Recommendations for intro to python+programming lecture to Humanities MA students

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 4:42 AM Nick Sarbicki <nick.a.sarbicki at gmail.com> wrote:
> RE Conda and distros - I'd forget about them, in my experience you may as
> well learn to use pip and install what you need that way, in the long term
> it is faster and more flexible. Python generally supplies a perfectly good
> installer for most operating systems at python.org - no need for anything
> else. Keeping it to just standard python (+ some libs you don't explicitly
> need to explain) makes it less complex.

Agreed. In fact, given the tight context here, I would go even further
and stick to JUST the standard library - there's already way more in
there than you need for a single lecture. Maybe just name-drop pip and
hint at the fact that there's a lot more to Python than just what you
see here, but other than that, keep it really simple.

> In summary I'd aim to inspire not to teach - so show some basics at the
> beginning to show how accessible it can be, and then feel free to jump off
> into advanced python land to showcase what is possible using whatever you
> are most comfortable with. Essentially show them they can learn python, and
> then inspire them to want to learn python.
>

Absolutely agreed. Your job is not to turn them into programmers. Your
job is just to inspire them - to show them possibilities, to excite
them, to empower them to play.

ChrisA