August 25-26, 2018
3p-8p (Sat) / 11a-3p (Sun)
Instructors: Brian Clee
Helpers: Bowie Clee
Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.
For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".
Who: The course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn coding skills through Python. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.
Where: 1516 Millhous Dr. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
When: August 25-26, 2018. Add to your Google Calendar.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Software Carpentry's Code of Conduct.
Contact: Please email bpclee2011@gmail.com for more information.
| 03:00pm | Setup |
| 03:15pm | Running and Quitting |
| 03:30pm | Variables and Assignment |
| 03:50pm | Data Types and Type Conversion |
| 04:15pm | 15-min Break |
| 04:30pm | Built-in Functions and Help |
| 04:55pm | Libraries |
| 05:15pm | Reading Tabular Data into DataFrames |
| 05:35pm | Dinner! |
| 06:35pm | Pandas DataFrames |
| 07:05pm | Plotting |
| 07:35pm | END |
| 11:00am | Lists |
| 11:20am | For Loops |
| 11:45am | Looping Over Data Sets |
| 12:00pm | Coffee break! |
| 12:15pm | Writing Functions |
| 12:40pm | Variable Scope |
| 01:00pm | Lunch! |
| 02:00pm | Conditionals |
| 02:25pm | Programming Style |
| 02:55pm | Wrap-Up |
| 03:15pm | Feedback |
| 03:30pm | END |
To participate in a Software Carpentry workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.
We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.
Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Anaconda, an all-in-one installer.
Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.6 is fine).
We will teach Python using the Jupyter notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. For this to work you will need a reasonably up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers are all supported (some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9 and below, are not).
bash Anaconda3-and then press tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should appear. If it does not, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the file, for example with:
cd DownloadsThen, try again.
yes and
press enter to approve the license. Press enter to approve the
default location for the files. Type yes and
press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH
(this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).