Any recent updates that break existing tech reports?

[SOLV-Code]

Issue

I recently updated my csasdown install as part of trying to figure out #301, but now my existing tech reports don't knit, even those that are long done and published. When I generate a new tech report template using csasdown::draft("techreport") it knits fine.

The error message with existing tech reports is cryptic:

'\Appendices' text not found in the LaTeX code
! LaTeX Error: There's no line here to end.

Error: LaTeX failed to compile SBC_CK_Data_TechReport.tex. See https://yihui.org/tinytex/r/#debugging for debugging tips. See SBC_CK_Data_TechReport.log for more info.
In addition: Warning message:
! % begin_abstract_csasdown or % end_abstract_csasdown not found in templates/csas.tex 
Execution halted

The log file ends with:

! LaTeX Error: There's no line here to end.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.154 \frontmatter
                  
Your command was ignored.
Type  I <command> <return>  to replace it with another command,
or  <return>  to continue without it.

The corresponding chunk of the tex file is:

\begin{document}

%%%% Front matter %%%%%

% Add the first few pages
\frontmatter

%%%%% Drafts %%%%%

Question

For tech reports I'm currently working on I will just start with a fresh template and migrate all the contents over.

But is there some quick fix to update existing completed materials that are intended to be fully reproducible, such as published tech reps and various reports/handouts built on the tech report template?

[seananderson]

I'm not sure what would be causing that. I can't think of any recent changes that would affect this. To be fully reproducible, I'd use the same version of csasdown, either via something like renv or installing a constant version from GitHub like pak::pak("pbs-assess/csasdown@944fa818"). I can debug this if you can get together a minimal example of a broken report. If it's not too big, just zip it up, upload it somewhere like dropbox or google drive and send me a link. If it is too big, remove as much of the big files and figures as you can while still making it theoretically buildable first.

I'm assuming you do have

`r if(knitr:::is_latex_output()) '% begin csasdown appendix'`
`r if(!knitr:::is_latex_output()) '# (APPENDIX) Appendix {-}'`

at the start of the appendices.

[CurtisDinn]

I'm getting the same error message on knit of a tech report I've been working on. However, I can now also knit the draft tech report.

I figured the fix to #300 would fix the issue but it doesn't. The workaround was to manually edit the .sty file to remove the line break, and set copy_sty: false. But now that the .sty was edited that workaround doesn't work. I assume the issues are related since the frontmatter error is the same.

[SOLV-Code]

For the tech report I'm currently working on it was pretty quick to create an up-to-date template with csasdown::draft("techreport") and then move in the contents I'd already built in the older template.

So for me this is not an urgent request at all. After migrating contents to the new template everything works fine.

But for the ~half dozen previously completed reports it would be great to be able to just make a couple of fixes in the .sty file. turn copy_sty to FALSE, and otherwise leave them as they are, as per @CurtisDinn

[seananderson]

I'm happy to figure this out, but I'll need an example of a broken report. Can someone zip up a folder and send it to me?

Alternatively, try diff'ing the .sty (and maybe .tex) file between the working and broken versions.

[SOLV-Code]

Example

You have access to an old repo with a tech report that crashes on this error: https://github.com/SOLV-Code/SBC-Ck-Data-TechRep
I think you were helping troubleshoot that thing way back in in 2020 :-)

Checking Differences

tech-report.sty is identical.

I don't have an original vs. fixed version of the same tech report handy, but diff'ing the beginning of the .tex file, up to %%%%% Main document %%%%% shows a bunch of differences.

First there's chunk with lots of differences just before \begin{document} (New version on the right)

Then there's an extra chunk just before %%%%% Main document %%%%%

There's also some differences in the index.Rmd

• New piece: report_DOI: "##.####/xxxxx" # do not include https://doi.org/
• Change: abstract_other: | -> french_abstract: |
• New piece: show_continued_text: true
• Bunch of deleted and added pieces (new on the right)

[seananderson]

The main issue is the YAML option

knit: bookdown::render_book

which needs to be

knit: (function(input, ...) csasdown::render())

if you want to be able to click the "Knit" button in RStudio. Alternatively, from the index.Rmd working directory, you can run csasdown::render() (what I tend to do since it's often easier to debug). When running either, I get an error about some missing new YAML tags (I don't think they're actually all used, but they need to be there).

#> csasdown::render()
Error: ✖ Your index.Rmd file is missing the YAML tag(s):
french_title
french_region
report_DOI
french_address
phone
author_footnote
citation_french

I added those:

report_DOI: "##.####/xxxxx" 
citation_french: XX
phone: XX
french_title: XX
french_region: XX
french_address: XX
author_footnote: XX

and it built!

csasdown::render() does some extra processing that's needed before calling bookdown::render_book().

[SOLV-Code]

Awesome, thank you! That is an easy fix on past tech reports to make sure they stay fully reproducible.
For currently active drafts I'll still do the step of generating the new template and migrating contents, just to avoid any potential future headaches...

[ricardd]

the report that @CurtisDinn is developing relies on the use of the xelatex or lualatex engines because of its reliance on the fontspec package in LaTeX

I don't understand why, but removing \newline from line 410 of the techreport style file makes the document render correctly with either xelatex or lualatex
https://github.com/pbs-assess/csasdown/blob/main/inst/csas-style/tech-report.sty#L410

if that line is kept with \newline in it, LaTeX does not compile with either xelatex or lualatex, and the error log suggests that something goes awry with the fonts