Week 1-ish: The Newb at Work

Welcome! 

This is the official blog space for Itamar Gal and Michelle Lawrence's 2014 research project. Here you will find a detailed description of our attempt to:

1. Develop self-contained learning modules using the Python SymPy package
2. Integrate Python/SymPy with a CMS (Canvas in this case) via LTI

I, Michelle, will be logging our weekly progress in a step-by-step format both for my record-keeping benefit and as an open-source tool for anyone wanting to try something similar.  Some of these steps may seem embarrassingly straightforward to those more experienced coders and researchers, but I'm still a newb, so bear with me. 

Week 1: 

Our first steps involved acquiring the proper development tools. Using Homebrew we installed the following: 

1. SymPy
2. Canvas which involved:
1. Installing RVM to run the required version of Ruby (1.9.3)
2. Xcode development tools
3. Postgres and the xmlsec library - just using the command line:

$ brew install xmlsec1 postgresql

We ran into a few problems during install. For instance, the proper RVM wouldn't install before Xcode was on the system completely. If you download Xcode via the terminal, make sure to launch it once to complete the install process. Once it has been launched, go into its Preferences, select the Downloads tab, and click "Install" next to the Command Line Tools package. Otherwise, the proper RVM cannot finish installing, a solution I found here.

I'm still having some additional errors downloading Postgres, which are still being parsed. Often the easiest way to find a solution to an error or bug is simply to Google it. 

Goals for the upcoming week:

1. Finish installing tools
2. Begin writing Python functions to:
1. Check roots of a polynomial
2. Ensure user input of roots is in factored form
3. Check if polynomial is factor of another polynomial
4. Generally process input --> get a polynomial from String, etc.

Stay tuned!