[BlindMath] resource questions

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
If you learn python, you can do pretty much everything you can do in R.
Coding is really a self-learning job, so people can lecture you on it, but
you don't learn anything until you go and crash programs for yourself.
Excel is very similar. I personally use GSheets, but it is not good for big
data over 50000 rows or so. Excel is much faster.
in spreadsheets, you have 2 terms that you need to know: function and range.
Range is a selection of cells. They can look like:
A1:A10, A1:B10, A1:A (all the A column), A1, B1:1 (the whole 1 row)...
Functions are actions you can do with ranges. They start with = and you
wrap the input into left paren (, and right paren ).
For example:
=sum(A1:A)
sums from A1 down to the bottom of the A column.
One of the most useful functions is the if function:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/if-function-
69aed7c9-4e8a-4755-a9bc-aa8bbff73be2
=IF(A1>10, "Score!", "Missed")
which means: if A1 is greater than 10, make the cell with the if statement
say "score", otherwise make it say "missed".

In GSheets I use the query function 90% of the time, so once you feel
comfortable using basic formulas, take a look at:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/get-transform-in-
excel-2016-881c63c6-37c5-4ca2-b616-59e18d75b4de?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

For python tutorials, you should stick to python 3.X. Python can do
anything, it is just a question of how much code you are willing to write.
Here are a list of some tutorials:
A fantastic newbie tutorial:
https://pythonprogramming.net/introduction-to-python-programming/
You can follow this one until the tkinter part, skip over that because
tkinter is a GUI that is not very accessible, then move on to the next
section. But at the tkinter section, you should know enough to really
gather enough incites about data.

Here are some other python tutorials:
Official python tutorial, very dry, but very comprehensive and accessible:
https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/

List of python tutorials:
https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers

Note, while installing python 3.X, you need to add python.exe to the system
search path. This will be a checkbox on the screen that asks you the
components you wish to install. The box is not checked by default. You need
to check it.

You will also need a text editor to write and save your code. Notepad++
works just fine, but I use:
https://github.com/EmpowermentZone/EdSharp

Some quick and useful key commands are:
ctrl+d, delete line
ctrl+up and down arrow, move to different sections
tab, indent the current line, or indent all selected lines.
ctrl+\ open a cmd prompt where you can type: python filename.py, and run
that file.
alt+\ open windows explorer at the current file's location
alt+r, open recent files
f4, open list of currently open files

There is a massive manual for EdSharp, I just gave you some of the most
common commands I use.
Thanks,




Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>

On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 10:54 AM, zhen holmes via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> So it's come to my attention recently that there are some skills that I am
> going to have to start learning, and since I'm really not the best at self
> teaching, I was hoping that you might have some suggestions about how best
> to acquire these new skills. First, and probably foremost, I need to learn
> how to fully utilize excell, using a screen reader. I know some of you have
> offered to help, but I don't want to be a pain if I can help it. A second
> concern that has come up frequently, which I have been trying
> unsuccessfully to avoid, is the issue of learning to code. It has come up
> in a bunch of conversations now, and seems like it is a necessary skill to
> acquire. My problem is that, again, I have no idea how to go about starting
> to learn this. Do you take a class, use tutorials, read a book? Plus, how
> do you incorporate a screen reader in the mix. Finally, something that I'm
> keeping in mind for the future is learning how to use r. It sounds like it
> will be a good thing to know, but its not at the top of my list just now.
> Either way, I'd appreciate any advice you might have about how to learn,
> and where to go to acquire these skills.
> Thanks and best,
> ZH
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