An online version of this book is available at <https://dspatterns.netlify.app>.
We are writing this book right now! Please feel free to explore, but also please be mindful that all of the content is undergoing active iteration. We are still forming our own ideas and opinions as we work.
This version of the book was built with:
Finding R package dependencies ... Done! setting value
version R version 4.3.2 (2023-10-31)
os Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
system x86_64, linux-gnu
ui X11
language (EN)
collate C.UTF-8
ctype C.UTF-8
tz UTC
date 2023-12-30
pandoc 2.19.2 @ /usr/bin/ (via rmarkdown)Along with these packages:
Want to know what goes into the sausage? Here is an overview of our book’s tech stack.
*.qmd).1
We used the RStudio IDE for writing and coding locally.
A lot of the time, we used the RStudio visual markdown editor as we were writing. It is a WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor so there are less surprises as you write.
Quarto supports Pandoc’s markdown flavor, so we used that for:
formatting
text
this.
To collaborate on the book, we used GitHub. The source code for the book can found at our GitHub repository.
We both used GitHub Desktop to push and pull work locally.
Pretty soon we realized that we should set up an automated build for our book.
We used GitHub Actions (GHA) for the automated build.2
Since we had an HTML version of the book, we also needed each new build to be deployed automatically. That way we could be sure that the website always stayed in sync with the source in our main branch. We used Netlify for hosting.
The combination of GitHub Actions (GHA) and Netlify means that the book is automatically updated after every commit to the main branch on GitHub.3
Rich made us a snazzy dspatterns data package so we weren’t lugging all of our data files around locally.
We introduced renv package to our stack4, following renv with Quarto docs. This ensured that we were both working on and building the book locally with the exact same versions for all of our R packages.
OK, but how exactly is the sausage actually made though?
We (Alison and Rich) wrote this book together. We wrote separately for the most part, but we did write for at least one hour a week together. We did this over Zoom.
We also (coincidentally!) discovered that we both have Apple Music. So we would make fun playlists and share audio while we wrote. Here are the Zoom instructions for playing music without sharing your screen.
Since we automated a lot of things, our everyday workflow after getting all the initial pieces in place involved:
Doing a fresh pull from the main branch in GitHub using GitHub Desktop
Opening up the RStudio IDE
Running renv::status() then renv::restore(), if needed, to install any new packages
Writing using the RStudio visual markdown editor
Running renv::snapshot() if we added any new packages to update Our renv lock file: https://github.com/dspatterns/dspatterns-book/blob/main/renv.lock
Pushing our work back up to GitHub using GitHub Desktop
Every Quarto project includes a configuration (“config”) file.
Our Quarto config file: https://github.com/dspatterns/dspatterns-book/blob/main/_quarto.yml↩︎
Every GitHub Action includes a workflow configuration file.
Our GHA workflow file: https://github.com/dspatterns/dspatterns-book/blob/main/.github/workflows/build-book.yml↩︎
Every GitHub Action workflow has a link to view logs for workflow runs.
Our GHA workflow runs: https://github.com/dspatterns/dspatterns-book/actions/workflows/build-book.yml↩︎
Every renv project includes a “lock” file.
Our renv lock file: https://github.com/dspatterns/dspatterns-book/blob/main/renv.lock↩︎