The Dovetail: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

This is the first post in a series of posts that we are calling “The Dovetail.” In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast on the current news for The Carpentries Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Updates to The Carpentries Workbench

Since 2022-05-05,

• {sandpaper} version 0.5.1 -> 0.5.5
  • This incorporates important updates for R-based lessons and introduces the workbench-beta config variable to indicate that a lesson is in the workbench beta phase
• {varnish} version 0.1.11 -> 0.1.13
  • Workbench beta phase alert added
  • dropdown navigation no longer is hidden by the sidebar on XXL screens (thanks @brownsarahm!)
  • blockquotes are now more clearly delineated from the rest of the content (thanks @fiveop!)
• {pegboard} version 0.2.4 -> 0.2.6
  • Link validation no longer treats alt="" as invalid as this can indicate decorative images that are ignored by screen readers.

To update your local Workbench installation, open R and use the following code:

# Enable repository from carpentries
options(repos = c(
  ropensci = 'https://carpentries.r-universe.dev',
  CRAN = 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))
# Download and install sandpaper in R
install.packages(c('tinkr', 'pegboard', 'sandpaper', 'varnish'))

Upcoming and Current Lessons in Workbench Beta

At the moment, we are still gathering responses from our original call for participants (if you haven’t yet signed up, you can still do so!), so there are no lessons scheduled (yet) for transition.

A note about the term “Workbench Beta”

I must apologise because the term workbench beta is not the same as beta stage in the lesson development life cycle. Thus, whenever I refer to a lesson that is testing the beta stage of the workbench, I will refer to it as a lesson testing workbench beta.

New Participants

From our original call for participants in the workbench beta phase, we have gotten responses from fifteen community members (in no particular order):

• Luis J. Villanueva, Maintainer
• Jon Wheeler, Lesson Developer (in The Carpentries Incubator)
• Simon Christ, Lesson Developer (in The Carpentries Incubator)
• Maneesha Sane, Instructor
• Sarah Brown, Maintainer
• Joel Nitta, Translator
• Juan Fung, Maintainer
• Jannetta Steyn, Lesson Developer (in The Carpentries Incubator)
• Michael Joseph, Lesson Developer (in The Carpentries Incubator)
• Sarah Stevens, Lesson Developer (in The Carpentries Incubator)
• Kozo Nishida, Lesson Translation (to Japanese)
• François Michonneau, Maintainer
• Jamie Jamison, Maintainer
• Jennifer Stubbs (she/her), Instructor
• Drake Asberry, Maintainer

Updates from Community About Working in Workbench Beta

• Joel Nitta has drafted an experimental package called {dovetail} that can facilitate translations of Workbench lessons.
• Saba Ferdous has successfully transferred a lesson that was formerly in bookdown to use The Workbench:

  The #LearnToDiscover course materials are being implemented in @thecarpentries Workbench, which is lesson infrastructure focussed on accessibility. We are very pleased to be part of this Beta which you can learn more about in this blog post by @ZKamvar.https://t.co/g57Yn6jQZ0

  — Learn To Discover 🧠 (@L2D_Team) May 23, 2022</blockquote>

Tips and Tricks for Using The Workbench

Need a cheet sheet for transitioning from carpentries/styles to The Carpentries Workbench? Check out The Transition Guide.

If you are contributing to a lesson and want to add an instructor note, mid-episode, you can use a fenced div with the “instructor” tag:

::: instructor

Remember to give the learners enough time to explore their mental models!

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