[Tutor] Hello Python Tutor - help please!

[Walter Prins]

Hi Cecilia,

You've had a lot of good replies already, but I'd like to add the
following points if I may:

1) You probably should figure out as much as that's possible up front
exactly you're trying to do in terms of data processing first (e.g.
some idea of the stats, graphs, summaries, operations etc), and then
figure out whether Python is in fact the quickest/best way to get
there for you.  Python is very capable, it has many data analysis
libraries and so on and is used by many scientists (NumPy, SciPy,
Pandas comes to mind offhand), but then there are also many other
languages and system also appropriate in this sphere.  (R comes to
mind.)  Your goal (from my point of view) is not to become a
programmer, but to get your research done.  Python may be the way to
achieve that, but from where I'm sitting it may also not be.

2) It may be useful to take some suitable courses from some of the
very good free online courses now available from various sources such
as Coursera.  Some examples that seem relevant:

Computing for Data Analysis:
https://www.coursera.org/course/compdata

Mathematics Biostatistics Boot camp:
https://www.coursera.org/course/biostats

Data Analysis
https://www.coursera.org/course/dataanalysis

There are also courses covering basic programming, including Python,
for example: https://www.coursera.org/course/programming1

HTH,

Walter