On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 3:21 PM, Steve Haddock <[email protected]> wrote: > To further digress, What can I say to my old-school collaborator who insists > on teaching his students PERL, de novo? He claims not to like Python's > cryptic error reporting. (I agree but there is so much to offset this.) I > have tried everything including translating his code to Python to show how > much cleaner it is.
Print this out; put it on your local bulletin board :) http://www.personal.psu.edu/iua1/pythonvsperl.html > -Steve > > ----- q•b ----- > > >> On Mar 25, 2016, at 06:52, C. Titus Brown <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> My usual response to the question of "what programming language should I >> learn?" is: >> >> * Python or R, because those are the two languages being used by many >> computational scientists, being actively developed, and with rich >> existing ecosystems of libraries and tutorials; >> >> * choose between them based on your local friendly help - if you have >> a lot of R folk down the hall, learn R, and vice versa; >> >> * once you know one, you can pick up another language much more easily than >> you might believe; >> >> cheers, >> --titus >> >>> On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 04:06:12PM -0700, Maria McKinley wrote: >>> There is also the point of best for what job? Best programming language >>> discussions are mostly just flame wars, and I like to address them by >>> saying there is no best programming language; it depends on the knowledge >>> of the person doing the coding, what they are trying to accomplish, and >>> possibly the environment/what all is available on the particular machine >>> that the code will run on. >>> >>> cheers, >>> Maria >>> >>> On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Giuseppe Profiti < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Related, even if not properly in topic. >>>> While attending the SWC train the trainers course in September, I took >>>> a note about the "just" and how to keep an I-can-do-it attitude in the >>>> learners. >>>> Then, in January, I had the chance to try to be more aware of that >>>> while teaching Python in a Master's degree course (70-80% of students >>>> .usually have a background in biology or biotech). >>>> >>>> Of course that was a different setting: students believe having more >>>> time to grasp the material with respect to a short workshop, they may >>>> be less prone to give up during class, but they could do it anyways or >>>> maybe give up later when you are not there to answer questions. >>>> >>>> Anyways, "what is the best programming language?" is something that >>>> they asked. I have my programming language of choice, but the >>>> demotivation section in SWC guidelines helped in devising a better >>>> answer than "I like that, but you choose whatever you want". >>>> Instead, I told them that the best programming language is the one >>>> they feel more comfortable with. That "if", "for" and functions are in >>>> almost every programming language and that after getting it in python >>>> they could move to something else. And that if someone in their future >>>> place of work would tell them "You should use X because is better!", >>>> they may give it a try, see if they like it and maybe toss it in the >>>> trash bin if not. >>>> >>>> Maybe I was wrong or there may be a better phrased answer. In that >>>> case, a feedback from you would be more than welcome. >>>> >>>> To be in topic: instead of thinking about it as "I must not do that", >>>> those guidelines could also be used as "how can I convey that >>>> information in a better and less threatening way?". >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> Giuseppe >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> 2016-03-24 22:44 GMT+01:00 Greg Wilson <[email protected]>: >>>>> One approach is to pre-empt it - I make a point of saying in my intro >>>> that >>>>> this stuff is genuinely hard, that I shouldn't imply otherwise by saying >>>>> "just" (or equivalent), and inviting people to keep score. We can then >>>>> compare everyone's scores at the first coffee break, and since they're >>>> never >>>>> the same, we can then have an interesting discussion about real-world >>>> data >>>>> :-) >>>>> Cheers, >>>>> Greg >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> On 2016-03-24 5:41 PM, Adam Obeng wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Does any one have a tip for how to recover from accidentally doing these >>>>>> things? I've tried to explain why I'm apologising for saying "just", but >>>>>> that *just* seems to make it worse. >>>>>> >>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>> >>>>>> Adam >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Thu, Mar 24, 2016, at 05:30 PM, Steven Haddock wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Yes, I think that is the one. The J-word!! >>>>>>> Thanks Lex. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Mar 24, 2016, at 14:22 , Lex Nederbragt <[email protected] >>>>> >>>>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Perhaps this helps? Look for "Things You Shouldn't Do in a Workshop" >>>> on >>>>>>>> http://swcarpentry.github.io/instructor-training/09-motivation.html >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Lex >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> On 24 Mar 2016, at 22:02, Steven Haddock <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> TL;dr Can someone point me to the post about teaching guidelines? >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> A little while ago Greg or somebody posted a set of examples of >>>> things >>>>>>>>> to avoid saying (???You can simply??????, etc). >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> A friend of mine (really!) is teaching a class and she realized she >>>>>>>>> should avoid saying ???You have probably all done X?????? so I was >>>>>>>>> going >>>> to send >>>>>>>>> her that post, but I can???t find it. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Thanks, >>>>>>>>> Steve >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>>>>> Discuss mailing list >>>>>>>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>>> Discuss mailing list >>>>>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> Discuss mailing list >>>>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Dr Greg Wilson >>>>> Director of Instructor Training >>>>> Software Carpentry Foundation >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Discuss mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Discuss mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> >>>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Discuss mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >> >> -- >> C. Titus Brown, [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org
