How do particle physicists learn the programming concepts they need?
This addresses the need for efficient coding skills in particle physics and similar fields, but it is incremental as it describes an existing training program rather than introducing new educational methods.
The paper tackles the problem of teaching essential programming skills to particle physicists through an 'Advanced Programming Concepts' training program, reporting on its principles, methods, and positive feedback from participants.
The ability to read, use and develop code efficiently and successfully is a key ingredient in modern particle physics. We report the experience of a training program, identified as "Advanced Programming Concepts", that introduces software concepts, methods and techniques to work effectively on a daily basis in a HEP experiment or other programming intensive fields. This paper illustrates the principles, motivations and methods that shape the "Advanced Computing Concepts" training program, the knowledge base that it conveys, an analysis of the feedback received so far, and the integration of these concepts in the software development process of the experiments as well as its applicability to a wider audience.