Comments on: Where is ciao X ? http://hea-www.harvard.edu/AstroStat/slog/2009/where-is-ciao-x/ Weaving together Astronomy+Statistics+Computer Science+Engineering+Intrumentation, far beyond the growing borders Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:47:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: vlk http://hea-www.harvard.edu/AstroStat/slog/2009/where-is-ciao-x/comment-page-1/#comment-899 vlk Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:15:06 +0000 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/AstroStat/slog/?p=3260#comment-899 This may be a cultural difference, but almost nobody I know learns analysis systems or programming languages by reading manuals and tutorials. The fastest and most efficient way to learn a new language is by doing. By <strike>finding</strike> hacking solutions to specific problems, or by modifying existing code. I take my hat off to those people who have the patience and the <strike>temerity</strike> capacity to ingest tutorials. I note that it is not the goal of the CXC to encourage more people to explore Chandra data. It <em>is</em> their goal to ensure <em>good</em> analysis, by people who <em>can</em> do so. Not the same thing. PS: asking Chandra people "where is ciao X" will get you the answer that you can get it when you source <code>/proj/ciaox/bin/ciao.csh</code> -- that's the local beta version, it is called <em>ciaox</em>. This may be a cultural difference, but almost nobody I know learns analysis systems or programming languages by reading manuals and tutorials. The fastest and most efficient way to learn a new language is by doing. By finding hacking solutions to specific problems, or by modifying existing code. I take my hat off to those people who have the patience and the temerity capacity to ingest tutorials.

I note that it is not the goal of the CXC to encourage more people to explore Chandra data. It is their goal to ensure good analysis, by people who can do so. Not the same thing.

PS: asking Chandra people “where is ciao X” will get you the answer that you can get it when you source /proj/ciaox/bin/ciao.csh — that’s the local beta version, it is called ciaox.

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