March 18, 2016

VPython with Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood

1 hour 3 minutes

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Summary

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to generate interactive 3D visualizations of physical systems in a declarative manner with Python? In this episode we spoke with Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood about the VPython project which does just that. They tell us about how the use VPython in their classrooms, how the project got started, and the work they have done to bring it into the browser.

Brief Introduction

Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.

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Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti

Today we are interviewing Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood about their work on VPython

Interview

Introductions

How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris

What is VPython and how did it get started? – Tobias

What problems inspired you to create VPython? – Chris

How do you design an API that allows for such powerful 3D visualization while still making it accessible to students who are focusing on learning new concepts in mathematics and physics so that they don’t get overwhelmed by the tool? – Tobias

I know many schools have embraced the open curriculum idea, have any of your physics courses using VPython been made available to the non matriculating public? – Chris

How does VPython perform its rendering? If you were to reimplement it would you do anything differently? – Tobias

One of the remarkable points about VPython is its ability to execute the simulations in a browser environment. Can you explain the technologies involved to make that work? – Tobias

Given the real-time rendering capabilities in VPython I’m sure that performance is a core concern for the project. What are some of the methods that are used to ensure an appropriate level of speed and does the cross-platform nature of the package pose any additional challenges? – Tobias

How does collision detection work in VPython, and does it handle more complex assemblies of component objects? – Chris

Can you talk a little bit about VPython’s design, and perhaps walk us through how a simple scene is rendered, say the results of the sphere() call? – Chris

Keep In Touch

VPython Forum

Glowscript Forum

Github

Picks

Tobias

Land of Lisp by Conrad Barsky M.D.

Chris

The Magicians

Swift

Atari Logo

Bruce

VPython.org

Glowscript.org

Ruth

matterandinteractions.org/student

NetLogo

Links

Coursera GATech Intro to Physics

Alice Project

glowscript.org

Jupyter VPython

RapydScript

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

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By Tobias Macey

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