Account for RStudio Cloud in create_*() functions and use_course()

[ijlyttle]

Follow-on from #685:

This is adjacent to #466, but I wonder what should be the default "conspicuous place" on RStudio Cloud. Currently, it seems to be home/rstudio-user, which I think is meant for dotfiles and the like. I wonder if the default conspicuous-place for RStudio Cloud should be /cloud/project.

To me, the "simplest" solution would be to add path_real("/cloud/project") to the top of the vector of paths, here:

usethis/R/course.R

Lines 290 to 297 in 2749025

	conspicuous_place <- function() {
	Filter(dir_exists, c(
	path_home("Desktop"),
	path_home(),
	path_home_r(),
	path_tidy(getwd())
	))[[1]]
	}

Questions:

• this would introduce a problem if someone happens to have that path, but not be on RStudio Cloud, but I don't know how to ask is_this_rstudio_cloud(). Thoughts?

• would path_real() be the right path-creator?

I will start a PR along these lines, subject to your guidance.

[jennybc]

Notes from Slack conversation with the Cloud Team:

• Current best way to detect that we're on Cloud: "keying off of the existence of /cloud/project".
• Project-switching (while in a Cloud project) goes against the RStudio Cloud paradigm. They generally think of 1-1 relationship between an RStudio Cloud project and an RStudio Project. And the current Cloud project is the one and only project.
• Most logical location for use_course() to write to is within the project, i.e. within /cloud/project. However, it is not logical to attempt to open any .Rproj file found within the payload.
• The use of create_*() functions is somewhat illogical within RStudio Cloud. It's conceivable we just shouldn't do it? If we do it anyway, it's not blindingly obvious whether the target dir should be below /home/rstudio-user or /cloud/project. Again, it would not make sense to attempt to activate the new project.

[jennybc]

cc @mine-cetinkaya-runde @cwickham @hadley l in case you have any relevant experience or thoughts.

Have you taught something where you used or wanted to use create_*() functions on Cloud? It seems like a clash of paradigms, i.e. if you're designing a learning experience you would either provide the scaffold via a Cloud Project or participants would use their own computer (or an RStudio server instance) + create_*().

[jennybc]

let me try that again: cc @mine-cetinkaya-rundel

[ijlyttle]

My use case, which may not be typical, revolves around a package-development workshop followed by an unconf.

All being well, everyone's computer is ready-to-go with R, git, the devtools packages, and Rtools (for those who need it). In case we have a few folks who arrive with some not-easily-fixed problems, we could start them up on an RStudio Cloud machine, with all the foundational packges installed. They would have to go through the use_git_config() and browse_github_pat() steps themselves, to personalize.

Otherwise, this would be a blank slate where they could create_from_github(), create_package(), etc. for whatever packages they might be working on, either in the workshop or during the unconf.

It's entirely possible that I am not thinking about RStudio Cloud in the right way; perhaps this can help illuminate the right way to go.

[cwickham]

I've struggled with this in the context of teaching package development as well. Like @ijlyttle, this is usually just to try to accommodate the few people that for whatever reason can't work locally on the day and the cloud is their only option.

I would generally have set up a project on the cloud beforehand with the materials (to avoid any need for use_course()), but they still might need create_package() for the full experience. In this case I've suggested that they create the new project/package below /cloud/project. This violates "don't put projects inside other projects" but in practice works OK on the cloud, and the student can still navigate between the projects using the Files pane.

[ijlyttle]

I am relieved to hear that @cwickham has been down this path, thanks!

Given that things may be under development and discussion, I am happy to hold off on making a PR.

In the meantime, should someone need to use Cloud, we can encourage them to do something like:

create_from_github("jennybc/bingo", destdir = "/cloud/project")

I think this presents a "good enough" solution for the time being.

Of course this is up to the usethis authors, but I propose to leave this issue open until a firmer conclusion is reached.

[jennybc]

Yeah. I'm going to submit to CRAN today/tonight and this is clearly not going in this version.

But I do want to improve things and it's helpful to document the current best way to use the create_*() functions on Cloud, if you have to.

[ijlyttle]

Yikes! On it!