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A comment on PyTorch: Where we are headed and why it looks a lot like Julia (but not exactly). Parent comment
Having just taught a bunch of scientists Python, I'm skeptical of this.
Stuff that is obvious to me, but really hard to explain to coding beginners:
* why `len(list)` but `str.join(...)`? I.e. why are there two ways to call functions?
* why does `[]` do so many different things? List comprehensions, list construction, subsetting, sometimes it secretly calls a method....
* why in the name of god is the first row called 0?
* and then why does [0:3] mean rows 1, 2 and 3, not rows 0, 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 3, 4?
* ... except in pandas where sometimes [foo:bar] includes bar...
* in general, why is pandas so damn complex?
I thought it'd be easier to teach than R, but I'm not quite so certain now.
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Having just taught a bunch of scientists Python, I'm skeptical of this.
Stuff that is obvious to me, but really hard to explain to coding beginners:
* why `len(list)` but `str.join(...)`? I.e. why are there two ways to call functions?
* why does `[]` do so many different things? List comprehensions, list construction, subsetting, sometimes it secretly calls a method....
* why in the name of god is the first row called 0?
* and then why does [0:3] mean rows 1, 2 and 3, not rows 0, 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 3, 4?
* ... except in pandas where sometimes [foo:bar] includes bar...
* in general, why is pandas so damn complex?
I thought it'd be easier to teach than R, but I'm not quite so certain now.