index.qmd

# What They Forgot to Teach You About R

::: {.callout-warning}
## Warning

This book is a work in progress.
:::

## About 

This book focuses on content intrinsically related to the infrastructure surrounding
data analysis in R, but does not delve into the data analysis itself.

1. _A holistic workflow_ provides guidance on project-oriented workflows 
that address common sources of friction in data analysis. 

2. _Personal R administration_ empowers R users to confidently manage 
their R programming environment.

3. _All is Fail_ showcases functions, options, and RStudio capabilities for 
debugging code, facilitating more efficient resolution of errant code. 

## Audience 

The target learner for this material:

  * Has a moderate amount of R and RStudio experience.
  * Is largely self-taught.
  * Suspects they have drifted into some idiosyncratic habits that may slow
    them down or make their work products more brittle.
  * Is interested in (re)designing their R lifestyle, to be more effective and
    more self-sufficient.
    
## Mindset

::: {.callout-tip}
## Tweet from [Greg Wilson (2018)](https://twitter.com/gvwilson/status/1028964474135429122)
(One of the things research programmers struggle with is the transition from exploration to infrastructure, i.e., from "coding to figure out what the problem is" to "I'm building a reusable tool". Habits from the first are often carried over to the second.) 2/N
:::

As a data analyst grows in their skills, eventually the infrastructure
surrounding the analysis will become an important catalyst for the reproducibility 
and longevity of analysis artifacts. Yet the analyst is unlikely to have benefited
from any formal training or mentorship related to these topics, and may find themselves
exploring arenas typically associated with other domains like software engineering.

With this book, we hope to help you gracefully fall into this gap. Don't fret
over past mistakes, but raise the bar for new work. Small but meaningful
incremental changes add up over time, transforming your R quality of life.


## Origin 

The initial impetus for creating this book was a two-day hands-on workshop first 
instructed in 2018. The workshop materials and this book will likely continue to
both overlap and diverge in content.

## Workshops 

Upcoming and past offerings:

  * [posit::conf 2024](https://github.com/posit-conf-2024/wtf), Seattle, WA
  * [posit::conf 2023](https://github.com/posit-conf-2023/wtf), Chicago, IL
  * [rstudio::conf 2022](https://rstats-wtf.github.io/wtf-2022-rsc/), Oxon Hill, MD
  * [rstudio::conf 2020](https://rstats-wtf.github.io/wtf-2020-rsc/), San Francisco, CA
  * [rstudio::conf 2019](https://rstats-wtf.github.io/wtf-2019-rsc/), Austin, TX
  * [WTF Seattle](https://github.com/rstats-wtf/wtf-2018-seattle) Seattle, WA
  * rstudio::conf 2018, San Diego, CA
  
The workshops may include substantial components that draw on other materials, such as:

  * [Happy Git and GitHub for the useR](https://happygitwithr.com)
  * Iterating well with the purrr package
    - [purrr tutorial](https://jennybc.github.io/purrr-tutorial/)
    - [Row-oriented workflows in R with the tidyverse](https://github.com/jennybc/row-oriented-workflows#readme)

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title">What They Forgot to Teach You About R</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="https://github.com/jennybc/what-they-forgot" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Jennifer Bryan, Jim Hester, Shannon Pileggi, E. David Aja</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.