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NCAR / python-tutorial

Online content for self-paced Python tutorial
https://ncar.github.io/python-tutorial/
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Why another Python tutorial? #16

Closed jukent closed 4 years ago

jukent commented 4 years ago

I'm creating this issue to be the discussion place on the motivation behind this tutorial.

This is what I've written so far:

Why this Python tutorial?

What makes this Python tutorial unique is that is has been designed specifically to meet the needs of, and feedback from, atmospheric and oceanic scientists making the transition with the NCAR-wide pivot-to-Python. By spending the first day on pure Python without importing any additional packages, our beginner tutorial addresses the concerns that most tutorials pick up speed too quickly. By using coding examples with real atmospheric datasets and questions, the skills and techniques taught are easily applied to actual workflows. Intermediate and advanced tutorials were developed by working closely with scientists to transform their old code into Python using the most up-to-date tools for advanced computing. We hope that this tailored approach to teaching and sharing computational tools effectively addresses the concerns and needs of the geoscience community.

jukent commented 4 years ago

@kmpaul

kmpaul commented 4 years ago

I like this @jukent. I have a few suggestions (in bold):

Why this Python tutorial?

What makes this Python tutorial unique is that is has been designed specifically to meet the needs of, and feedback from, atmospheric and oceanic scientists making the transition with the NCAR-wide pivot-to-Python. In particular, this tutorial should be useful for any scientist who already knows how to program in some other language but is taking up Python for the first time. By spending the first day on pure Python without importing any additional packages, our beginner tutorial addresses the concerns that most tutorials either pick up speed too quickly by going into the intricacies of third-party packages before explaining how Python is different from other languages, or get too bogged down in basic programming concepts that anyone with programming experience already knows. This tutorial attempts to hit the sweet spot between too high-level and too low-level. By using coding examples with real atmospheric datasets and questions, the skills and techniques taught are easily applied to actual atmospheric or oceanic workflows. The intermediate and advanced tutorials were developed by working closely with scientists to transform their old code into Python using the most up-to-date tools for advanced computing. We hope that this tailored approach to teaching and sharing computational tools effectively addresses the concerns and needs of the geoscience community.

jukent commented 4 years ago

Great edits!

I think I will put this on the home page as it addresses beginner and above tutorials.