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A comment on Python for Non-Programmers. Parent comment

Re:Python for Non-Programmers by ericol on Friday April 03, 2020 @02:44PM (#22772715)
I been trying to get one of my daughters to learn programming (With / through Python) for some time now. She's also willing, but life gets in the way and her dedications was sparse.

This week with lockdown and everything she started to study again.

I had recently "upgraded" her laptop from Windows to Debian, and installed both PyCharm and Miniconda on it.

So, this week she managed to configure PyCharm to use the Miniconda python interpreter, and I gave her a few instructions (That were actually a repetition or some I gave her a while back) on to how to run Jupyter.

Come the next day, and she calls me to ask me how to run some notebook she had in a backup. She had already copied them in a folder (A different one that the one she was using the previous day).

So I told her "Ok, so you go to the folder and run Jupyter in it".

"Dad. Run... WHERE!"

The amount of assumed knowledge we programmers have, and usually assume other people (Even non-programmers) have, is enormous.

I didn't even click in the link, but if all are all the instructions they give to install python, they are off to a not actually bad but chopped foot start.

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Re:Python for Non-Programmers by commandlinefan on Friday April 03, 2020 @04:36PM (#22773712)
My son is taking a programming class in high school - they use repl.it for all their assignments. That makes installation a non-issue; eventually I assume they'll "graduate" to a local install, but it helps them focus on learning the language and not worrying about the environment (yet).
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Re:Python for Non-Programmers by danielscrubs on Sunday April 05, 2020 @05:27AM (#22784689)
Girlfriend is learning programming/Java through a course that was suddenly made into a distance course (because of Corona). She's on the fourth week and the lessons are still 80% about the teacher trying to help students set up the online environment (https://codeanywhere.com). It seems frustrating for everyone involved.
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Re:Python for Non-Programmers by reuven on Saturday April 04, 2020 @04:23PM (#22781201)
That's definitely not all I tell people to do. And I not only give people instructions, but also personal help when they have trouble installing things.

I've been teaching non-programmers for years, and know that they need help getting it set up. I try to offer as much as possible of that kind of help in the course.

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