyon Mor�e Feb. 2, 2004

Feb. 2, 2004

hmmm, all this time that I am fooling around with python I never took a good look at (py)QT. I want to have a go at it, after being a bit disapointed about the alternatives. I have read multiple docs about it and searched this newsgroup I came to the conclusion that, as I am a windows user, I have only 2 options: - buy a commercial qt license - try it out for 30 days (!) that sucks ;) am I wrong? please tell me I'm wrong.

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RE: NetGetAnyDCName() - get PDC of a foreign WinNT-domain
by Tim Golden Feb. 1, 2004

Feb. 1, 2004

>-----Original Message----- >From: usenet(a)mail-2-me.com [mailto:usenet@mail-2-me.com] >Sent: 30 January 2004 12:45 >To: python-list(a)python.org >Subject: Re: NetGetAnyDCName() - get PDC of a foreign WinNT-domain > > >Tim Golden <tim.golden(a)viacom-outdoor.co.uk> wrote in message >news:<mailman.844.1075198899.12720.python-list(a)python.org>... >> [... snip my suggestion of pdc = win32net.NetGetAnyDCName (None, >> "name_of_other_domain") ...] >> >> >From: usenet(a)mail-2-me.com [mailto:usenet@mail-2-me.com] >> > >> >Thanks for your help, but that does not work. I get an error message >> >which sais it can't reach the domain. >> >But I'm sure did not make an syntax-error, because if I enter my own >> >domain it works. >> > >> >Any other idea? >> > >> >Dirk >> > >> > >> >> To ask the obvious question: do you definitely have all >> the necessary security / connectivity in place to reach >> the domain controller on that domain? > > >I can reach the other domains and I have all rights. That's no >the problem. > >Dirk Could you dump a cut-and-paste of the interpreter, so we can see what's happening? This is what I get, altho' as I say, I don't have another domain. Is yours the same? <dump> ActivePython 2.2.3 Build 227 (ActiveState Corp.) based on Python 2.2.3 (#42, Nov 13 2003, 09:57:55) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import win32net >>> win32net.NetGetAnyDCName () u'\\\\VOBDC1' >>> win32net.NetGetAnyDCName (None, "VOUK") u'\\\\VOBDC1' >>> win32net.NetGetAnyDCName (None, "non-existent") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? pywintypes.error: (1355, 'NetGetAnyDCName', 'The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.') >>> </dump> TJG ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

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Re: Running External Programs from Within Python
by Dirk Hagemann Feb. 1, 2004

Feb. 1, 2004

RayS wrote: > Hi Dirk, > >> That is very easy: popen() >> Check the FAQ and documentation again for popen. > > > That reminds me, I was asked if you can open a bi-directional pipe to > control an external console program on Windows. A guy has compiled > FORTRAN (~4,000 lines of 1980's spaghetti) and wants to add a modern GUI > and a front end method to check data. > Can you both send commands to, and read STDOUT from, a remote console app? > > Ray > > I'm not sure if I got the point, but, for example, with popen I can ping from the console a computer and read the result. But sending commands to a remote console is a problem which troubles myself in another context (I asked here yesterday). Dirk

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Problems embedding Python
by Psymaster Feb. 1, 2004

Feb. 1, 2004

I've tried running scripts from the embedded interpreter but it doesn't work. If I try the same scripts as strings to interpret it works. Here is my program: #include <stdio.h> #include "Python.h" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { FILE *script = fopen("c:/c.py", "r"); Py_Initialize(); PyRun_SimpleFile(script, "c.py"); Py_Finalize(); return 0; } c.py contains just a simple print statement. This compiles and links under MSVC 6 but when run crashes. Any help?

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pythonwin woes
by fwang2＠yahoo.com Feb. 1, 2004

Feb. 1, 2004

Hi, I am trying my hands on the latest verion of pythonwin extension with python 2.3.3 , and run into *semi-fatal* problem: the run command ignores the modifications I made to the source code, and *always* show me results given by that outdated source: it feels like it just use that cached .pyc!!! I wonder if the other pythonwin users had experienced the same problem, or did I miss anything here. There is no such problem in IDLE though. Thanks oliver

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quick question about IDLE
by Elaine Jackson Feb. 1, 2004

Feb. 1, 2004

I've noticed that the menu in IDLE sometimes has an item called "Shell" with a submenu that offers the opportunity to "Restart Shell". But at other times "Shell" isn't there. Can anybody clue me in about this? TIA. Peace

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Python vacancies at ReportLab, London
by Andy Robinson Jan. 31, 2004

Jan. 31, 2004

ReportLab develop enterprise reporting solutions using cutting-edge Python technology, and have a growing business with an excellent blue chip customer base. You may also know us from our open source PDF and graphics library.... We are looking for two positions with immediate effect: (1) Trainee I.T. consultants working in our solutions team Full time junior positions based in our London office. (2) Technical Writer / Marketeer / Evangelist A dual role maintaining documentation and writing articles, press releases and web content to promote the company. Either a junior full time position in our London office, or a remote part-time role for an experienced writer. Full details are at http://www.reportlab.com/careers.html Please use the vacancies address there; don't contact me directly. Best Regards, Andy Robinson CEO/Chief Architect ReportLab Europe Ltd. mobile +44-7976-355742 office +44-20-8544-8049

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win32com support
by Crawley Jan. 31, 2004

Jan. 31, 2004

Im trying to produce a small Visual Studio Addin. Taking the OutlookAddin example and changing the registry place it installs too, everything works ok. Examples in C++ show that in the OnConnection method I have to registry my commands and also pass an instance of my sub class of ICommands. The C code looks like this: IApplication* pApplication = NULL; pApp->QueryInterface(IID_IApplication, (void**) &pApplication) CCommandsObj::CreateInstance(&m_pCommands); m_pCommands->AddRef(); m_pCommands->SetApplicationObject(pApplication); pApplication->SetAddInInfo((long) AfxGetInstanceHandle(), (LPDISPATCH) m_pCommands, -1, -1, m_dwAddin)); So far Im trying something like this: self._command = VCCmd(application) application.SetAddInInfo(AfxGetInstanceHandle(), self._command, - 1, -1, addin ) with VCCmd defined like: class VCCmd: _com_interfaces_ = ['_ICommands'] _public_methods_ = [] _application = None def __init__( self, app ): self._application = app print "VCCmd __init__" Needless to say, its not working, so questions. 1) AfxGetInstanceHandle dosent appear to exist in the win32api... so how do I call it. 2) am I defining VCCmd correctly to be a subclass of ICommands 3) am I correct in thinking i dont have to explicitly 'cast' application into an IApplication instance Many thanks for any light you may be able to shed on the subject Rich

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Pack parent control in child using control.pack(in_= syntax?
by timj＠914fan.net Jan. 31, 2004

Jan. 31, 2004

I've a parent class the generates a menu as in: self.tm.menu = Menubutton(self.main, relief=RAISED, width=20, bd=0, bg='#ECECEC') ... I can then pack this menu (self.tm) into the current parent window/frame and it appears as expected. However, if I call another class - tool_panel(self) and then try to post the tm menu into a frame (tf) using pack(in_=tf, side=RIGHT, anchor=NE) - the menu takes up space, but doesn't appear. I can see this because when I pack the icon logo without the menu, the logo is centered in the new frame. With the menu included, the icon logo is shifted left. Thoughts or guidance will be greatly appreciated. Tim ------------ Here's my menu creation code in the parent class: self.tm = Menubutton(relief='raised', width=20, bd=0, bg='#ECECEC') self.tm.menu = Menu(self.tm, tearoff=0, title='Tool Option') self.tm['menu'] = self.tm.menu I set up the call to the tool_panel with a call: self.tool_panel = tool_panel(self) Here's the actual tool_panel that I wish to pack into (imported from another source file called panels.py with 'from panels import *'): class tool_panel(panel): def __init__(self, parent): panel.__init__(self, parent) tf = Frame(self.main) self.parent.tm.pack(in_=tf, side=RIGHT) self.logo = PhotoImage(data=images.icon) Label(tf, image=self.logo).pack(side=TOP) tf.pack(side=BOTTOM, fill=BOTH, expand=1) return def display(self): self.display0() return pass

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