Hi, I've been developing a course on basic software skills for people with backgrounds in science and engineering, rather than computer science. It was originally created for Los Alamos National Laboratory, but has been run in several other places since, including the US Navy, the Space Telescope Science Institute, CalTech, the University of Toronto, and Indiana University. Its aim is to introduce grad students in disciplines ranging from astronomy through biochemistry to civil engineering to core tools and skills that will help them spend less time wrestling with buggy code, and more time doing science. All the material is open source, and available both on the web: http://www.swc.scipy.org or through Subversion: http://swc.scipy.org/svn/swc A short article discussing the course's aims is available here: http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/48548 I'd be very interested in feedback from the members of this list. In particular, what more do we need to do to the course to make it useful to you, your colleagues, and your students? Thanks, Greg