Python homework

[jladasky at itu.edu]

On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 4:49:52 AM UTC-8, edmondo.g... at gmail.com wrote:

>   import numpy

I teach Python to students at varying levels.  As much as I love and use Numpy in my regular work, I try to avoid showing beginning Python students solutions that require third-party packages.  Here are my reasons:

1. Not every programming novice needs to understand things at the bits-and-bytes level, but they should learn the inner workings of algorithms.  You won't always have a ready-made algorithm to solve your problem in a library function call, so you should learn to write your own.

2. Package maintenance can be its own headache.  Sure, Anaconda can help, but it's a heavyweight distribution.  And not every student is working on a computer where they have the rights to install software.