[Chicago] teaching intro programming to geoscience undergrads, via swc list

[Randy Baxley]

Here, here, I am old enough that most coders today look like mokeys trying
to type out Hamlet.  My first program was on cards, then I did my Freshman
chemistry lab equations on a Singer terminal with a TSO type interface and
not knowing what computer I was on before moving on to write many large
scale system with my arms folded.  I used Mathematica in the 80s and
recently began to work throw Ng's ML class in Python which has been a pain
due to not knowing Linux as well as I need to so taking a Linux class.
PyHou had a lightning talk on Conda and discussions after with folks on the
relation between PyCharm, Python and Anaconda as well as a better
understanding of Linux may eventually get me to where I want to be.  We
will not be diverse until we can all not need to worry about diversity or
see diversity as something achieved by inserting x percentiage of any type
of diversity.

On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Jeremy McMillan <jeremy.mcmillan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I think there is a yin and yang to programming, and I really hate when
> people disparage one side of it because they feel like they've been
> neglected on the other. Let me tell you what my practical bread and butter
> is: *guessing* what the Big-O is for some pathologically broken opaquely
> complicated software+hardware construct after it's caused pain and
> suffering. Say what you will, but being able to get the meat and potatoes
> stuff on the same plate with the bread and butter is what qualifies a good
> programmer for a lucrative six figure hands on leadership role.
>
> So, while I think we need to meet people where they are at, which is why
> Software Carpentry is generating so much excitement, the goal is to get
> everyone to the point where they understand how to learn
> algorithms/architectures, evaluate their Big-O cost, choose the best (or at
> least good enough) combination for their problem, and get it done, skipping
> the traditional "oh crap it totally fails under production load" failure
> mode.
>
> On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Lewit, Douglas <d-lewit at neiu.edu> wrote:
>
>> I've also noticed a lot of CS professors focus almost exclusively on math
>> problems.  I mean that's okay up to a point.  That stuff is really
>> interesting.  BUT.... it would be nice if some of these professors taught
>> security testing, web page development, and the more hands-on "carpentry
>> style" stuff, the meat and potatoes that you need to really work in the
>> field as a professional developer.  I'm kind of tired of all the theory and
>> oh  yes, let's figure out the Big-O for this particular algorithm!  I
>> mean.... if that's really what I wanted to learn, I would have stayed in
>> the math department!
>>
>>
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