[Tutor] Hello Python Tutor - help please!

[Cecilia Chavana-Bryant]

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.

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!



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
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