Latest News

a, McGill, News, SSMU

Midnight Kitchen resumes normal operations following two months out of service

by Shrinkhala Dawadi on

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The Midnight Kitchen reopened on Monday after being closed for nearly two months. The pay-what-you-can vegan food collective initially closed last November after an incident when the kitchen and storage area were vandalized. The kitchen was expected to resume its operations within the first two weeks of this semester, but a rodent infestation in the Brown building forced it to postpone th reopening until Monday.

“This is not the first time we’ve had issues [with] mice in the entire building,” said Diego, a volunteer at the kitchen who declined to provide his last name. “SSMU [Students’ Society of McGill University] and Midnight Kitchen […] have done everything to ensure that our kitchen is protected from any potential hazard [….] They’ve fumigated the kitchen [and] bought new bins that are more resistant to rodents.” 

Going forward, Grace, another volunteer at the kitchen who declined to provide a last name, explained that operations should currently be running as planned, especially after the renewal of the kitchen’s Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) permits had been renewed, which allow the kitchen to store and distribute food.  

“We have two new MAPAQ certified-for-life staff members,” Grace said.

SSMU Vice-President Clubs and Services Stefan Fong added that SSMU has also taken measures to counter the rodent infestation. 

“We haven’t been involved in the reopening itself, but we helped [the Midnight Kitchen] clean their space and do their MAPAQ training,” Fong said. “We now have a pest control technician who covers all the McGill buildings. We submit reports to him via a form we’ve created for tenants to document sightings.”

a, Science & Technology

Do you want fries with that?

by Chloe Nevitt on

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Next time you think you’re deciding between a salad and fries, your brain may have already subconsciously made the decision for you. A research team from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre has shown that food choices are largely governed by past experiences.

“In our study, we were interested in learning about how people make decisions in regards to food,” explained Deborah Tang, lead author of the study. “We took 29 people and put them in an MRI scanner. We showed them pictures of food and asked how much they’d be willing to pay for each picture.” 

This method, known as the Becker-DeGroot-Marshak auction, has participants bidding between $0 and $5 in $0.50 increments for each item.  The best strategy is to bid what one is willing to pay for the item, which then enables the research team to determine how much a person is willing to pay.

The team concluded that the participants’ choices and willingness to pay were based on the caloric density—the amount of calories per gram—of the food. Iwnitially, the team believed that the participants would choose the healthier food items that were lower in calories; however, they quickly realized that this wasn’t the case.

It doesn’t matter how many calories a person believes is in the food, explained Tang.

“The brain creates this response to food based on previous exposure to it in terms of calories.” 

The participant will want to go for the food item that in the past has provided them with the largest amount of calories. These feeding patterns are signalled by an area of the brain known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The vmPFC reacts to stimuli and is responsible for decision-making. Brain scans of the participants  from Tang’s study showed high activity in these regions during their bidding session.

The study also had participants accurately try to estimate the caloric contents of the food items they were bidding on. Surprisingly, the participants did a poor job determining the calories present in the foods; however, they still consistently chose the higher calorie option. This indicates that despite not being able to identify the higher calorie food, people will still choose it.

“While this is showing that subconsciously you don’t have a lot of control on this, [maybe] certain drugs can alter your brains response to food,” Tang said. 

According to the latest Canada census, one in four people are obese and the ability to cut back on food by managing cravings could mean great things for those trying to lose weight. These urges involves another aspect that the team is investigating: The hunger hormone ghrelin.

“[Ghrelin] goes up before feeding, and down after,” explained Tang. “High levels of ghrelin leads you to eat more.” 

Understanding the signaling pathways responsible for hunger urges can provide help to those suffering from type II diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

So, don’t feel bad the next time you’re reaching for the brownie you shouldn’t be having—your brain’s already decided for you.

a, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: Dan Mangan – Club Meds

by Martin Molpeceres on

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Club Meds constitutes the fourth studio album for Canadian musician Dan Mangan—the first with Blacksmith as his backing band—and takes a departure from the songwriter’s folky style into more abstract musical genres. Attempting to convey a darker, atmospheric flair through eclectic melodies and slow vocals, the album falls spectacularly flat, coming off as lazy and unenergetic as Mangan meanders from one track to the next.

Every song sounds gratingly similar to the last, beginning and ending with non-musical beats and sound bites, which feel like an attempt to sound innovative or challenging, but instead, bleed together into an indistinct mess. This of course isn’t helped by lackluster lyrics, which are marred by pretentious quotations that carry less depth than probably intented. 

The welcome exception to all this is the album’s excellent second single “Mouthpiece,” in which Mangan reverts back to his more traditional folk-rock style, making the album briefly come alive with energetic guitar strums and seemingly more attentive vocals. However, this only serves to highlight the failings of the rest of the album. Ultimately, where other musicians like Ryan Hemsworth and The Weeknd succeed in toning down their music to complement a great atmosphere, Mangan fails, coming off as boring and generic.

 

a, Off the Board, Opinion

Off the Board: The folly of satirizing North Korea

by Natalie Wong on

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Satire has often been an effective form of political protest used to garner attention towards raging dictatorships around the world and to provide a common ground upon which individuals can unite to creatively point out the disfunctionalities of authoritarian systems. The latest incident that has incited uproar on media outlets was the depiction of North Korea’s authoritarian regime in The Interview, a film featuring comedians Seth Rogen and James Franco, who embark on a quest to assassinate Kim Jong-Un, the regime’s leader. However, this film deviates from the function of satire as a political tool and works instead to belittle the tragic experiences of individuals suffering under the authoritarian regime. 

The film generated mass attention when a cyber attack on Sony Pictures, the distributor of the film, occurred. This resulted in a cyber pledge from the North Korean hackers against Sony Pictures to incite violence in theatres that showed the film and eventually culminated in Sony’s decision to cancel the screenings of the movie in theatres. 

Director Judd Apatow publicly chastised Sony for its decision to cancel the screenings, a stance supported by many others. Opinions arose claiming that the film is a defiant act against the regime of North Korea, which should be supported and not suppressed. Apparently, watching it is a testament to the United States’ and the Western world’s commitment to free speech. In fact, a screening was scheduled for this past Jan. 14 in a Montreal theatre, garnering much attention on social media. The Interview generated widespread endorsement, which creates concern for Western societies’ endorsement of a film that plays against the sufferings within a nation. 

Regardless of its political context, The Interview is tasteless; brimmed with cheap sex jokes and juvenile humour. Franco and Rogen are portrayed as idiots incapable of carrying out an assassination. Taking into account the political controversy of The Interview, though,  one could make the argument that the film acts as a challenge to North Korea’s regime because it ridicules its dictator. In this case, humour would be seen as a tool for expression, and satire as a means of shining light on a tragic circumstance. But alas, the plentiful degrading body jokes used in the film do not reflect the pains of the millions oppressed in North Korea. This is a movie made for Hollywood’s comedic purposes and the scale of the current reigning terror of Kim Jong-Un’s administration is not a joke. The Interview is not an act of bravery and it certainly does not portray North Korea’s regime, which starves its own people and sponsors concentration camps that imprison millions, in an appropriate light.

Moreover, The Interview focuses on Kim Jong-Un’s quirks as opposed to the evil he has inflicted. Yes, ridicule has a function in working against tyrannical regimes, seen through several cases in the Middle East where protesters used humour to bolster their movements for democracy.  In Syria, for example, satirical anti-Assad graffiti and biting slogans are characteristic of street protests amidst the civil war that has consumed thousands of lives. While these acts had an impact for the civilians suffering under the regime, The Interview does not advocate for the free speech of a population that is isolated from the world. In order to truly grasp the effects of such a system, the irrationality of North Korea’s regime from a Western perspective must be simultaneously combined with deep acknowledgement of the state-sponsored scheme of indoctrination created and upheld, which The Interview does not do. In fact, the film is filled with amusing delusions that can paradoxically serve Kim Jong-Un’s regime by distracting from his dictatorship.  

As citizens coming from free nations, Canadians can perceive the absurdity of Kim Jong-Un’s regime as cause for mocking it. However, Canadians must be mindful that such an act of government critique can cost a North Korean citizen his or her life and the lives of his or her families. If North Koreans are finally liberated one day from Kim Jong-Un’s administration, they will see that citizens of free nations sat idly by and laughed at their source of horror through derogatory jokes such as those in The Interview, tasteless costumes at Golden Globe Awards (like the one worn by Margaret Cho), and Buzzfeed articles titled “Who did it: Beyonce or Kim Jong-Un,” while they suffered in a constant state of repression. 

The main problem concerning The Interview is the mass attention the film received and the widespread endorsement regarding the viewing of such an insensitive film. Through this debacle, one thing became clear—North Korea’s reign of terror became a source of our amusement.  

a, Opinion

Commentary: Insensitivity towards blackface fuels cultural tensions

by Kathleen Rose Kennedy on

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If you have ever lived in Montreal, you have almost certainly experienced or heard of on-going disputes between francophones and anglophones about language, tuition fees, or even religion. The most recent source of tension between the two groups emerged when an actor used blackface to mimic Montreal Canadiens superstar P.K. Subban at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert (TRV), an action which has been interpreted very differently by the francophone and anglophone media. 

Some claim the profound divide in their reactions is the result of two divergent cultures. However, ignorance of the history of blackface and its offensive overtones is no defence for its practice. As a bicultural and bilingual Quebecer, I feel that the TRV displayed insensitivity in its use of blackface. The Francophone media, too, were callous their subsequent defence of blackface.

Blackface was used in minstrel shows in the U.S. until the early 1900s and was used to portray black men as ignorant, idle, and silly. The New Oxford Dictionary defines blackface as “the make-up used by a nonblack performer playing a black role. The role is typically comedic or musical, and is usually is considered offensive.”

While the practice of using blackface is historically common in French-language theatres in Quebec, the controversy reached a boiling point with the publication of Pat Donnelly’s article in the Montreal Gazette. Donnelly was enraged at the fact that the use of blackface is still prevalent in today’s society, and argued that Denise Filiatrault, the show’s artistic director, should have known better. 

Filiatrault responded with outrage to the negative reviews. She argued that it would have cost much more money to hire a black actor because there wouldn’t have been any other roles for him to play afterwards. Her response clearly highlights the underlying problem that she would not hire a black actor to play any other roles. Nevertheless, Filiatrault denied accusations of racism by reminding the public she has hired many people of colour throughout her career as a director. Because of all the controversy, Filiatrault claimed that she will never have another black character on stage again. This of course did nothing to calm the maelstrom, but only renders a visible minority invisible in her theatre. One can only hope that other theatres will not follow suit.

The francophone media, too, has denied accusations of racism by arguing that anglophones are misunderstanding French culture. Normand Brathwaite, a francophone comedian and actor said in a radio interview, “They don’t know our culture, they don’t understand.” 

Using the time-old ‘culture card’ that “anglophones don’t understand” is not justifiable in instances of blatant racism, especially considering the discriminatory history of blackface. What is interesting in this case is that Brathwaite is, himself, black. This emphasizes the entrenched belief among many francophones, regardless of their race, that blackface is innocuous. 

It is possible that since anglophones tend to be more exposed to U.S. media than French Canadians. Yet Donnelly argues that blackface has been a part of Quebec’s society for nearly 30 years. Given the ready access to historical information about the culturally offensive background of blackface, francophones have no excuse not to be informed and sensitive to the fact that blackface is highly discriminatory and has no place in their theatres.

a, Men's Varsity, Sports

Labrecque leads Redmen past Gaels

by Aaron Rose on

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McGill Redmen
4

 

 

Queen's Gaels
1

 

Freshman defenceman Samuel Labrecque came out of the Redmen locker room after Friday night’s game and addressed the media outside in short, quiet sentences.

“I was pretty lucky on all the goals,” Labrecque said, after ending a 22 game hat trick drought for McGill and becoming the first Redmen blueliner in 19 years to accomplish the impressive feat.

Modesty aside, Labrecque’s heroics helped McGill top Queen’s 4-1, stretching its streak to 27-consecutive games without a loss to the Golden Gaels (9-12-1). With the win, the CIS No. 8 ranked Redmen improve to 17-5-0 on the year, tied for second place in the OUA East division with Carleton. Despite the victory, McGill came out slow, with only four shots in the first frame.

“In the first [period,] I just didn’t think we were skating,” Head Coach Kelly Nobes said. “We weren’t getting pucks behind [their defence] nor to the net.”

After their poor showing in the first period, the Redmen opened the scoring early in the second. Just 30 seconds into the stanza, Queen’s backstop Kevin Bailie misplayed a puck behind the net, leading to an easy one-timer for senior centre Marc-Olivier Vachon. Halfway through the frame, the floodgates finally opened for McGill. With the help of third-year defenceman Jean-Philippe Mathieu, who was playing in his first game of the season after fracturing his eye in a freak golfing accident, Labrecque found the back of the net three times in an eight-minute span. A one-timer from the point made the score 2-0 before he added another two in quick succession—a tip-in in front of the net and a pinpoint shot to the top corner.

“The guys made great plays on my second one,” Labrecque said. “I just put a lot of pucks on net, and it ended up working for me.”

The final frame saw the Gaels switch to sophomore netminder Chris Clarke after Bailie had given up four goals on just 16 shots in the second. Clarke stopped all 11 Redmen shots in the final period, but Queen’s could not crack McGill’s sophomore netminder Jacob Gervais-Chouinard, who added another spectacular performance to his resumé after registering a shutout in his last start.

As the Redmen sticks cooled off in the third, tempers began to flare. Five roughing minors had both boxes packed tight before McGill’s bruising winger Neal Prokop was called for unsportsmanlike conduct to put the Redmen down a man.

The Redmen, however, are no strangers to the art of playing shorthanded. They continued to dominate on the penalty kill, blanking the Gaels on all eight of their power plays and upping their penalty kill rate to a conference-best 90.3 per cent.

“Our penalty kill has been real good for us all year,” Nobes said. “There are a lot of things that go into a good penalty kill […] certainly the goalie stopping the puck is a big part of that, and [Gervais-Chouinard] was real solid out there tonight.”

Gervais-Chouinard stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced, conceding a rebound goal late in the third after 116 straight minutes of shutout hockey.

On Wednesday, the Redmen head out to Trois-Rivieres to take on the division-leading UQTR Patriotes [17-3-2]. The McGill squad will have revenge on their minds after the Patriotes defeated them 3-1 at McConnell Arena earlier this month.

If the Redmen can come away with a victory against a tough UQTR squad, they’ll be in a good position to run the table and finish the atop the OUA East standings for the first time since the 2011-2012 season.

“It’s a big game,” Nobes said. “If we win our next four games, we finish first and we’d like to finish ahead of Trois-Rivières, so it’s a must-win game for us.”

a, Know Your Athlete, Martlets, Sports

Know your athlete: Carolann Cloutier

by Tiffany Okotako on

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The Martlet basketball team has not lost a game this season and is the only undefeated team remaining in the CIS. McGill currently sits atop the RSEQ Conference with a record of 8-0, and have a lot to be proud about. With a wonderful coach and amazing teammates, it is no wonder that senior guard Carolann Cloutier will be sad to leave this all behind.

The Quebec born, South Shore-raised student-athlete has been playing at the university level for almost five years—her experience both on and off the court in those years has been quite eventful.

Despite her smooth handle and natural shot, many will be surprised to learn that Cloutier’s athletic career did not begin with a basketball in her hands. Growing up, she played soccer—basketball was reserved for gym class.  When she was eight, her gym teacher noticed that she had a talent for the sport and encouraged her parents to sign her up for a weekend league. When she was 15, Cloutier was faced with a tough decision–soccer or basketball. She chose the latter because she felt that she had “more of a future in basketball.” She was right. 

Cloutier would go on to play for Dawson College. In her last year, she was discovered by an NCAA scout and moved to the U.S. where her athletic career took off.

“You’re busy all the time but then you become organized and disciplined,” Cloutier said, reflecting on the shock of transitioning into the U.S. sports atmosphere. “At first, you miss home; the first semester was really hard, but then you get used to it— you have your routine.”

 For her first year in the NCAA, she played at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Unsatisfied with the way things were progressing, but unwilling to come home, she decided to transfer to the University of Massachusetts, where she played two more years in the NCAA and obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology.     

After graduating, Cloutier still wanted to continue playing while also furthering her education. Enter the Martlets—she applied to McGill for a master’s degree to continue playing. In Canada, student-athletes are allowed to play for a maximum of five years. Having spent three years in the NCAA, Cloutier had only two more years to obtain her M.Ed in Educational Psychology.

 Looking back on her years at UMass, Cloutier noted that the main difference between playing in the U.S. and in Canada is that the NCAA is more demanding. 

“You kind of owe it to them because they pay for everything including housing, food, books, and electricity […] so when they tell you to come in and do an extra workout you can’t really say no,” Cloutier explained. 

Her parents have also been a crucial part of her journey. Being an only child, they were able to come and watch her play quite often, and when they visited, they would never come empty-handed.

“[My mom would] prepare me meals and put them in the freezer […] so then it was so much easier and I didn’t have to cook as much,” Cloutier reminisced fondly. 

In the two years that Cloutier has played for the Martlets, she says that her greatest focus has been on defence. 

“I think that is definitely our strength because most teams [don’t] score as much on us as they do when they play other teams,” Cloutier said. “Before Christmas, when we played Laval, they averaged 70 points [per] game and we held them down to about 46. I think with [Head Coach] Ryan [Thorne], it always starts with defence, and if we can stop people, then I’m not worried about offence.”

If she had the chance to do it all over again, she would have taken the same route.

“I like that I’m ending [at] home [in Montreal],” Cloutier said. “I don’t think I would have left if I had started here [at McGill].” 

McGill Tribune (MT): Who is your favourite player in the NBA?

 

Carolann Cloutier (CC): My favorite player is Kobe Bryant. My mom bought tickets for me for Christmas to go watch Kobe in Brooklyn […] and I [got] a message on my phone [prior to this interview] that Kobe is out for the season.

 

MT: What is your idea of the perfect day?

 

CC: The beach. I love it—I actually went to Cuba for Christmas. I just like to lie there or go on a walk the beach. The sound of the water is so relaxing.

 

MT: If you won the lottery what would you do with the money?

 

CC: Honestly, I would have to sit down and not start spending money like crazy. I really like shoes. I would definitely travel. I would see if I could keep playing basketball, and then the salary would not matter because I would already be rich.

 

MT: Most played song on your iPod?

 

CC: You know that movie Pitch Perfect? They played that song Titanium by David Guetta and it’s definitely my most listened-to song in my car.

 

MT: Favourite Montreal restaurant?

 

CC: Lately I’ve been going a lot to Le Vieux Duluth. I just love food in general. But I definitely missed Tim Horton’s when I was gone; Dunkin’ Donuts is not the same. 

a, Editorial, Opinion

Editorial: Balancing peer support and inclusivity essential for progress

by McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Queer McGill, as a part of its Rad Sex Week, will be holding a workshop on Jan. 28 entitled “Desires: A QT*POC Exploration,” an event open only to those who identify as queer or trans* people of colour (POC). The exclusion of white students in the workshop’s description incited significant backlash on social media and has prompted an examination of the broader significance of the event as it relates to the intersection between race and inclusion on campus.

While inclusion and support often operate together to achieve equality, they do not always need to go hand in hand. Queer and trans* POC face their own unique struggles, and having a workshop in which POC within the queer and trans* community can talk about shared experiences and offer each other support is indispensable. There should be defined spaces made available for queer and trans* POC to discuss their common challenges without feeling compelled to explain their distinct perspectives to people who cannot directly relate. The workshop specifically created for queer and trans* POC is therefore a valuable means of providing mutual support for marginalized individuals.

Although the criticism has largely surrounded one specific event, it has also sparked a more general discussion on how to foster a community that is both inclusive and supportive. The concurrent existence of separate spaces for support should not reach a point where exclusion incites a sense of polarization on campus that impedes the movement toward acceptance and equality. If barriers are ever constructed in a way that inhibit support and empathy, there would certainly need to be a reexamination of the separate manner in which discourse is conducted.

The workshops designed to promote discourse within a specific group of individuals should be respected, but should not occlude the general movement toward an overall inclusive community.

Particularly because focusing on specific intersections of people’s identities—in this case, identification as queer or trans* and as a POC—may appear limiting, it is important to prevent these intersections from creating lasting boundaries that ignore the possibility that people might not always relate to others based on both their race and their sexuality.

Those who criticized the exclusive nature of this singular workshop may also be disregarding the variety of avenues that Queer McGill and other groups provide for queer students and allies throughout the year. Allied support is something that Queer McGill has developed in the past in an effort to build a strong community for queer and allied students across campus. There is a plethora of different workshops, discussion groups, lecture series, and even dance parties, all held by Queer McGill, with the goal of providing opportunities for people to take part in the creation of a positive community for queer students at McGill and in Montreal.

Queer McGill has stated that its purpose is to “create [a] safe space and community for queer students.” Since Queer McGill is seeking to create a community for queer and trans* individuals, the restriction of events to a particular group based on race could risk creating long-term divisions within the community.

This incident underscores the reality that the discourse surrounding race and sexuality on campus is complex and requires the student body’s ongoing attention. Maintaining mindfulness and respect in both allied efforts and events reserved for people to share intimate experiences is imperative. The workshops designed to promote discourse within a specific group of individuals should be respected, but should not occlude the general movement toward an overall inclusive community. Moving forward, in order to achieve the intertwined goals of inclusion and equality, the need for spaces for allies must be balanced with the need for distinct spaces for individuals with similar, shared experiences.

a, News, SSMU

SSMU’s Equity Policy, McGill’s hiring practices under revision under VP University Affairs

by Ashley Kong on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Equity Policy is currently undergoing revision by the SSMU Equity Committee to increase its accessibility and simplicity.

According to member Robin Nyamakye, the committee has been working on the definition of terms last semester, with the aim of providing a comprehensive and easily readable document for SSMU staff, clubs, and student groups to follow.

SSMU VP University Affairs Claire Stewart-Kanigan stated that the Equity Committee is trying to condense the document this semester. 

“[We want to make] it a more concise document, removing redundancies,” Stewart-Kanigan said. “The whole purpose of it is to be an [accessible] tool for people, so we want to make the language as clear and as accessible as possible. A 20-page document can feel intimidating.”

The SSMU Equity Policy will only be effective in SSMU, SSMU clubs, and Independent Student Groups. Other faculty equity committees should have their own equity policies and their own ways of promoting equity in respective faculties, according to Stewart-Kanigan.

 “I think it’s important to leave space for [a] de-centralized approach to equity, because each faculty equity committee is going to know how to best speak to their constituents, and know what kind of language [to use, and] what kind of approaches are going to best resonate,” Stewart-Kanigan said. “I think it is an asset to have such autonomous faculty associations.” 

The Equity Committee under the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) agreed that this parallel structure would work across campus.

“I think there are a lot of different issues we are trying to hit,” EUS Equity Committee member Emilie Froeliger said. “It’s better for us [to be autonomous], just because we know our faculty and the students that are affected directly [the best].”

Despite being independent from one another, according to EUS Equity Commissioner Simrin Desai, the faculty committees interacted a lot with one another last semester.

“We recently had an ‘Equity Retreat’ [including] a lot of equity committees across campus […] and we did different workshops and discussions,” Desai said. “You learn a lot from their challenges, and the solutions they have come up with.”

The SSMU Equity Committee is also working on other projects such as evaluating McGill’s hiring processes.

“We hired two student researchers this month,” Stewart-Kanigan said. “They are currently doing a scan of McGill’s hiring processes. McGill does have an employment equity policy, but [its] employment equity policy only mandates them to produce a report […] but [not] to take any action on those representations [.…] We’d like to produce a report with recommendations on the McGill side by the end of this academic year.” 

SSMU equity projects that are open to student participation include Equity Conversations and the Equity Conference. According to Stewart-Kanigan, the conversations will cover a variety of subjects, such as race and gender. The series will continue throughout the semester. Additionally, the Equity Conference, themed ‘Equity in Law’, will be held in March.

Stewart-Kanigan hopes that these projects will help integrate equity deeper into McGill’s operation.

“[There is] this recurring theme of poor coordination between equity and events’ organization. Often, equity [gets] added in as a last minute consideration in planning, which often leads to an antagonistic relationship between event coordinators and equity,” Stewart-Kanigan said. “In speaking with various event coordinators and people working on equity on campus—both people of course care about students [feeling] comfortable and [having] good time in these events—so logically there should be stronger coordination than there is [now].”

a, Science & Technology

Coding 4 dummies

by Matt Smith on

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Programming

There are several ways to learn programming and plenty of languages to choose from. The good news is that even though they are not the same, they are often analogous; once you learn one programming language, most others follow easily. Codecademy.com provides practical knowledge and lets you program interactively as you’re learning. It’s ideal for the basics, but will not take you too far down any path. If you’re interested in web development, and want to get started right away, take a look at Codeacademy’s HMTL/CSS track, as well as the one on Javascript. If you want to take programming more formally and more seriously, try Python or Ruby. 

Another good resource for learning programming is udacity.com, which allows you to access courses— introductory through advanced—for free. For those interested in classical programming, I recommend starting with its Java or Intro to Computer Science classes; for web development, I recommend HTML/CSS.

Modern development requires much more than just programming skills. For those learning how to program, this is sometimes the hardest step. While your efforts may seem far from any real software, it’s essential to keep working. If you’ve made it this far, you have the building blocks from which all software is made.

Level up

After learning basic programming, it’s important to understand some of the theory behind software development. At this stage, it may still be difficult to understand everything you’re reading or doing, but that’s okay. Take it slow and use Google and Wikipedia often, but keep moving and, don’t get stuck on any one topic.

For Javascript/web developers, take a look at eloquentjavascript.net, which may contain some duplicate information, but will certainly improve your skills as a programmer. Udacity’s web development course teaches web fundamentals, and will get you ready to program your first web app. Try making a chrome extension using the knowledge that you have gained so far, or develop your own personal website.

For the Python/Ruby programmers, check out the free eBook “Think Python,” or the last few pages of learnpythonthehardway.org/book or learnrubythehardway.org/book, especially the “next steps” section, for more advanced topics in your language of choice. Udacity’s “Intro to Algorithms” provides a broad overview of commonly used algorithms in computing. The Django Tutorial (for Python) or the Rails Tutorial (for Ruby) will teach you about useful frameworks for developing web applications.

Both groups should also learn to use the command line at this point. It is a different way of interacting with the computer through text rather than through the mouse, and teaches a lot about how programs interact with the computer. cli.learncodethehardway.org/book is a good resource for this.

Join the club

Finally, it is time to put your skills to the test by getting involved in the programming community. Github.com is a great site for finding new tools, sharing code, and contributing to open source. The name comes from git, a version control system that is incredibly useful for programmers. atlassian.com/git/ contains everything needed to become a git master. 

Hack McGill hosts hack nights and other meet-ups throughout the year. , which are great ways to meet other programmersAttend a ‘hackathon,’ a 24+ hour coding marathon where teams build working software from scratch in a friendly competition.

Mastering programming is in no way simple, but hopefully this guide will help provide you with a foundation that you can build on as you move forward in your programming career. 

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