[WikiFM] [Python-Berlin] WikiFM needs some Python love

[Dinu Gherman]

Hi Riccardo,

I don't think the Python-Berlin list is the right place for that discussion since it was conceived mostly for organizational issues and events, but I'll add one more response here, being also unsure about posting to the WikiFM list (and even more so about subscribing to one more list). I'd prefer follow-up conversation to be sent directly between us (but feel free to forward this anywhere) instead of on this list. If you want to reach more (German speaking) people, please consider the German mailing list: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-de

So, the PDF example you give is very impressive and perhaps close to a textbook, but I'm still not sure how many students today want to or are able to put that amount of energy into collecting and organizing their own material, not to speak of printing large volumes on paper. I feel like the trend in science is going more and more toward interactive material and if you look at the pages behind the following links I've compiled today for you must feel overwhelmed with confirmations. I'm not further commenting them here, but I'm sure you'll understand: 

http://www.nature.com/news/interactive-notebooks-sharing-the-code-1.16261
http://hplgit.github.io/doconce/doc/pub/slides/scientific_writing-1.html
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13208286/how-to-write-latex-in-ipython-notebook
https://www.authorea.com/users/3/articles/3904/
https://github.com/ipython/ipython/wiki/A-gallery-of-interesting-IPython-Notebooks
http://www.labri.fr/perso/nrougier/coding/article/article.html (see bottom paragraph)

Bottom-line is: LaTeX (and PDF) and Markdown and ReStructuredText (and HTML), and interactive graphics  can all live happily together in 2015 and the results are more than impressive, and it's being done already! I don't have the resources to help you implement something like this next to my job and family life (and haven't done it before), but I can point you to some things you might find useful, which is what I'm hopefully doing. Finally: I do think that if the WikiFM project description/concept would be more obviously along these lines you might find it easier to attract developers to your project.

I hope that helps, and, again, if you have further questions, feel free to ask me directly. And if you ever come to Berlin (you should), please give a presentation at our meetup every second Thursday of the month: http://www.meetup.com/Python-Users-Berlin-PUB/

Cheers,

Dinu


Am 07.05.2015 um 11:39 schrieb Riccardo Iaconelli:

> Hello,
> 
> let's continue this discussion! I would say this is a very interesting
> topic for the WikiFM mailing list (now in CC). I send this last e-mail
> including python-berlin to invite everyone interested in the
> discussion to please subscribe here:
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/wikifm
> 
> The PDF generation comes directly from my personal experience (and the
> one of the initial WikiFM team) of Physics student, where I would have
> to read and remember 200+ pages of math for every exam. For this,
> being able to print on paper the subjects was a real advantage - it is
> very hard to study by heart and jot small notes on a PC screen.
> 
> Reportlab is indeed the first backend that was used in production, and
> currently still is (even with some bugs), but is not always the right
> solution. When you are writing about purely mathematical subjects,
> unfortunately LaTeX is (as far as my knowledge goes) the only option
> on the table to support the complex typesetting needed. See for an
> example: http://www.wikifm.org/images/uploads/f/fe/Metodimat.pdf .
> This work was done by two of my classmates who simply decided to share
> with their colleagues their notes taken (by hand) in class. And this
> happened for many other subjects, too.
> 
> However, your suggestions are absolutely valid for other topics, and
> sometimes even better! If you are studying code, it is much less
> valuable to download and print out a PDF and it is much more
> interesting to have interactivity built in the web page!
> 
> For example, the initiative I was referring to is trying to produce
> material for scientifical computation training actively told me that
> they would be looking for a solution which would do something like
> this:
> 
> http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/algorithm/unique
> 
> and yes, Jupiter seems really suited for this!! I simply haven't had
> the time (and knowledge) to integrate it yet...
> 
> Since you seem to be very interested and knowledgeable on the topic,
> do you think you could help us to move this forward in any way? We are
> full of scientists but we really lack somebody with a strong
> background in this (hence the call for help). :)
> 
> Bye,
> -Riccardo