Rmd first: When development starts with documentation by Sébastien Rochette.
Documentation matters ! Think about future you and others. Whatever is the aim of your script and analyses, you should think about documentation. The way I see it, R package structure is made for that. Let me try to convince you.
At use’R 2019 in Toulouse, I did a presentation entitled: ‘The “Rmd first” method: when projects start with documentation’. I ended up saying: Think Package ! If you are really afraid about building a package, you may want to have a look at these slides before. If you are not so afraid, you can start directly with this blog post. In any case,
Pacothe package should make this more enjoyable ! I hope so…
I’m tilting at windmills at a non-profit which has for decades, developed its IT infrastructure in a topsy-turvy way, with little or no documentation.
It’s very unlikely the no-requirements, no-documentation, no accountability approach of the non-profit will change. It has survived changes in administration and over decades, still, I make the pitch.
My current woes highlight Rochette’s advantages of packages:
Package forces standardized general description of your project
Package forces standardized documentation of functions
Package recommends to show reproducible examples for each function
Package allows integration of user guides (vignettes)
Standardized structure of a package and its
checkare supposed to conduct to a re-usable code
Whether you are working in R or not, start projects with requirements and documentation.