Update module 5: Testing your Code

[jemrobinson]

These changes will be coordinated by YOUR NAME HERE

General (applicable to every module)

• Make each module independent of earlier ones (ie. do not rely on examples/specific code from earlier modules)
• Ensure that each module has some small exercises (say 1x 5 min exercise per 45 mins or teaching); add a larger (optional) exercise per course for attendees to complete in their own time
• Update to use more modern libraries and tools (eg. pandas/scipy/numba/poetry)
• Add instructions to the notebooks that you should "Take 5 minutes to do this exercise"
• Add estimated timing information at the top of each notebook
• Switch to a colourblind-friendly colour scheme throughout
• What do you wish people had told you about Python/coding in general?

Module 5: Testing your Code

• The last exercise (DiffusionExample) is too hard and too long, and not particularly related to testing.
• For the debugging section, there is not much in the notebook but we did a demo of the debugging capabilities in Jupyter lab.
• Similarly for the Continuous Integration, there isn't much in the notebook, but we showed an example of a .travis.yml file and results page on travis-ci.com, and also did a live demo of a Github Action (checking for a README file) on a fork of the github-example repo that was created in the previous day's course.
• 👍 for our inclusion of the GH Action example
• No-one uses pdb on the commandline. We demo'd "here's how it could be done in pdb and here's how you probably would do it in an IDE", which I think was the right strategy.
  • definitely no-one runs pdb from inside a Jupyter notebook!
• There is almost no real content in the CI notebook. The Memory and Profiling section doesn't really belong there and should be moved or removed.
  • Jack proposes moving this to programming for speed
• The final notebook uses simulated annealing but doesn't say so. It is quite long so there is a reasonable probability that it will skipped on the day or need to be covered very quickly.
• Replace all old py.test names with pytest
• In the list of common testing frameworks: Make pytest the top of the list for Python, remove nose or replace it with nose2
• check the frameworks and links for other languages are up to date
• Remove all uses of nose in favour of pytest equivalents

[edwardchalstrey1]

See also #131