Faith Okamoto

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• Keeping a "dry lab" lab notebook

  What did I do yesterday?

  By Faith Okamoto

  Posted on November 23, 2024

  I define “dry lab” as “science with computers” (e.g. data analysis), “wet lab” as “science with physical things” (e.g. mice), and “field work” as “science outdoors” (e.g. specimen collection). My wet lab courses taught how to keep a lab notebook. I mostly hear of them for wet lab or field... [Read More]

  Tags:

  • process

• Organizing files for code

  Folders, scripts, and data oh my!

  By Faith Okamoto

  Posted on November 16, 2024

  Today I’ll discuss a meta-issue: not what you put in the code, but where you put the code. I’m not so arrogant as to think my way of organizing is the best. Instead, I’ll discuss what I do, and explain why. Take what you’d like. [Read More]

  Tags:

  • process
  • file-level

• Crediting sources in your code

  Not just about plagiarism

  By Faith Okamoto

  Posted on November 4, 2024

  I’ve been copying code from other sources for some recent scripting. Copy-paste is an incredible time-saver. (Provided it’s used well, i.e. you double-check the code and understand what it does.) Another best practice, or at least a practice recommended by me, is to credit sources in your code. [Read More]

  Tags:

  • comments

• Using keyword arguments

  Even when you don't have to

  By Faith Okamoto

  Posted on October 26, 2024

  You probably use functions. (If you don’t use functions, then, um, please do.) Those functions probably have parameters. When you call a function, you pass specific values to those parameters. Today’s post is about using keyword arguments during those invocations. [Read More]

  Tags:

  • parameters
  • naming

• Repetitive comments

  Comments that repeat the code (;D)

  By Faith Okamoto

  Posted on October 14, 2024

  I’ve been using ChatGPT to write code for a class. (This is explicitly encouraged by the professor.) Its default style has one of my pet peeves: comments that do nothing but repeat the code. The LLM does this because, its training data, lots and lots of humans wrote these kinds... [Read More]

  Tags:

  • comments

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