
Good enough practices in scientific computing - okket
http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005510
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ferdterguson
One thing they mentioned in the 'left out' section is code review. I'm a
researcher in a computation-heavy field and I think that anything I write that
is intended to be used in our research group or used by other people should be
code reviewed. In my experience, so many codes written by former group members
or by senior group members become blackboxes that no one can read or maintain
in five years.

Code review for anything more complicated than a script has helped the quality
of what I write. It also ensures that there are other people who have at least
seen the code that I wrote. Even if they don't fully understand it, they are
at least empowered enough to wade through it if need be.

~~~
sgt101
Apparently google rewite all code every three years.

[https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1702/1702.01715.pdf](https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1702/1702.01715.pdf)

2.11

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type0
Oh, those citations:

> ... you have to explain the difference between plain text and word
> processing. And text editors. And Markdown/LaTeX compilers. And BiBTeX. And
> Git. ... the barrier to collaborating on papers in this framework is simply
> too high to overcome. Good intentions aside, it always comes down to, "just
> give me a Word document with tracked changes"

> ... Google Docs excels at easy sharing, collaboration, simultaneous editing,
> commenting, and reply-to-commenting.

Using google docs is not "good enough" practice for scientific computing. How
will you embed parts of your csv files in the report, how will you at the same
time have it included in the version control system? Using plain text file
toolchains on the other hand could solve all that. Now they mentioned Markdown
and Pandoc, but no mention of the ReStructuredText, Orgmode files or
Asciidocs, so it makes me wonder why would they recommend version control and
google docs?

~~~
jumps
I have used sharelatex.com to good effect with less-technical co-authors. They
have everything listed for Google Docs (including change tracking,
simultaneous editing, and commenting), and I don't have to help everyone else
setup a LaTeX environment.

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xwvvvvwx
related:
[https://www.practicereproducibleresearch.org/](https://www.practicereproducibleresearch.org/)

