Spring 2025 pain points

[nick-ulle]

This issue is for pain points we identified in the Spring 2025 iteration of this workshop.

• Shell commands (in future iterations, Intro to Command Line will be a prereq)
• Paths (this will also be covered in detail in Intro to Command Line)
• What is Jupyter (we have notes in the reader about this, but during the workshop we need to really emphasize what it is, how it differs from Python, etc.)
  • And how to use Jupyter with Pixi (e.g., what if I want to install a package after I open a notebook?)
  • What a kernel is
• In Jupyter: console vs notebooks (we had a few learners use the console the entire time, which caused problems when we asked them to restart the kernel)
• When to use functions versus methods
• PyArrow is an unlisted dependency for Plotnine (see Module Dependency Missing from Tutorial? #12)
• FastExcel is an unlisted dependency
• Why np.sum and other NumPy aggregation functions give an error on a Polars series
• Why pl.sum and other Polars aggregation functions give an error on a Polars series (outside of .select and friends)
  • Really we just need to make sure we give a clear explanation of the Polars computational model up front
• Jupyter running in the terminal: the terminal window has to be kept open and it will no longer respond to most things you type

Not pain points but notes for future instructors:

• Distinguish between variables and objects
• Make sure there's an example of grouping on more than 1 column

Other notes:

• Update viz best practices for accessibility