On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 11:33 AM, Cecilia Chavana-Bryant <cecilia.chavana-bry...@ouce.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > Hola Bill, > > Many thanks for your reply to my post, you seem to understand the > predicament I am in very well. Unfortunately, I am currently working from > home and do not have someone close by to help and this is why I came to this > space. This is also why I asked for advise about interactive tutorials or > video tutorials. I have found that I keep getting lost with the more > traditional tutorials where you just read and then do exercises. Following > the guide I mentioned on my initial post I got through the first 2 chapters > but I found them quite hard going. I don't know if this makes me not a > complete beginner but I certainly do not feel like I learned much from > reading them. Maybe it is the trying to learn the "computer ecosystem" of > terminal commands at the same time that is making this learning process so > tough. > > With respect to my field data, during my 2 yrs of fieldwork I collected a > large amount of data which is currently stored in excel files. My research > involves remote sensing (data from Earth-observation satellites) and I work > with data from the MODIS NASA satellite which monitors the health of forest > canopies using reflectance data. My research is based in the Amazon. I have > collected field data to monitor the leaf dynamics of canopy leaves during > the dry season. Dry season is the time of year when many tropical trees > change their old leaves for new ones. New leaves are more photosynthetically > active (absorb more carbon from and release more oxygen into the atmosphere) > so the leaf exchange of such a large forest region as the Amazon can have > huge effects on regional and global carbon and water cycles and thus on > global climate (apologies if I'm giving you loads more information than you > need or requested?!). My data involves a large amount of data on leaf > demography (we demographically surveyed more than 120,000 leaves), and > thousands of morphological and reflectance measurements. I will have to > reorganise this data and create a few easily manipulable datasets so I can > sort data according to leaf age, canopy position, date, etc. Then I will > have to do statistical analyses on the data. I will also have to model some > of the data. > > Many thanks for taking the time to respond to my post so comprehensively and > for your good wishes. > > > Cecilia Chavana-Bryant > DPhil Candidate - Remote sensing and tropical phenology > Environmental Change Institute > School of Geography and the Environment > University of Oxford > South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY > Web: http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/teaching/doctoral/chavanabryantcecilia.php > Tel Direct: +44 (0)1865 275861 > Fax: +44 (0)1865 275885 > ________________________________ > From: William R. Wing (Bill Wing) [w...@mac.com] > Sent: 22 August 2012 15:17 > To: Cecilia Chavana-Bryant > Cc: William R. Wing (Bill Wing) > Subject: Re: [Tutor] Hello Python Tutor - help please! > > On Aug 22, 2012, at 6:10 AM, Cecilia Chavana-Bryant > <cecilia.chavana-bry...@ouce.ox.ac.uk> wrote: > > Dear all, > > I am just returning to my doctoral studies after a 7-month medical leave and > desperately trying to catch up for lost time. I am COMPLETELY new to > programming, well, I did try learning C for 3 weeks 3 yrs ago (with very > little success) but had to stop and then spent 2 years in the Amazon > climbing trees (lots more enjoyable than learning to programme!) and > collecting loads of field data that I now need to post-process and analyse. > By the way, the 3 weeks I spent trying to learn C really ended up being > spent trying to get to grips with using a terminal for the first time in my > life. > > > Could you say a few words about what the field data is, and how you hope to > analyze it. That is, are you headed in the direction of plotting species > density on maps, or the time evolution of something, or doing statistics? > > Since getting back to work, I was advised to try learning Python instead of > C as it is a much easier first language to learn. I have been trying, but > again, to not great success. I started following "A Primer on Scientific > programming with Python" but I kept getting lost and stuck, specially on the > exercises. I have also been advised that I should not try to learn > programming by following guides but by trying to write the programmes I need > to analyse my data. Although I can understand the logic behind this last bit > of advise (it gives context and direction to the learning process) I have > also gotten stuck trying this approach as "I do not know how to programme!". > Thus, I was hoping that some of you can remember how you got started and > point me towards any really good interactive learning guides/materials > and/or have a good learning strategy for a complete beginner. I have > searched the web and was overwhelmed by choice of tutorials and guides. I > have skimmed through a couple of tutorials but then fail to see how all that > relates to my own work and I get stuck with what seems like basic important > concepts so I don't progress. I then think I should try to make some > progress with my own data analysing and go back to trying to learn to write > a programme for my specific needs and get stuck again because this requires > more advanced skills then the basic programming concepts I have been reading > about on the learning guides. So, I am now feeling VERY frustrated and have > no idea what on Earth I am doing! Can anyone please offer guidance in my > learning process? I don't know how and what I should be spending my time > learning first and/or if I should focus my learning towards the skill areas > I will require to write my specific programmes, although I have no idea what > these are. I would like advise on finding some really good interactive(let > you know if your solution to an exercise is correct or not) and or video > tutorials that give you feedback on the solutions you write to exercises. > > Many thanks in advance for all your help, it will be much appreciated! > > > > I think there are three problems here, and you are (for better or worse) > attempting to tackle all three at once. First, and foremost, "leaning to > program" really means learning a particular way of thinking about a problem, > and how to decompose it into a sequence of steps. Most programmers learned > that way of thinking about problems so early in their careers they've > forgotten it[*]. In parallel with that, you are trying to learn and > understand the whole computer "ecosystem" of terminal commands, reading and > writing files (and structuring their contents), data types, utilities, and > libraries. Finally, there is the actual work of writing the specific > programs necessary to deal with your data. Under any circumstances, > tackling these all at once (or even in series) would be a heroic > undertaking, doing so under the pressure of writing your thesis is (and this > is purely my personal opinion) going to require that you have someone there > at your elbow to help you through the first few days (weeks) of learning, > particularly to help you with the first two issues I mention above. > > I agree that Python is an excellent choice for a first language. It allows > instant testing, provides immediate feedback with very good error messages, > and is very flexible. > > [*] Years ago, I agreed to help a co-worker "learn to program". This was > back in the days of FORTRAN-IV, McCracken, and computers on which 64 > thousand memory locations was a lot of memory. I showed him how to use an > editor to enter code, loaned him my copy of McCracken, explained on a > blackboard how the various statements worked and how FORTRAN directed logic > flow and could do arithmetic. Then, as an initial exercise, I asked him to > write a program to find prime numbers. This is a very standard initial > exercise in programming, and forces the student to think through how you > would test a number to find out if it is prime. If it is, print it out and > if it isn't, go on to the next one. HIS solution was to define a square > array indexed with the integers on each side. The cells of that array were > the products of the integers, and he intended to then scan that square > looking for the numbers that DIDN'T exist in it. Those would be prime. So, > note that there is nothing logically wrong with this solution. But in a > practical world (particularly a world with very limited memory) it stops > working at a fairly small value of prime numbers. The point I'm trying to > make (in far too long winded a fashion) is that "learning to program" > involves a lot more than just rote leaning of syntax. > > We all wish you the VERY best of luck. We will give you all the help we > can, but I do hope you have someone close by. > > Good luck, > Bill > > > > Cecilia Chavana-Bryant > DPhil Candidate - Remote sensing and tropical phenology > Environmental Change Institute > School of Geography and the Environment > University of Oxford > South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY > Web: http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/teaching/doctoral/chavanabryantcecilia.php > Tel Direct: +44 (0)1865 275861 > Fax: +44 (0)1865 275885 > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > To unsubscribe or change subscription options: > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor > > > > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > To unsubscribe or change subscription options: > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor > Some people have had a good experience with this: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/
It starts out very basic, requiring you to type in very small learning moments, then shifts gears and advances -- Joel Goldstick _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
