notes-1.txt

% python course - spring - class 1 talking points

Announcements

Course web page - whole schedule is there now

Tonight (as all nights) 1 hour lecture/demo, 
then Brian and/or I circulate to discuss projects
~ 15 min/student (each student in a group)
Then ~20 minute summary to the class at the end
Have something prepared to discuss with us.


Lecture

Django-style web application is just one style: "CMS style"
- server has database, a bunch of documents, ...
- server creates and sends each web page, client (browser) just renders it

Alternate "API style"
- server does a *computation*
- server just sends data, not pages
- client (browser + software) creates, updates pages
- UI is in the client
- client software updates page with new data without reloading: "Ajax"

Example API-style web application - intro by JJ
- Physics simulation by JJ, JC to experiment with techniques
- Server is a Python CGI program that gets data from a form,
 computes time series from the data, returns as JSON data
- Client shows time series in a couple of different formats
 - bar graph of events
 - line graph of polarization
 - frame-by-frame animation - animation by switching between images

Demo example - Javascript, Ajax, canvas, etc. explanation by Jon Crump

Server needn't send HTML.  Can also send:
  - JSON
  - SVG
  - WebGL
  - ...

Browser + server can provide the user interface even for applications
expected to run locally --- then optional use via the web is a bonus.

Projects

Suggested lab activity: start a repo on github (or your choice) with
project description in README

Consider: do you want to make your project public?

Groups?  More than one project?


Wrap up

List of projects, 

Common themes and issues?