The goal of research is to evaluate a new idea and create a body of work
that can improve the methods of scientific inquiry, either by simplifying
the process or by uncovering new knowledge. When research-driven software
exists in the public domain it is serving this very purpose. However, it
is too common to download a new algorithm or API and find it sparsely
documented in terms of overall...
Teaching programming to biologists is one of the key challenges of bioinformatics educators. A few weekends ago, when several dozen bioinformaticians from across Canada organized to discuss curriculum and educational practice, this was certainly an issue of contention. How do you rapidly give a novice computer user the experience and wherewithal to design and write computer programs? Furthermore...
