Software Carpentry Week in Review 6-12 January 2014

Mozilla

The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers (1961). 

The purpose of computing numbers is not yet in sight (1973).

– Richard Hamming

Bootcamps

Julia Gustavsen and Ross Dickson instructed a two-day Python-focused bootcamp at the University of New Brunswick. There are some excellent BioPython and Git notes on the Etherpad.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Stephen Eglen, Laurent Gatto, and the tireless Aleksandra Pawlik instructed a two-day R-focused bootcamp at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge. The bootcamp repository is here.

Not to be outdone, Jonah Duckles, Molly Gibson, Adina Howe, and William Trimble instructed a double-language bootcamp at Iowa State that featured both Python and R training.

We have several bootcamps in progress this and next week week, but we’d like to note that the January 27-28 bootcamp at Indiana University being pushed back several months due to a scheduling conflict.

Lesson Material

Justin Kitzes added some clarifications on how we’re using the master and gh-pages branches. Thanks to Trevor King for his help in getting his merged. You can see the updated CONTRIBUTING guidelines here.

Thanks to Raniere Silva, who has made a number of improvements and contributions across the repository.

Conversations

The conversation about writing and publishing papers in a webby world continued last week, with thoughtful insights from a number of contributors. We’ll be wrapping up that discussion with a summary blog post this week.

Blog

On the blog, Paul Wilson posted that Philip Guo’s Two Cultures conversation is about more than just tools. In refocusing the discussion on the users, he stated:

We need to understand that today’s new graduates students have always lived in a world in which computers were tools for the masses and not specialized tools for science and engineering. Many of us, lived through a time when nearly every use of a computer required some understanding of how it worked.

Amy Brown noted that a job position is available working with the University College London Research Software Development Team. The recruit will design, extend, refactor and maintain scientific software across all subject areas. Check out the advertisement if this sounds interesting to you.

Greg Wilson shared one of his favorite examples of a concept map, “Interaction of Patterns and Antipatterns”, from Release It!, by Michael Nygard.

Release It

Greg also provided a detailed answer in response to a request for more information about mental models in computer science. Included as well is a reference to the vicious circle in computer science education research:

  • K-12 schools don’t offer programming classes.
  • So there’s no incentive for teachers to specialize in computing.
  • So there aren’t programs to train people how to teach computing.
  • So there aren’t enough teachers to reliably staff classes.
  • So schools don’t offer classes.

Last, but not least, the Software Carpentry paper, Best Practices for Scientific Computing, has been published in PLOS Biology. If you have not had a chance to read any of the preprints, now is your chance to view the manuscript in its final form. Congratulations to Dhavide Aruliah, Titus Brown, Neil Chue Hong, Matt Davis, Tommy Guy, Steve Haddock, Katy Huff, Ian Mitchell, Mark Plumbley, Ben Waugh, Ethan White, Greg Wilson, and Paul Wilson.

Have a good week!

Send bootcamp reports, questions, suggestions for quotes, and other updates to aron@ahmadia.net.