Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 37 posts

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#21

Post by amirathi »

fulafel wrote: post #14

Is there a way to run notebooks automatically, so you could regenerate notebooks like this after some library code changes or dependency upgrades and check that everything stillw orks?

I built ReviewNB [1] to see visual diff for Jupyter Notebook changes & do a code review on it (by writing comments on cell changes etc.).

One of the next feature for ReviewNB is a CI pipeline for Jupyter Notebooks on GitHub. The idea is to make it easy for users to specify notebook "tests"/"checks" that can then be run on every change.

Given the nature of Notebooks, it's a bit hard to design CI for it in a clean way, but I appreciate any inputs or use cases that you might want to see fulfilled.

[1] https://www.reviewnb.com/

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#22

Post by rhizome31 »

quotz wrote: post #2

Any reviews on this ?

I have the paperback version and I have read the Jupyter, Numpy and Matplotlib chapters as well as most of the Pandas chapter (I haven't read the scikit-learn chapter at all). So far I like it. It's well written, well edited, overall a good quality book. It's really focused on the tools and it shows you how they work with small, contrived examples. This is good because you can use it as a reference, pick up pretty much any section and understand it. However it doesn't teach you much about the process of data science, which would require larger examples. In other words it's focused on the how but not on the what and why. Maybe a more accurate title would be Python Data Science Tooling Guide. In my opinion it should be perfect for people who've already done some data science in another environment and are switching to Python. Other people might need to seek additional guidance elsewhere.

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#23

Post by wodenokoto »

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #17
closed wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a fair amount of experience with pandas, and find the notebooks very help to refer to! I would say it's worth noting that his book is organized by technology (e.g. numpy, then pandas, then plotting), which makes it feel more like a technical reference, than a walk-through of basic to advanced DS activities. It's also worth checking out the notebooks for Wes McKinney's data science book. Daniel Chen doesn't hav…

An incredibly critical review of McKinneys book can be found here: https://medium.com/dunder-data/python-for-data-analysis-a-cr...

I agree with that review. McKinneys book reads like a reference manual and an old one at that. I don't understand why it is recommended so often.

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#24

Post by wodenokoto »

pooya13 wrote: post #6

When an open source book has 150 open PRs and the last commit is from 4 months ago I am discouraged to spend time on it.

Last commit was 3 months ago, and there are 48 open pull requests ...

Which one of us is accessing the wrong repo?

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#25

Post by killjoywashere »

An acquaintance once advised me to keep a context file: all the little "notes to self", code snippets, key config elements, etc, in a file. I've tried a few times in Vim but finally really got traction in Jupyter, through a combination of my org's massive Windows dependencies, which is definitely not the Jupyter community's default (needed to document lots of little idiosyncrasies), and actually having interesting data in that world. What I really like about Jupyter for this is that it's trivial to mix it all together: a link to a handbook like this, how to decode and encode Windows environment variables, tips on Vim, python, pandas, plotting, etc.

And I was really struck how a number of the headings in this handbook mapped exactly to the headings in my context file. I suspect this will not be the last time I click that link.

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#26

Post by dansmerino »

rhizome31 wrote: post #22
quotz wrote: post #2

Any reviews on this ?

I have the paperback version and I have read the Jupyter, Numpy and Matplotlib chapters as well as most of the Pandas chapter (I haven't read the scikit-learn chapter at all). So far I like it. It's well written, well edited, overall a good quality book. It's really focused on the tools and it shows you how they work with small, contrived examples. This is good because you can use it as a reference, pick up pretty mu…

What would you recommend for someone who has the skills with pandas and numpy but struggles with the what and why?

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#27

Post by closed »

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #17
closed wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a fair amount of experience with pandas, and find the notebooks very help to refer to! I would say it's worth noting that his book is organized by technology (e.g. numpy, then pandas, then plotting), which makes it feel more like a technical reference, than a walk-through of basic to advanced DS activities. It's also worth checking out the notebooks for Wes McKinney's data science book. Daniel Chen doesn't hav…

An incredibly critical review of McKinneys book can be found here: https://medium.com/dunder-data/python-for-data-analysis-a-cr...

Ah thanks for pointing out--I mostly agree with his posts (and his minimally sufficient pandas is a great one!), and it's definitely worth reading. A common quirk with a lot of the python DS books is them being "reference manuals".

(I'm a little concerned with the aggressive way he's come at Wes McKinney in posts and on twitter, considering Wes has given a lot of his time working on open source contributions)

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#28

Post by FraaJad »

pooya13 wrote: post #6

When an open source book has 150 open PRs and the last commit is from 4 months ago I am discouraged to spend time on it.

any one else reading this comment should know -- I did look through the PRs and many of them are typo fixes.

Its easy to make demands on open source code maintainers time. Not all PRs and "tickets" need attention. The maintainer does not owe us anything.

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#29

Post by pooya13 »

contrast wrote: post #20
pooya13 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would probably do that if the time investment was worth it. For example if it was something I was using on a day to day basis but not for leisurely/exploratory reading.

Even for leisurely reading, you expect an author to still be updating a book several years after it was published? What experience has led you to believe that's a reasonable expectation?

I don’t “expect” the authors to do anything. But I am not going to spend many hours of my time reading a book when I see that the book is not maintained because there are many great books on my backlog that ARE being maintained by the authors/community.

Re: Python Data Science Handbook: Full Text in Jupyter Notebooks

#30

Post by pooya13 »

FraaJad wrote: post #28
pooya13 wrote: post #6

When an open source book has 150 open PRs and the last commit is from 4 months ago I am discouraged to spend time on it.

any one else reading this comment should know -- I did look through the PRs and many of them are typo fixes. Its easy to make demands on open source code maintainers time. Not all PRs and "tickets" need attention. The maintainer does not owe us anything.

I am not making demands nor did I say the maintainers owe me their time. But I do not owe them my time either. And I would rather spend my time on a book that is actively being maintained by the authors or the community.
Post reply on HN