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Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

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Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#21

Post by idoby »

webartifex wrote: post #13
idoby wrote: post #12

Awesome work! I can't wait to test this on my non-programmer friends who want to learn how to code. This seems to have a somewhat different approach to the usual Python tutorial, it might do the trick! Thanks

I tried to put in everything I myself would have wanted to know when starting in 2014. That is why I spend so much time on the memory diagrams in the videos in particular. It literally took me years to figure that out. I have watched a lot of online lectures (e.g., from OCW), but only rarely do instructors talk about that. Maybe formally studying CS would have done the trick for me as well :)

It's not necessarily covered in a traditional CS program, it really depends on the instructor.

This is a good resource.

Regarding the videos: they're hard to watch because the text size is very small and it seems to be blurry due to compression/encoding issues and in some of the videos, the audio track has a high-pitched hum in the background that makes it very hard to listen to.

If you still have access to the source materials, you should seriously consider cleaning up the sound and re-encoding the videos for better quality (as well as making the text bigger where possible).

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#22

Post by webartifex »

idoby wrote: post #21
webartifex wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to put in everything I myself would have wanted to know when starting in 2014. That is why I spend so much time on the memory diagrams in the videos in particular. It literally took me years to figure that out. I have watched a lot of online lectures (e.g., from OCW), but only rarely do instructors talk about that. Maybe formally studying CS would have done the trick for me as well :)

It's not necessarily covered in a traditional CS program, it really depends on the instructor. This is a good resource. Regarding the videos: they're hard to watch because the text size is very small and it seems to be blurry due to compression/encoding issues and in some of the videos, the audio track has a high-pitched hum in the background that makes it very hard to listen to. If you still have access to the sourc…

Two videos have the hum. This cannot be changed because the lecture capture system in the lecture room does not allow this (It's Panopto).

The quality is actually high enough. Maybe that is due as YouTube is currently lowering the quality due to Corona?

My plan is to incorporate the feedback everyone gives in the next weeks and do the recordings again in studio at the end of summer for the next semester.

The videos are actually intended to only support the chapters in the Jupyter notebooks.

The funny thing is this: Once I started doing the memory diagrams in the lecture, the students' work exhibited a lot more quality. Further, absolute beginners understand, for example, the concept of an iterator vs. iterable.

BTW: chapters 9 and 10 will be released soon on GitHub.

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#23

Post by webartifex »

idoby wrote: post #21
webartifex wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to put in everything I myself would have wanted to know when starting in 2014. That is why I spend so much time on the memory diagrams in the videos in particular. It literally took me years to figure that out. I have watched a lot of online lectures (e.g., from OCW), but only rarely do instructors talk about that. Maybe formally studying CS would have done the trick for me as well :)

It's not necessarily covered in a traditional CS program, it really depends on the instructor. This is a good resource. Regarding the videos: they're hard to watch because the text size is very small and it seems to be blurry due to compression/encoding issues and in some of the videos, the audio track has a high-pitched hum in the background that makes it very hard to listen to. If you still have access to the sourc…

Can anyone recommend a good document camera / visualizer that works on Ubuntu Linux? The reason I had to use the lecture capture system in the lecture rooms is mainly because I don't own a document cam. Ideally, the cam would also work with Zoom. Many thanks in advance.

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#24

Post by webartifex »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #20
airstrike wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. Sure, there's a huge value in the beginner-friendly structure that Jupyter notebooks provide, but it's also a limiting factor as it's just a very small subset of the Python experience (I've personally never edited a single .ipynb file in my life)

Note, this is intended for people who will use python for data science, not for future software engineers. Data scientists using python but not using jupyter notebooks is the exception.

That is correct.

But even then, I think in the future the data scientist role and the data engineer role will converge and the person doing this must know virtual environments.

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#25

Post by idoby »

webartifex wrote: post #22
idoby wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not necessarily covered in a traditional CS program, it really depends on the instructor. This is a good resource. Regarding the videos: they're hard to watch because the text size is very small and it seems to be blurry due to compression/encoding issues and in some of the videos, the audio track has a high-pitched hum in the background that makes it very hard to listen to. If you still have access to the sourc…

Two videos have the hum. This cannot be changed because the lecture capture system in the lecture room does not allow this (It's Panopto). The quality is actually high enough. Maybe that is due as YouTube is currently lowering the quality due to Corona? My plan is to incorporate the feedback everyone gives in the next weeks and do the recordings again in studio at the end of summer for the next semester. The videos a…

> The quality is actually high enough. Maybe that is due as YouTube is currently lowering the quality due to Corona?

Maybe. Also, for newer videos YouTube takes a while to expose higher qualities. I see now that the videos have very few views and that only 720p is available. This could also be the reason.

> Two videos have the hum. This cannot be changed because the lecture capture system in the lecture room does not allow this (It's Panopto).

You can probably get rid of the hum pretty easily with pretty basic filtering in a video/audio program (or even a Python library). You might also be able to re-upload just the audio tracks. Just say if you want my help with this.

> The funny thing is this: Once I started doing the memory diagrams in the lecture, the students' work exhibited a lot more quality. Further, absolute beginners understand, for example, the concept of an iterator vs. iterable.

I'm not surprised. I've been saying for a while now, that learning programming is analogous to learning how to play an instrument (e.g. the piano) where you need to learn the right techniques and concepts early on if you want to be able to become highly skilled later on. Otherwise it's unlearning and relearning a bunch of stuff, which is less than optimal. Thank you for validating this idea of mine, somewhat.

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#27

Post by OJFord »

ipnon wrote: post #26

Is it really this easy to become a data scientist today? Can you go from 0 to 1 with online programming tutorials like the original post and fast.ai?

Well, OP says [0] they're a PhD candidate, so maybe take 'non-CS majors' quite literally, in terms of where it's hyphenated.

0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22669091

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#28

Post by webartifex »

ipnon wrote: post #26

Is it really this easy to become a data scientist today? Can you go from 0 to 1 with online programming tutorials like the original post and fast.ai?

It depends on who wants to hire you. For the top jobs, this is for sure not enough.

I always tell people to please make sure they know all the contents from here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3O402wf1c&list=PL49CF3715C... (Gilbert Strang's Linear Algebra course) before they make any claims about being a data scientist. I bet I can teach a monkey to open a CSV in pandas and call .fit() in sklearn. But do the people really understand the underlying assumptions. Most self-proclaimed data scientists don't I am sure.

I still have a hard time calling myself a data scientist. And I am three years into a relevant PhD. The more I study, the less I feel I truly know.

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#29

Post by qubex »

webartifex wrote: post #17
qubex wrote: post #16

Can I suggest adjusting it for some other consumer platforms, such as, for example, Pyhtonista on the iPad? That would make it easier to divulge in these turbulent times when many people are stuck using somewhat unusual instruments and platforms.

Does Pythonista for iPad support Jupyter notebooks?

I don’t think so, no. But I might be wrong.

Re: Show HN: Intro to Python and Programming for non-CS majors

#30

Post by webartifex »

OJFord wrote: post #27
ipnon wrote: post #26

Is it really this easy to become a data scientist today? Can you go from 0 to 1 with online programming tutorials like the original post and fast.ai?

Well, OP says [0] they're a PhD candidate, so maybe take 'non-CS majors' quite literally, in terms of where it's hyphenated. 0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22669091

I consider my course a thorough course. You really learn a lot of theory. This is usually what makes students at my university drop the course after two weeks of auditing. Just because the course assumes no prior CS contents (anything really, except high school math), does not mean they don't get introduced.
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