CMCE10002 Chap.2 Reproducible Workflows in Posit Cloud and Quarto
Reproducible Workflows in Posit Cloud and Quarto
Everything runs in one shared environment
The subject uses R and RStudio through Posit Cloud, a browser-based environment that needs no installation, saves work online and is reachable from any device. The University covers the usage fee for the subject.
The consequence that matters is not convenience: the code you write is the code your tutor runs, so a result is expected to survive leaving your machine.
Console, script and document do different jobs
The class reference separates three places to type the same code. The console is good for trying things out and keeps nothing. A script saves and organises the instructions.
A Quarto document combines code, explanation and output, which is the form the group assignment eventually asks for.
What reproducible actually means here
A clean session, plus this file, plus this data, gives this output, with no manual step in between.
A document that renders only after something has been run by hand is not reproducible, and the first error on a clean run is almost always the one worth reading.
Where the subject keeps its own materials
Workbooks used in class and the completed versions of the lecture notes are published in the shared cloud project rather than only as slides, and the prescribed text is R for Data Science in its second edition.
Reading the completed notes after the demonstration is the cheapest revision available in this subject, because it shows the finished form of code you have already watched being built, with the reasoning still attached. Announcements, readings and tutorial solutions live on the subject site, and the subject guide holds the rules.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Posit Cloud as the shared environment for every exercise and assignment
- 02
Console, script and Quarto document, and what each one preserves
- 03
Loading packages so their functions exist for the session
- 04
Rendering from a clean session as the test of reproducibility
- 05
Reading the first error rather than the last one
Diagnosing a document that refuses to render
- 1State what rendering does to the session.
- 1Explain why running chunks by hand hides the fault.
- 1Give the diagnostic sequence in order.
- 1Name the two usual causes.
Key terms
- Posit Cloud
- The browser-based environment the subject uses to run R and RStudio without any local installation.
- Quarto document
- A document format that holds code, explanation and output together so the numbers in the text are produced by the code beside them.
- Package
- A bundle of extra functions that becomes available only after it is loaded for the session.
- Reproducible analysis
- An analysis that regenerates its own output from a clean session with no manual step in between.
Reproducible Workflows in Posit Cloud and Quarto FAQ
Do students need to install R for this subject?
No local installation is required. All class exercises and assignments run through Posit Cloud in a web browser, the work is saved online so it can be reopened from any device, and the University covers the usage fee associated with the subject.
Why does a file render for one person and fail for another?
Usually because it depends on something that was created outside the file, such as a package loaded from the console or a data object made during an earlier experiment. Rendering starts an empty session, so anything not written in the document does not exist.
What is the difference between a script and a Quarto document?
A script saves the instructions and nothing else, which makes an analysis rerunnable but leaves no record of why any step was chosen. A Quarto document holds the code, the explanation and the output together, so the numbers a reader sees are produced by the code printed beside them rather than typed in by hand.
Exam move
Build the habit of restarting the session and running from line one before you trust any number. It costs a few seconds and it catches the single most common reason work fails when it leaves your screen. Before submitting anything, open the project fresh, restart, and render from the top. If that works, the analysis will survive being read by somebody else, which is the standard the group assignment is marked against.
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