[SciPy-User] peer review of scientific software

[Martin van Leeuwen]

Hi,

Nice article. The frustration for students without a formal programming
background such as a bachelor in computer science is as big as that for
students and Profs that do have such a background, I think. The solution is
of course proper education. Code is, like math, a language on its own. Math
we often learn from teachers – not necessarily in the Math department -
that went through it themselves years ago. For coding this is different.
Programming techniques change so quickly and new languages keep popping up,
making transfer of up-to-date knowledge in Academic curricula more
challenging.

Bad programming practices in Academia (and elsewhere) certainly aren't the
frustration of ‘good’ and ‘up-to-date’ programmers alone, but they are also
the frustration of those who want to learn by example. Much of this
learning process evolves through online tutorials, blogs, cookbooks etc,
but there are so many of them. Python especially is a language that is used
by many, and it is also a recommended beginner’s language, so one can
expect a lot of bad programming practices.

Perhaps that some sort of ranking of open source code helps making
developers realize what is good practice and what is bad practice. Or even
a prestigious display of some excellent coding projects, at a variety of
levels of complexity or project size. Could Scipy perhaps take the lead by
making knowledge as to what are good programming skills more accessible
through some sort of open ranking/voting platform?

Martin


2013/5/28 Calvin Morrison <mutantturkey at gmail.com>

>
>
>
> On 27 May 2013 13:44, Alan G Isaac <alan.isaac at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6134/814.summary
>
>
> Maybe I can use this as a ranting point.
>
> As a background I am a programmer, but I have been hired by various
> professors and other academic people to work on projects. My biggest
> problem with the "scientific computing" community is having to put up with
> this crap!
>
> I am so sick of reading a paper, that will exactly fulfill my needs, only
> to find out the software has disappeared, only works on HP-UX on one
> computer in the world, or has absolutely zero documentation.
>
> I've started pushing my lab to follow standards, use version control,
> document our changes, and publish our code. So far it is going really well,
> but I can only do so much.
>
> If only all of all students had a few basic "proper programming practices"
> courses, everything would go a lot smoother. Teaching programming is fine,
> but why don't we teach our scientists the best way to collaborate in the
> 21st century?
>
> Below is another related paper that is a good starting point for
> converting users. Enough emailing tarballs back and forth! Enough
> undocumented code! Enough is Enough!
>
> http://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.0530v3.pdf
>
> Pissed-off Scientific Programmer,
> Calvin Morrison
>
>
>
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>
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