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Wrapping Up in Melbourne

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Two long but useful days at Melbourne Uni have just wound down, and five dozen meteorologists and climate scientists have given us feedback on a well-run bootcamp:

GoodBad
  • splitting big problems into small pieces
  • SQLite is easy
  • functions instead of loops
  • Python was easy
  • naming functions after pets
  • hands-on application at the same time as instructor
  • morning tea
  • dictionaries
  • explaining why, rather than just what
  • swapping variables
  • using our own computers
  • copy/paste onto Etherpad
  • arrays in NumPy
  • sticky notes
  • a bit of motivational speaking
  • location (I'm not from Melbourne, eh)
  • Subversion FTW!
  • Git + BitBucket
  • Python Notebook
  • hey, there's useful stuff online
  • helpers
  • red/green/refactor
  • really practical exampels of test-driven development
  • Greg tells stories
  • lot of participation
  • talk to other people during the breaks
  • regular expressions
  • cheap!
  • seeing how programmers think
  • realizing how much room for growth I have
  • scared in the first ten minutes...
  • the material is free
  • peer instruction
  • WiFi
  • didn't do any meteorological data sets
  • the jokes
  • viewing angle
  • installing stuff
  • couldn't use some advanced stuff (I'm a beginner)
  • coffee
  • running right after conference
  • squeezing four half days into two full days (maybe try 3?)
  • not enough exercises
  • not long enough
  • content could have been more focused
  • didn't do NetCDF files
  • a bit of motivational speaking
  • didn't see comparison of Python with R
  • lot of spread of material/ability
  • longer breaks (I'm so tired)
  • databases irrelevant to me
  • IPython/NumPy confusing
  • wasn't in New Zealand
  • not enough time on version control
  • wasn't in Fiji
  • hated SQL
  • Greg speaks waaaaaaaaay too fast
  • learned a lot about Vi
  • hopping
  • pretty intense, dude
  • took a long time to restart after breaks
  • more on plotting
  • lighting in the room is uneven
  • more about linking Python to other things
  • ...after first ten minutes, it was OK