Hi guys,
I can only give you my experience on how I came to Spyder, and how I introduced more than a dozen other people to it. I'm an (electronics) engineer, and therefore come from a Matlab University background. For me Winpython was my first real contact with Spyder. I’ve heard many rumors about python and its possibilities for engineering but I didn’t know where to start – just too many options and way too little time due to my daily workload. So THE ONE THING that caught me on Spyder (I downloaded a few different environments in parallel) was simplicity of use – which means that for my first steps everything was running directly out of the box. Including math calculations, plots, you name it and it was there and it worked without having to read through tons of tutorials of different python libraries. I had no idea that the scientific_startup.py script did all the magic, but for the very first steps alone, it is good to have some pre-selection made and up and running. So I started a few things like basic math calculations in the console – it worked, and a few plots which worked as well. I was surprised that even plotting 3D or images worked directly out of box. And all the things like the Variable Explorer, breakpints etc. – it just felt like Matlab but Open Source and free. This gave me the opportunity to use Spyder right away for my daily work. First just as a better Excel for calculations and plotting, but then I learned how to really do python programming on the go whenever I had the time. After a year and a lot of learning I started to give courses and spread to word to other engineering colleagues… of course using Spyder. So in my opinion helping the user with the very first steps is very important. Imagine a dialog box on the very first run, showing Spyder in a Matlab like configuration demonstrating some math calculations and plots. Asking the user if he wants to use scientific_startup.py to load a selection of often used libraries and to open a demonstration file is very helpful to get started. A toggle button in the console area allowing to quickly enable/disable the usage of this startup file could also be useful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A solution to the one size fits all problem could be like this: When Spyder starts the very first time, ask people if they want a simple preconfigured environment for engineering with an example file (best with a Screenshot of a Spyder performing a nice calculation including a plot). If the user accepts open a file that shows some basic stuff with a few lines of ocde, like using the python as a scientific calculator, doing e.g. a RMS fitting of some noise data and then a plot. Explain where the scientific startup file can be found and (de)-activated, provide a link to a few more examples and links to the help pages of Matplotlib, Numpy or whatever is useful. If the user doesn’t accept, just start Spyder as it is now. And by the way get a picture of Spyder in a Matlab like configuration onto the Winpython Website. Getting started can be super easy with Spyder. But people need to know feel that and from the moment the see the screenshot on the webpage until they make their first steps with Spyder and Python. An experienced user will also like to see a demonstration of Spyders capabilities, as long as everything is optional to him. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "spyder" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/spyderlib. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
