Python, How Not to Scare Beginners

This year has been my aggressive move to use and teach Python.

With the help of my manager and teammates, I was able to showcase Python to my colleagues.

I couldn't deny that I'm an amateur in programming, I'm not even a software developer by job profession, but I have this urge to help people who wants to know, but is unable to find mentors, because I was like them too when I started.

Not necessarily me, but I wanted to be a catalyst to inspire more programmers to teach and the other to ask for help.

From 2019 to the present, I have participated in few events to learn and showcase automation.

I was able to share to our counterparts some automation tools that I have developed in-house. This created a domino effect where became more active with teaching about programming.

Earlier this year, I was able present in a Show and Tell event about a Machine Learning project using PIL and Numpy to automate testing.

Most of the audience were seasoned firmware and software engineers, so showing something technical was fine, but how will I showcase programming in fun way?

I have joined a some demos in my life too, but the bookish approach was maddening, sorry, but Jupyter notebooks is too much for first-day learners.

So I devised my own strategy on how to catch both attention and incite motivation to learners without scaring them.

Python as a Friend

I joined a share session and showcase "Python as a Friend" event, where about half of the audience are new learners.

I started the talk that I'm not an expert, I jusy find programming fun and that I'm also curious enough to find ways to automate my tasks.

Then I asked them if their tasks can be automated too, or if it was repititive. If it's repititive then automation can help.

Scenario: "But I can't code."

Response: "Then share it with your team, they can help you."

Yes, some will help you out, just define what you want, sketch it, spec it out—that's the desirable beginning of a project.

Knowing what's the starting point sheds light that coding can be easier when a plan is laid out.

Then I started show a collage of my mini tools that I used during hard times (automation helps) and talk about it's history and what it does.

Starting a topic about difficulty then show how you went pass through it will help new learners sympathize and build rapport with you, and actually believe that automation** is really helpful**.

I shared about what is Python, just a line from Wikipedia and simpilified it into layman's terms.

Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language.

Source

Then I showed what industries uses Python, why they use it, and why we should use it too.

Showing where Python stands will make new learners guage if how valuable it is to learn a programming language.

Then the most basic on how to start:

1. Terminal, CMD, PuTTY
2. Decide which Python version to use (3.x)
3. Download a desired text editor or IDE
4. Follow hands-on tutorials
5. Follow best practices early on
6. Do personal excercises
7. Start your project
8. Git* / Git for Windows

Tips and tricks?

• Just start
• Don't expect perfection
• Take it one feature (or sub-feature) at a time
• Libs/Frameworks, always do research then choose
• Grow and evolve, don't fear new techs
• Learn when to stop, kill the project or imorove it
• Share it, receive feedback

I shown text editors and IDEs and talked not about which is better, but about choosing what will work best for you, and that even Notepad++ is enough to start coding.

I gathered and organized some icons of Python libraries, group into native libs, big data, web toolkits, dev ops, and others.

Organizing their toolkit will help them gain insight and connecting what they see and whay problems they want to solve.

Then I shown them some of my go-to sites to learn and find solutions in buggy situations—StackOverflow is in the list ;)

With the internet, everything is jus a search away:

How? Search

• stackoverflow keyword
• stackoverflow lib is not working
• stackoverflow put error code here
• framework basic example
• framework tutorial about this and that

Then lastly, I shared that if they want to learn more, I'd be happy to help. Why? Because when I needed help, I was too afraid to find help.

I'm leaving you with a quote from Helmut Schmidt:

The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

#CodeRunDebug

About Me

Hive account@oniemaniego is a test engineer, but outside work, he experiments in the kitchen, writes poetry and fiction, paints his heart out, or toils under the hot sun.

	Onie Maniego was born in Leyte, PH. He grew up in a rural area with a close-knit community and a simple lifestyle, he is often visiting his father's orchards during summer and weekends, which has a great impact on his works.

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