4 I need help!

You are bound to run into issues and have questions, and being able to manage frustration, problem solve and build help resources for yourself and others are key skills. Here are some tips to help you help yourself and others:

  • When you run into issues it is good to step back and try to identify what exactly the problem is. Many workflows are quite complicated so identifying to yourself and others where to look for help/examples or where the actual error might be coming from could take some reflection. Writing down what you have done to try to get through the road blocks can be really helpful for now and later too.

  • Make use of Chattr, github copilot and openAiChatGPT - for tackling coding workflows and identifying why things might not work - these tools have quickly become some of the best ways to find help. They can also be really helpful for developing the skill of articulating what it is that you are trying to do. Remember to specify that we are hoping for solutions using tidyverse packages (when working in R of course) when possible to help make our code easier to read and write. Key questions like “explain why this piece of code may be failing with this error” (copy and paste error) and “how can I do this well explained workflow one small piece at a time” are incredibly useful. Breaking things into little steps is key and using a critical eye to understand responses at each step is also important. As good as these tools are - they will do what you ask - which isn’t necessary what should be done or what you actually intended to want to do.

  • Google it! Learning how to search the net for answers is a skill that develops over time. For code related issues try key words like stackexchange and R. Remember to review all the answers on places like stack exchange for solutions utilizing tidyverse packages as these solutions are often easier to interpret. When you run into error messages in R try copy and pasting them into google to see if others have had the same issue.

  • Search key words (like function names or particular error messages) in the issues of NewGraphEnvironment Github and/or the repo of the package you are using that you might be struggling with.

  • Look at examples from other similar repos. Run things that we know work to understand what is happening through object/output inspection and therefore what could be going wrong in your case.

  • For questions regarding R, check out r4ds! The whole Section 8 is clutch.

  • Reprexs are a great way to articulate problems and often you find the bug while writing them. Checkout a great introduction to reprexs here

  • We are always actively looking for innovative ways to help each other so any suggestions are welcome!

  • Once you have given it a good go, ask for help, we are all here to help each other out.