trackdown

# trackdown

### Collaborative writing through literate programming in R

<br/>

#### @TASK4-2021 - 19/05/2021

.pull-left[
#### Filippo Gambarota<sup>1</sup>
#### Claudio Zandonella Callegher<sup>1</sup>
#### Janosch Linkersdörfer<sup>2</sup>
]

[2] University of California

[3] Deakin University
]

---
class: inverse, center, middle

# A normal academic day...

---
# Writing

]

* Writing bibliography

<br/>

* Copy and paste statistics and results 😱

<br/>

* Tables and figures 😱

<br/>

* Collaboration

]

---

# What about collaboration and file versions?

---
class: section-slide, center, middle

# Is there a solution? 😱
---

# YES! <br/> Literate programming 😍

---

## Code

```r
# Plotting
plot(data)

# Computing mean
mean(data$response)

# Statistics
t.test(response ~ condition)
```

]

## Text

]

These components are usually separated...

---

# Literate programming...

Is a combination of **text** and **code** in order to produce high-quality, reproducible and scalable documents.

]

]

---

# An example...

---
# An example...

# This is great! But what about collaboration?

---
# Literate programming as asynchronus process...

---

# Literate programming as asynchronus process...

---
class: inverse, center, middle

# Collaboration on plain text files

---

The gold standard way to collaborate on plain text files is using a **version control** system:

]

* .green[**Avoid multiple file version tracking a history**]

<br/>

* .green[**Professional way to manage projects with multiple people**]

<br/>

* .red[**Not intuitive and very different from a standard workflow**]

]

---
# GIT is powerful but tracking narrative is hard

**Word-like approach**

]

**GIT Diff**

]

---
class: inverse, center, middle

# In an ideal world...

---

# In an ideal world...

* Work using a **literate programming** framework
* **Collaborate on plain text files** similarly as we usually do with Word or Google Docs

## This is the aim of the **trackdown** package

---
class: inverse, center, middle

# The big picture...

---
# The big picture...

---
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# The trackdown package

---

# The trackdown package

---

# A suggested workflow

---

# A suggested workflow

---
class: inverse, center, middle

# How a trackdown file looks like?
---

# How a trackdown file looks like?

]

]

---
# Also the final output

* With the `upload_file()` function is possible to also upload the output document as `.pdf` or `.html`

]

]

---
class: inverse, center, middle

# Other advantages of the plain-text + Google Docs approach
---

# Other advantages of the plain-text + Google Docs approach

* Collaboration with .red[**colleagues with a heterogeneous background**] while keeping all advantages of a **knitr** based document

<br/>

* .red[**Spell checking**] using standard tools available online (not completely possible in RStudio)

<br/>

* All amazing .red[**collaboration tools available in Google Docs**] (comments, assignments, history, auto-saving, etc.)

---
# Check our repo on Github...

[**ClaudioZandonella/trackdown**](https://github.com/ClaudioZandonella/trackdown) <svg viewBox="0 0 496 512" style="height:1em;position:relative;display:inline-block;top:.1em;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">  <path d="M165.9 397.4c0 2-2.3 3.6-5.2 3.6-3.3.3-5.6-1.3-5.6-3.6 0-2 2.3-3.6 5.2-3.6 3-.3 5.6 1.3 5.6 3.6zm-31.1-4.5c-.7 2 1.3 4.3 4.3 4.9 2.6 1 5.6 0 6.2-2s-1.3-4.3-4.3-5.2c-2.6-.7-5.5.3-6.2 2.3zm44.2-1.7c-2.9.7-4.9 2.6-4.6 4.9.3 2 2.9 3.3 5.9 2.6 2.9-.7 4.9-2.6 4.6-4.6-.3-1.9-3-3.2-5.9-2.9zM244.8 8C106.1 8 0 113.3 0 252c0 110.9 69.8 205.8 169.5 239.2 12.8 2.3 17.3-5.6 17.3-12.1 0-6.2-.3-40.4-.3-61.4 0 0-70 15-84.7-29.8 0 0-11.4-29.1-27.8-36.6 0 0-22.9-15.7 1.6-15.4 0 0 24.9 2 38.6 25.8 21.9 38.6 58.6 27.5 72.9 20.9 2.3-16 8.8-27.1 16-33.7-55.9-6.2-112.3-14.3-112.3-110.5 0-27.5 7.6-41.3 23.6-58.9-2.6-6.5-11.1-33.3 2.6-67.9 20.9-6.5 69 27 69 27 20-5.6 41.5-8.5 62.8-8.5s42.8 2.9 62.8 8.5c0 0 48.1-33.6 69-27 13.7 34.7 5.2 61.4 2.6 67.9 16 17.7 25.8 31.5 25.8 58.9 0 96.5-58.9 104.2-114.8 110.5 9.2 7.9 17 22.9 17 46.4 0 33.7-.3 75.4-.3 83.6 0 6.5 4.6 14.4 17.3 12.1C428.2 457.8 496 362.9 496 252 496 113.3 383.5 8 244.8 8zM97.2 352.9c-1.3 1-1 3.3.7 5.2 1.6 1.6 3.9 2.3 5.2 1 1.3-1 1-3.3-.7-5.2-1.6-1.6-3.9-2.3-5.2-1zm-10.8-8.1c-.7 1.3.3 2.9 2.3 3.9 1.6 1 3.6.7 4.3-.7.7-1.3-.3-2.9-2.3-3.9-2-.6-3.6-.3-4.3.7zm32.4 35.6c-1.6 1.3-1 4.3 1.3 6.2 2.3 2.3 5.2 2.6 6.5 1 1.3-1.3.7-4.3-1.3-6.2-2.2-2.3-5.2-2.6-6.5-1zm-11.4-14.7c-1.6 1-1.6 3.6 0 5.9 1.6 2.3 4.3 3.3 5.6 2.3 1.6-1.3 1.6-3.9 0-6.2-1.4-2.3-4-3.3-5.6-2z"></path></svg>

---
class: split-five

# The developers 😎

.column[
<div class="figure" style="text-align: center">
<img src="img/filippo.jpg" alt="&lt;a href='mailto:filippo.gambarota@phd.unipd.it'&gt;Filippo Gambarota&lt;/a&gt;" width="70%" />
<p class="caption"><a href='mailto:filippo.gambarota@phd.unipd.it'>Filippo Gambarota</a></p>
</div>
]

.column[
<div class="figure" style="text-align: center">
<img src="img/claudio.jpeg" alt="&lt;a href='mailto:claudiozandonella@gmail.it'&gt;Claudio Zandonella &lt;br/&gt; Callegher&lt;/a&gt;" width="70%" />
<p class="caption"><a href='mailto:claudiozandonella@gmail.it'>Claudio Zandonella <br/> Callegher</a></p>
</div>
]

.column[
<div class="figure" style="text-align: center">
<img src="img/janosch.jpg" alt="&lt;a href='mailto:jlinkersdoerfer@ucsd.edu'&gt;Janosch Linkersdörfer&lt;/a&gt;" width="70%" />
<p class="caption"><a href='mailto:jlinkersdoerfer@ucsd.edu'>Janosch Linkersdörfer</a></p>
</div>
]

.column[
<div class="figure" style="text-align: center">
<img src="img/mathew.jpg" alt="&lt;a href='mailto:m.ling@deakin.edu.au'&gt;Mathew Ling&lt;/a&gt;" width="70%" />
<p class="caption"><a href='mailto:m.ling@deakin.edu.au'>Mathew Ling</a></p>
</div>
]

.column[
<div class="figure" style="text-align: center">
<img src="img/emily.jpeg" alt="&lt;a href='mailto:emily.kothe@deakin.edu.au'&gt;Emily Kothe&lt;/a&gt;" width="70%" />
<p class="caption"><a href='mailto:emily.kothe@deakin.edu.au'>Emily Kothe</a></p>
</div>
]

---
class: psicostat

# A special thanks to Psicostat members...

Check our [**website**](https://psicostat.dpss.psy.unipd.it/index.html) 😄

---

### .large[[filippo.gambarota@phd.unipd.it](mailto:filippo.gambarota@phd.unipd.it)]

.tiny[Slides made with the [Xaringan](https://github.com/yihui/xaringan) package by [Yihui Xie](https://yihui.name/)]