Kivy: Interactive Applications in Python

138 Pages·2013·1.526 MB·English

by  Rodriguez, Roberto Ulloa

Kivy: Interactive Applications
in Python
Create cross-platform UI/UX applications and games
in Python
Roberto Ulloa
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Kivy: Interactive Applications in Python
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
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First published: September 2013
Production Reference: 1190913
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-78328-159-6
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Cover Image by Aniket Sawant ([email protected])
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Roberto Ulloa Michelle Quadros
Reviewers Proofreader
Anai Arroyo B. Amy Johnson
Andrés Vargas González
Javier de la Rosa Indexer
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Hugo Solis
Graphics
Acquisition Editor
Ronak Dhruv
James Jones
Production Coordinator
Commissioning Editor
Nilesh R. Mohite
Sruthi Kutty
Cover Work
Technical Editors
Nilesh R. Mohite
Ruchita Bhansali
Gauri Dasgupta
Monica John
About the Author
Roberto Ulloa has a diverse academic record in multiple disciplines within the
field of Computer Science. He obtained an MSc from the University of Costa Rica
and also taught programming and computer networking there. He then spent two
years researching about cultural complexity at PhD level at the CulturePlex Lab of
the University of Western Ontario.
He loves travelling and enjoys an itinerant life, living among different cultures and
environments. He loves nature and has spent many months volunteering in Central
and South America.
He currently lives in Kuala Lumpur, earning a living as a web developer in
Python/Django and PHP/Wordpress. He constantly worries that the Internet has
already become aware of itself and we are not able to communicate with it because
of the improbability of it being able to speak Spanish or any of the 6,000 odd human
languages that exist in this world.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Su, for not hesitating one second in encouraging and trusting
my ability to write this book; for believing in me and motivating me with endless
cups of coffee.
Javier de la Rosa, with whom I worked on my first Kivy project—the one that gave
birth to the blog post that caught the attention of my publishers.
My technical reviewers, Anaí Arroyo, Javier de la Rosa, Hugo Solís and Andrés
Vargas for their time and corrections.
My supervisor, Gabriela Barrantes, who has been a constant source of support and
inspiration throughout my academic life.
My family and friends, for whom this book will be a surprise, and who've paid with
the time that I didn't have to share with them.
The editorial personnel, for their patience in answering my questions.
Celina, for risking her Android to test my codes for the first time; for her constant
motivation, support, and criticism even though I disagree that my Space Invaders
look like bunnies and, if so, I still think they are terrifying space bunnies.
About the Reviewers
Anaí Arroyo is a PMI certified Project Manager who loves software development
and is passionate about how technology can be used to improve the quality of
people's life and volunteering as a way to contribute to make a positive difference.
Over the last years, she has worked in the Education field, collaborating in the
design and development of Learning Management and Student Information
Management systems.
Andrés Vargas González is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Computer
Science through a Fulbright Fellowship at University of Central Florida (UCF). He
received a Bachelor's degree in the same field from Escuela Superior Politécnica del
Litoral (ESPOL) in Ecuador.
He is a member of the Interactive Systems and User Experience Lab at UCF.
His current research is on machine learning techniques to reduce the time on
gesture recognition in context. His previous works include enterprise multimedia
distribution and exploring usability of multi-touch interfaces in Information Systems,
which was tested on his DIY multi-touch surface. He is also interested in web
applications development. He implemented some e-commerce solutions as well as
Facebook applications in his home country and recently was working in the backend
of an educational data resource system in Florida, USA.
Besides his academic and professional interests, he enjoys hiking high elevations,
learning from different cultures, biking by the city, and finally, playing and
watching soccer.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my four mothers for the
values, love, and inspiration I got from them every moment of my
life. I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to Shivani Wala for
providing me an opportunity to be part of this great project. At the
same time my special thanks to Michelle Quadros for keeping me
updated with the deadlines and any doubt I had. Last but not least I
wish to avail myself of this opportunity, express a sense of gratitude
and love to my relatives, professors, and friends.
Javier de la Rosa is a full-stack Python developer since 2005, when he first met
the Django web framework. During his years in Yaco, one of the main FLOSS-based
companies in Spain, he leaded the Research and Development Team, participating
in both European and national projects. Late in 2009, he started to collaborate with
The CulturePlex Lab for Cultural Networks research, at the Western Unviersity in
Canada, in his sparse time. As a result, he left Yaco in 2010 and joined the laboratory
to lead and supervise technical and software developments. Today, he is still in
charge of the developers team as well as conducting his own research on Big Culture,
where he mixes his background as a BA and MA in Computer Sciences, Logics and
Artificial Intelligence by the University of Seville, and his recent acquired skills
as a 3rd year PhD student in Hispanic Studies at Western University in Canada.
Currently, he just started his 1st year as a PhD in Computer Sciences, focusing on
Graph Databases and Query Languages.
A regular collaborator of Open Source projects, he is the owner and main
developer of qbe (http://versae.github.io/qbe/) and neo4j-rest-client
(https://github.com/versae/neo4j-rest-client). In the academic field, he
is author of several articles, as well as one of the writers of the book Programming
Historian 2 (http://programminghistorian.org/). You can always contact him
on Twitter (@versae) or GitHub under the nickname versae.
Hugo Solis is an assistant professor in the Physics Department at University
of Costa Rica. His current research interests are computational cosmology,
complexity and the influence of hydrogen on material properties. He has wide
experience with languages including C/C++ and Python for scientific programming
and visualization. He is a member of the Free Software Foundation and he has
contributed code to some free software projects. Currently, he is in charge of the
IFT, a Costa Rican scientific non-profit organization for the multidisciplinary practice
of physics. (http://iftucr.org)
I'd like to thank Katty Sanchez, my beloved mother, for her support
and vanguard thoughts.
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