The next Byte-sized RSE session, covering Python packaging, will take place on Friday, 21 June, 13:00-14:30 BST/GMT+1.

In this final episode of season 2 of Byte-sized RSE, we’ll be looking at Python packaging. We’ll do this from both the user and package creator perspective. There are different package infrastructures in Python and we’ll focus here on the core packaging ecosystem maintained by the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA) and the pip package installer tool.

We’ll begin by looking at the use of pip to install packages and what actually happens when you install a package. Then we’ll look at the anatomy of a Python package and create a simple package ourselves, to see how one is structured and built.

Prerequisites: In order to be able to participate in the practical/interactive part of this session, you’ll need a computer with a regular Python installation (i.e. not Anaconda) and pip available. You’ll also need some basic familiarity with working on the command line and be familiar with a command line-based editor such as nano, vi or emacs to enable you to easily edit files. The tutorial may also work using pip via Anaconda but this is not a supported setup for this session.

Registrations are now open for the Intermediate Software Development Workshop, which will take place 20 – 24 May 2024 at the University of Bradford. The course is organised by ELIXIR UK and aims to teach a core set of established, intermediate-level software development skills and best practices for working as part of a team in a research environment using Python as an example programming language. 

The registration fee for this workshop is £50, which includes lunch and refreshments. The deadline for registration is 20 April 2024.

The learning objectives of this workshop are as follows:

• Set up and use a suitable development environment together with popular source code management infrastructure to develop software collaboratively.
• Use a test framework to automate the verification of correct behaviour of code and employ parameterisation and continuous integration to scale and further automate code testing.
• Design robust, extensible software through the application of suitable programming paradigms and design techniques.
• Understand the code review process and employ it to improve the quality of code.
• Prepare and release software for reuse by others.
• Manage software improvement from feedback through agile techniques.

This course is aimed at individuals working in a research environment who have basic software development skills and need to write some code. It is not accessible to beginners. To enroll in this workshop, you must have experience writing software beyond scripting in a single file to automate a sequence of actions. If you have recently started learning programming, you are expected to have completed a relevant introductory training course at least 6 months ago. You must also be comfortable with basic Python programming (it doesn’t need to be your main language) and know version control using Git and using a command-line interface.

This YouTube account by James Murphy provides many mini tutorials on programming and mathematics mainly in Python and C++.

Go to tutorials

This course aims to teach a core set of established, intermediate-level software development skills and best practices for working as part of a team in a research environment using Python as an example programming language. The core set of skills we teach is not a comprehensive set of all-encompassing skills, but a selective set of tried-and-tested collaborative development skills that forms a firm foundation for continuing on your learning journey.

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This book (Python Packages) teaches how to create Python packages and describes modern and efficient workflows required for creating Python packages.

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This course is aimed at beginners who want to level up to an intermediate python level. As such, it is aimed at individuals who have some experience of Python, particularly basic Python syntax, Functions, basic classes (will cover advanced usages mostly), basic NumPy (will mention, but not cover), Git.

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Th full text of the Python Data Science Handbook by Jake VanderPlas is available on the website below; the content is also available on GitHub in the form of Jupyter notebooks.

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This handbook covers building software in Python for RSEs. 

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This course is an open introduction to Python for psychologists. It is aimed at beginners.

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Programming Historian provides many courses and workshops on topics like Python, data management and visualisation, mapping, web scraping, network analysis, etc. particularly in the humanities and information management. 

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