Plotting and Programming in Python

Daniel Wheeler

NIST SURF (virtual), 05/26/2021

Operations

• Software -- Jupyter, Python, Pandas
  • Binder link:

    https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/wd15/python-aos-lesson/gh-pages

• Please ask me to slow down in the chat interface or raise a hand
• What are we doing?
  • Jupyter Notebook
  • Programming basics (variables, functions, modules)
  • Working with tabular data
  • Plotting

Why learn Python?

• It's a programming language - doesn't matter

• Alternatives: Matlab, Mathematica, Perl, Ruby, Julia

• Widely used in science

• Widely used outside of science (web platforms, data science)

• Number 2 on TIOBE index (C, Python, Java), https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

• What else: huge active community, many scientific libraries, high level, open

• Some drawbacks (reproducibility, incompatibilities)

• What do your friends use?

http://swcarpentry.github.io/python-novice-gapminder/files/python-novice-gapminder-data.zip

Data

• Get the data

• Start "jupyter lab" in your home directory