On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 12:05:34AM -0400, Marianne Corvellec wrote: > On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 10:53 PM, W. Trevor King <[email protected]> wrote: > > “Learn how to use R and join the open-statistics revolution. We'll > > go over enough Excel so we can extract your data, and then talk > > about regressions and plots while introducing you to modular, > > test-backed, version-controlled development.” > > I really like this pitch! :)
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that this sort of thing should be our One True Pitch. But it seems like the student thought they were signing up for: “Pick up some software-development tips from professional Excel users! Learn how to automatically test and version your VBA macros. We'll also introduce you to R, and show you how to use it's wealth of statistical analysis packages to mine your Excel data.” I'm not sure how versioning/testing Excel macros works, but I assume it's possible ;). Anyway, my point is just that it helps to be clear at signup time exactly what the students are signing up for. “Spend two days picking the brains of several developers and scientists whose use Python, R, Make, Bash, and Git to automate their workflows. Automate your experiments and analysis, so you can collect data consistently and analyze it efficiently. Never used (or even heard of) these tools before? Don't worry! Just work through our software installation steps [link to setup] and show up ready to dig in. We'll demo our workflow, and then split up into small groups and walk you through the parts *you* think are most interesting. Along the way we'll emphasise modular programming, testing, and version control so you can be confident your results are robust, accurate, and reproducible.” > As an attendee, really that was the main take-away for me: > *thinking* in terms of a pipeline, breaking things down, and *doing* > it with modularization and automation. +1. And learning that version control is possible; I struggled with keeping track of my own work through my first four years of grad school before I stumbled across Git. I would have been all over a “show me your tools” workshop ;). Cheers, Trevor -- This email may be signed or encrypted with GnuPG (http://www.gnupg.org). For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
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