Pre-assessment form

To fill the form, please download the corresponding text file and send it to matthieu.bruneaux@ens-lyon.org and carlos.pena@utu.fi..

(This pre-assessment form is a modified material from Software Carpentry).

  1. Name

  2. Email address

  3. What is your career stage?

    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
    • Post-doc
    • Faculty
    • Industry
    • Support staff
    • Other:

  4. Which of the following most closely aligns with your primary discipline?

    • Space sciences
    • Physics
    • Chemistry
    • Earth sciences (geology, oceanography, meteorology)
    • Life science (ecology, zoology, botany)
    • Life science (biology, genetics)
    • Brain and neurosciences
    • Medicine
    • Engineering (civil, mechanical, chemical)
    • Computer science and electrical engineering
    • Economics
    • Humanities and social sciences
    • Tech support, lab tech, or support programmer
    • Administration
    • Other:

  5. In three sentences or less, please describe your current field of work or research question.

  6. What operating system will you use on the laptop you bring to the workshop?

    • Linux
    • Apple OS X
    • Windows
    • I do not know what operating system I use.
    • I am not bringing a laptop to the workshop.
    • Other:

  7. With which programming languages could you write a program from scratch that reads a column of numbers from a text file and calculates mean and standard deviation of that data?

    • C
    • C++
    • Perl
    • MATLAB
    • Python
    • R
    • Java
    • Other(s):
    • I do not use any programming languages.

  8. What best describes how often you currently program?

    • I have never programmed.
    • I program less than one a year.
    • I program once a year.
    • I program several times a year.
    • I program once a month.
    • I program once a week or more.

  9. What best describes the complexity of your programming? (Choose all that apply.)

    • I have never programmed.
    • I write scripts that are a few lines long to analyze data.
    • I write programs that are a page or two long for my own use.
    • I write programs that are many pages long for my own use and for others to use.
    • I am primarily a programmer.

    (In each of the following scenarios, please select the answer that best applies to you.)

  10. A tab-delimited file has two columns showing the date and the highest temperature on that day. Write a program to produce a graph showing the average highest temperature for each month.

    • I could not complete this task.
    • I could complete the task with documentation or search engine help.
    • I could complete the task with little or no documentation or search engine help.

  11. How familiar do you think you are with version control?

    • I am not familiar with version control.
    • I am familiar only with the name.
    • I am familiar with version control but have never used it.
    • I am familiar with version control because I have used it or am using it.
    • Version control system I am familiar with (if any):

  12. Answer only if you answered (4) on the previous question. Given the URL for a project's version control repository, check out a working copy of that project, add a file called notes.txt, and commit the change.

    • I could not complete this task.
    • I could complete the task with documentation or search help.
    • I could complete the task with little or no documentation or search help.

  13. How familiar do you think you are with unit testing and code coverage?

    • I am not familiar with unit testing or code coverage.
    • I am familiar only with the names unit testing and code coverage.
    • I am familiar with unit testing or code coverage but have never used it.
    • I am familiar with unit testing or code coverage because I have or am using it.

  14. Answer only if you answered (4) on the previous question. Given a 200-line function to test, write half a dozen tests using a unit testing framework and use code coverage to check that they exercise every line of the function.

    • I could not complete this task.
    • I could complete the task with documentation or search engine help.
    • I could complete the task with little or no documentation or search engine help.

  15. How familiar do you think you are with the command line?

    • I am not familiar at all with the command line.
    • I am familiar only with the name command line.
    • I am familiar with the command line but have never used it.
    • I am familiar with the command line because I have or am using it.

  16. Answer only if you answered (4) on the previous question. How would you solve this problem? A directory contains 1000 text files. Create a list of all files that contain the word "Drosophila" and save the result to a file called results.txt.

    • I could not create this list.
    • I would create this list using "Find in Files" and "copy and paste".
    • I would create this list using basic command line programs.
    • I would create this list using a pipeline of command line programs.