Why Do We Need Reproducibility?

Reproducibility and your code

• Scripts: may make your code reproducible (but not your analysis)

• Commenting and formatting can help!

```{r}
#| eval: false
#|
## load the packages necessary
library(tidyverse)
## read in the data
landmarks.csv <- read_csv("/Users/mattwilliamson/Google Drive/My Drive/TEACHING/Intro_Spatial_Data_R/Data/2023/assignment01/landmarks_ID.csv")

## How many in each feature class
table(landmarks.csv$MTFCC)
```

Reproducible scripts

• Comments explain what the code is doing

• Operations are ordered logically

• Only relevant commands are presented

• Useful object and function names

• Script runs without errors (on your machine and someone else’s)

Toward Efficient Reproducible Analyses

• Scripts can document what you did, but not why you did it!

• Scripts separate your analysis products from your report/manuscript

What is literate programming?

Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.

What is literate programming?

• Documentation containing code (not vice versa!)

• Direct connection between code and explanation

• Convey meaning to humans rather than telling computer what to do!

• Multiple “scales” possible

Why literate programming?

• Your analysis scripts are computer software

• Integrate math, figures, code, and narrative in one place

• Explaining something helps you learn it

Planning an analysis