Code Clinic

Code clinics will be done online using Google Hangouts for the foreseeable future due to the current Covid-19 situation.

Stop wasting valuable time trying to fix issues on your own.

Code Clinics are fortnightly support sessions run by the RSE team and IT Services’ Research and Innovation IT (ITS R&I) team. They are open to anyone at TUOS writing code for research to get help with programming problems and general advice on best practice.

At each session, members of the RSE and/or ITS R&I teams will be available to review code, advise, troubleshoot and suggest ways to improve your computational workflows.

Where?

A Google Meet link will be provided in the Google Calendar invite issued when you book a clinic.

Who: Are you…

• Thinking of ways to improve your code?
• Want to automate a task (e.g: series of scripts)?
• Unsure of which software tools to use for your project?
• You have a lot of data and need help organising, storing, accessing or visualising it?
• Need some advice on optimising your code?
• Want to know whether your code could run faster on multiple cores or GPUs?
• Want to re-write your code written in one language (e.g: Excel) in another language such as Python?
• Need help with version control?
• Want to know more about making your code open and/or citable?

We can help!

When

Every second Wednesday (13:30 - 15:30).

Book a slot

Clinic sessions are split into 3 half-hourly slots, bookable for consultation.

Book a code clinic session now

Note that slots can only be booked 48 hours or more before the scheduled time.

Preparing for your session

• Organise and annotate your code with clarifying comments.
• Try and restrict any materials you show us to those related to the specific matter at hand. Consider stripping your code or data down to a small reproducible example of your problem.
• If helping with the problem requires us to understand your data, please include at the very least a README file with descriptions of data attributes.
• Please test your microphone before joining the Google Meet.
• If you think it would be useful for you to share your screen with a helper then you can do this via Google Meet. We ask that if you do choose to share your screen with a helper that you consider in advance whether you will be exposing confidential data/code/information that helpers are not permitted to view. If you have any questions regarding the information security implications of sharing your screen please contact the TUOS Information Security team via it-servicedesk@sheffield.ac.uk

On the day

• If wanting to share your screen, try and have your workflow set up, ready to demonstrate your issue.

We will always try and help as best as possible. The overarching aim of the sessions is to better equip you to solve your own computational problems. This may include directing you to relevant documentation, appropriate online forums and resources, relevant upcoming training sessions, etc.

Cancelling your session

If you cannot attend the session, please give a No response on the calendar invite so we can proceed to remove your booking from the system.

Any questions before your session?

In the first instance please contact the helper assigned to your request (see your Google Calendar appointment event for details) or if a helper hasn’t been assigned yet please contact code-clinic-helpers-group@sheffield.ac.uk.

Please do not reply directly to auto-generated emails received after booking a Code Clinic session - the associated mailbox is not monitored.

Interested in getting involved?

If you would like to get involved as a helper, please contact Will Furnass or Anna Krystalli in the RSE team.