First Round at Lawrence Berkeley

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We just wrapped up a two-day workshop at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and another is due to start tomorrow. Here's what worked and what didn't from the first one:

Good

Bad

Doing examples ourselves
Liked Python examples
Interactive
Greg kinda knows this stuff
Like the history lessons etc.
Went through a lot of things
Liked IPython Notebook
Like intro to Git
Intro to shell
Examples are incremental
Good mix of theory and hands-on
Sticky notes
Everything is open source
Liked keeping functions small
Liked red-green-refactor

Little more structure please
Lost with how to use Git
Wanted a cheat sheet
Wanted more Python
Not a break Monday aft.
Not clear how to apply all tips to all things
Wanted more structure Monday aft. (and I was teaching it)
Wanted cookies in the afternoon
Too many things at once
Poor choice of room
Need a book or handouts
Didn't see Python interact with R and MATLAB
More specific to specific groups
Bringing Python back to the shell etc.
How to save terminal session/notebook/etc.

Many thanks to Shreyas Cholia, Adam Stone, Nina Lucido, Geoff Oxberry, Matthew Brett, Paul Ivanov, and all our learners for making it a success.

Greg Teaching Git??

Students Surviving the Experience