Using environments in other languages#
R (via the renv) functionality, and Julia (natively, using the Project functionality) have similar functionality. MATLAB programs can also manipulate the search path, which is done for plugins and other functionality, for instance when adding Dynare as a plugin. They all work the same way.
Takeaways#
What this does#
This ensures
that your code runs without problem, after all the debugging.
that your code runs without manual intervention.
that your code generates a log file that you can inspect, and that you could share with others.
that it will run on somebody else’s computer
because it guarantees that all the software is there (but with a caveat we will discuss next)
What this does not do#
This does not ensure
that it will run on somebody else’s computer
because it does not guarantee that the next person can install the environment!
because it does not guarantee that all the directories for input or output are there
because many intermediate files might be present that are not in the replication package
because it does not guarantee that all the directory names are correctly adjusted everywhere in your code
that it actually produces all the outputs
because some outputs might be present from test runs
What to do next#
To solve some of these problems, let’s go to the next step.