This week I’m joined by David Amos, the content technical lead here at Real Python.
In this interview, we talk about David’s love of LEGO and mathematics. We also talk about the Python Basics book, which is soon to be out of early access, and his involvement with PyCoder’s Weekly. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Ricky: Thank you for joining me, David. Many of our readers and members may already know your background, but for those who don’t, let’s ask the inevitable questions: How did you get into programming, and when did you start using Python?
David: I discovered programming by accident when I came across the source code for the Gorillas game on my parents’ IBM 386 PS/2 computer. I guess I was about seven or eight years old. I found something called a .BAS file that opened up a program called QBasic and had all sorts of strange-looking text in it. I was instantly intrigued!
There was a note at the top of the file that explained how to adjust the game speed. I changed the value and ran the game. The effect was instantly noticeable. It was a thrilling experience.
I was obsessed with learning to program in QBasic. I made my own text adventure games. I even made a few animations using simple geometric shapes. It was tons of fun!
QBasic was a fantastic language for an eight-year-old kid to learn. It was challenging enough to keep me interested but easy enough to get quick results, which is really important for a child.
When I was around ten years old, I tried to teach myself C++. The ideas were too complex, and results came too slowly. After a few months of struggling, I stopped. But the idea of programming computers remained attractive to me—enough so that I took a web technology class in high school and learned the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
In college, I decided to major in mathematics, but I needed a minor. I chose computer science because I thought having some experience with programming would make it easier to complete the degree requirements.
I learned about data structures with C++. I took an object-oriented programming class with Java. I studied operating systems and parallel computing with C. My programming horizons expanded vastly, and I found the whole subject pleasing both practically and intellectually.
At that time, I viewed programming as a tool to help me with mathematics research. In graduate school, I wrote programs to generate examples and test ideas for my research projects.
It was during graduate school, around 2013, that I found Python and pretty much instantly fell in love. I’d been using C++, MATLAB, and Mathematica as my primary research tools, but Python allowed me to focus on the research problem without getting caught up in the code.
And with Python’s awesome ecosystem of tools for scientific computing, like NumPy, SciPy, PuLP, and NetworkX, I had everything I needed to tackle problems like I would with MATLAB but in a much more expressive manner!
Ricky: You often hear the myth that a strong mathematics background is a prerequisite to be a programmer. While I think you’ll agree that it’s not always necessary for programmers to know advanced math, I’m curious to know how your math and data science background has helped you when writing code.
Read the full article at https://realpython.com/interview-david-amos/ »
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