Get Started with Quarto

Hello Quarto

Quarto^® is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system built on Pandoc

You can weave together narrative text and code to produce elegantly formatted output as documents, web pages, blog posts, books and more.

Why Quarto?¹

Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a “Quarto”

What about RMarkdown?

A brief history of `knitr`

2011-10-16: initial development
2012-01-17: initial CRAN release
50 CRAN releases in 10 years https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/knitr/

A brief history of `rmarkdown`

Initial experiment: knitr::pandoc() (2014)
Matured as the rmarkdown package (2015)

A brief history of R Markdown - Yihui Xie, 2021-09-09

What about RMarkdown?

So what is Quarto?

Quarto is the next-generation of RMarkdown.

For everyone.

So what is Quarto?

Quarto is a command line interface (CLI) that renders plain text formats (.qmd, .rmd, .md) OR mixed formats (.ipynb/Jupyter notebook) into static PDF/Word/HTML reports, books, websites, presentations and more

thomasmock$ quarto --help

  Usage:   quarto
  Version: 1.0.36

  Description:
    Quarto CLI

  Options:
    -h, --help     - Show this help.                            
    -V, --version  - Show the version number for this program.  

  Commands:
    render          [input] [args...]   - Render input file(s) to various document types.            
    preview         [file] [args...]    - Render and preview a document or website project.          
    serve           [input]             - Serve a Shiny interactive document.                        
    create-project  [dir]               - Create a project for rendering multiple documents          
    convert         <input>             - Convert documents to alternate representations.            
    pandoc          [args...]           - Run the version of Pandoc embedded within Quarto.          
    run             [script] [args...]  - Run a TypeScript, R, Python, or Lua script.                
    install         <type> [target]     - Installs an extension or global dependency.                
    publish         [provider] [path]   - Publish a document or project. Available providers include:
    check           [target]            - Verify correct functioning of Quarto installation.         
    help            [command]           - Show this help or the help of a sub-command.    thomasmock$ quarto --help

  Usage:   quarto
  Version: 1.0.36

  Description:
    Quarto CLI

  Options:
    -h, --help     - Show this help.                            
    -V, --version  - Show the version number for this program.  

  Commands:
    render          [input] [args...]   - Render input file(s) to various document types.            
    preview         [file] [args...]    - Render and preview a document or website project.          
    serve           [input]             - Serve a Shiny interactive document.                        
    create-project  [dir]               - Create a project for rendering multiple documents          
    convert         <input>             - Convert documents to alternate representations.            
    pandoc          [args...]           - Run the version of Pandoc embedded within Quarto.          
    run             [script] [args...]  - Run a TypeScript, R, Python, or Lua script.                
    install         <type> [target]     - Installs an extension or global dependency.                
    publish         [provider] [path]   - Publish a document or project. Available providers include:
    check           [target]            - Verify correct functioning of Quarto installation.         
    help            [command]           - Show this help or the help of a sub-command.    thomasmock$ quarto --help

  Usage:   quarto
  Version: 1.0.36

  Description:
    Quarto CLI

  Options:
    -h, --help     - Show this help.                            
    -V, --version  - Show the version number for this program.  

  Commands:
    render          [input] [args...]   - Render input file(s) to various document types.            
    preview         [file] [args...]    - Render and preview a document or website project.          
    serve           [input]             - Serve a Shiny interactive document.                        
    create-project  [dir]               - Create a project for rendering multiple documents          
    convert         <input>             - Convert documents to alternate representations.            
    pandoc          [args...]           - Run the version of Pandoc embedded within Quarto.          
    run             [script] [args...]  - Run a TypeScript, R, Python, or Lua script.                
    install         <type> [target]     - Installs an extension or global dependency.                
    publish         [provider] [path]   - Publish a document or project. Available providers include:
    check           [target]            - Verify correct functioning of Quarto installation.         
    help            [command]           - Show this help or the help of a sub-command.    thomasmock$ quarto --help

  Usage:   quarto
  Version: 1.0.36

  Description:
    Quarto CLI

  Options:
    -h, --help     - Show this help.                            
    -V, --version  - Show the version number for this program.  

  Commands:
    render          [input] [args...]   - Render input file(s) to various document types.            
    preview         [file] [args...]    - Render and preview a document or website project.          
    serve           [input]             - Serve a Shiny interactive document.                        
    create-project  [dir]               - Create a project for rendering multiple documents          
    convert         <input>             - Convert documents to alternate representations.            
    pandoc          [args...]           - Run the version of Pandoc embedded within Quarto.          
    run             [script] [args...]  - Run a TypeScript, R, Python, or Lua script.                
    install         <type> [target]     - Installs an extension or global dependency.                
    publish         [provider] [path]   - Publish a document or project. Available providers include:
    check           [target]            - Verify correct functioning of Quarto installation.         
    help            [command]           - Show this help or the help of a sub-command.    thomasmock$ quarto --help

  Usage:   quarto
  Version: 1.0.36

  Description:
    Quarto CLI

  Options:
    -h, --help     - Show this help.                            
    -V, --version  - Show the version number for this program.  

  Commands:
    render          [input] [args...]   - Render input file(s) to various document types.            
    preview         [file] [args...]    - Render and preview a document or website project.          
    serve           [input]             - Serve a Shiny interactive document.                        
    create-project  [dir]               - Create a project for rendering multiple documents          
    convert         <input>             - Convert documents to alternate representations.            
    pandoc          [args...]           - Run the version of Pandoc embedded within Quarto.          
    run             [script] [args...]  - Run a TypeScript, R, Python, or Lua script.                
    install         <type> [target]     - Installs an extension or global dependency.                
    publish         [provider] [path]   - Publish a document or project. Available providers include:
    check           [target]            - Verify correct functioning of Quarto installation.         
    help            [command]           - Show this help or the help of a sub-command.    thomasmock$ quarto --help

  Usage:   quarto
  Version: 1.0.36

  Description:
    Quarto CLI

  Options:
    -h, --help     - Show this help.                            
    -V, --version  - Show the version number for this program.  

  Commands:
    render          [input] [args...]   - Render input file(s) to various document types.            
    preview         [file] [args...]    - Render and preview a document or website project.          
    serve           [input]             - Serve a Shiny interactive document.                        
    create-project  [dir]               - Create a project for rendering multiple documents          
    convert         <input>             - Convert documents to alternate representations.            
    pandoc          [args...]           - Run the version of Pandoc embedded within Quarto.          
    run             [script] [args...]  - Run a TypeScript, R, Python, or Lua script.                
    install         <type> [target]     - Installs an extension or global dependency.                
    publish         [provider] [path]   - Publish a document or project. Available providers include:
    check           [target]            - Verify correct functioning of Quarto installation.         
    help            [command]           - Show this help or the help of a sub-command.

Quarto, more than just `knitr`

We learned from 10 years of literate programming with knitr + rmarkdown

Quarto, more than just `knitr`

Comfort of your own workspace

A screenshot of a Quarto document rendered inside RStudio

A screenshot of a Quarto document rendered inside JupyterLab

A screenshot of a Quarto document rendered inside VSCode

Quarto, more internals

knitr or jupyter evaluates R/Python/Julia code and returns a .md file along with the evaluated code

Quarto applies Lua filters + CSS/LaTeX which is then evaluated alongside the .md file by Pandoc and converted to a final output format

Here is an example of a Lua filter that converts strong emphasis to small caps, from https://pandoc.org/lua-filters.html

return {
  {
    Strong = function (elem)
      return pandoc.SmallCaps(elem.c)
    end,
  }
}

Lua filters written by R/Python/Julia developers should be interchangeable between formats - not language specific and often not even format specific!

So what is Quarto?

Quarto® is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system built on Pandoc

So what is Quarto?

A Quarto document i.e. a .qmd is a plain text file, like a .rmd, that can be rendered to many different formats

One install, “Batteries included”

RMarkdown grew into a large ecosystem, with varying syntax.

Quarto comes “batteries included” straight out of the box

HTML reports and websites
PDF reports
MS Office (Word, Powerpoint)
Presentations (Powerpoint, Beamer, revealjs)
Books

Any language, exact same approach and syntax

Many Quarto formats

Feature	R Markdown	Quarto
Basic Formats	html_document pdf_document word_document	html pdf docx
Beamer	beamer_presentation	beamer
PowerPoint	powerpoint_presentation	pptx
HTML Slides	xaringan ioslides revealjs	revealjs
Advanced Layout	tufte distill	Quarto Article Layout

Many Quarto formats

Feature	R Markdown	Quarto
Cross References	html_document2 pdf_document2 word_document2	Quarto Crossrefs
Websites & Blogs	blogdown distill	Quarto Websites Quarto Blogs
Books	bookdown	Quarto Books
Interactivity	Shiny Documents	Quarto Interactive Documents
Paged HTML	pagedown	Summer 2022
Journal Articles	rticles	Summer 2022
Dashboards	flexdashboard	Fall 2022

What to do with my existing `.Rmd` or `.ipynb`?

For some of you - nothing changes! Keep using RMarkdown and Jupyter.

However, most existing .rmd or .ipynb can be rendered as-is via Quarto

quarto render my-favorite.rmd --to html

Since Jupyter notebooks can either be treated as a linear document to be re-executed or an already evaluated document there are additional options like: --execute

quarto render my-favorite.ipynb --to html --execute

Why Quarto, instead of RMarkdown

Batteries included, shared syntax
Choose your own editor and your preferred data science language
Better accessibility and richer features out of the box
More enhancements overtime - RMarkdown still maintained, but majority of new features built into Quarto

Collaboration with other colleagues in other languages - shared format, choose your editor and your native language

Rendering

Render in RStudio

System shell via quarto render

quarto render document.qmd # defaults to html
quarto render document.qmd --to pdf
quarto render document.qmd --to docx

R console via quarto R package

library(quarto)
quarto_render("document.qmd") # defaults to html
quarto_render("document.qmd", output_format = "pdf")

Why Quarto

Reproducibility
Re-usability
Extensibility
“Lazy” ability

Change your mental model

Source

Output

Change your mental model

Source

Output

Change your mental model

---
title: "ggplot2 demo"
author: "Norah Jones"
date: "5/22/2021"
format: 
  html:
    fig-width: 8
    fig-height: 4
    code-fold: true
---

## Air Quality

@fig-airquality further explores the impact of temperature 
  on ozone level.

```{r}
#| label: fig-airquality
#| fig-cap: Temperature and ozone level.
#| warning: false

library(ggplot2)
ggplot(airquality, aes(Temp, Ozone)) + 

  geom_point() + 
  geom_smooth(method = "loess"
)
```

Anatomy of a Quarto document

Metadata (YAML)

---
format: html
---

Code

```{r}
#| eval: true
library(dplyr)
mtcars %>% 
  group_by(cyl) %>%
  summarize(mean = mean(mpg), .groups = "drop")
```

# A tibble: 3 × 2
    cyl  mean
  <dbl> <dbl>
1     4  26.7
2     6  19.7
3     8  15.1

Text

# Heading 1
This is a sentence with some **bold text**, some *italic text* and an [image](image.png).

Metadata: YAML

The YAML metadata or header is:

processed in many stages of the rendering process and can influence the final document in many different ways. It is placed at the very beginning of the document and is read by each of Pandoc, Quarto and knitr. Along the way, the information that it contains can affect the code, content, and the rendering process.

YAML

---
title: "My Document"
format: 
  html:
    toc: true
    code-fold: true
---

Markdown

Quarto is based on Pandoc and uses its variation of markdown as its underlying document syntax. Pandoc markdown is an extended and slightly revised version of John Gruber’s Markdown syntax.

Markdown is a plain text format that is designed to be easy to write, and, even more importantly, easy to read

Text Formatting

Markdown Syntax	Output
`italics and bold`	italics and bold
`superscript^2^ / subscript~2~`	superscript² / subscript₂
`~~strikethrough~~`	~~strikethrough~~
`verbatim code`	`verbatim code`

Headings

Markdown Syntax	Output
`# Header 1`	Header 1
`## Header 2`	Header 2
`### Header 3`	Header 3
`#### Header 4`	Header 4
`##### Header 5`	Header 5
`###### Header 6`	Header 6

Code

```{r}
#| output-location: column
#| label: fig-airquality
#| fig-cap: Temperature and ozone level.
#| warning: false

library(ggplot2)

ggplot(airquality, aes(Temp, Ozone)) + 
  geom_point() + 
  geom_smooth(method = "loess"
)
```

Code, more than just R

```{python}
#| label: fig-polar
#| fig-cap: "A line plot on a polar axis"

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

r = np.arange(0, 2, 0.01)
theta = 2 * np.pi * r
fig, ax = plt.subplots(
  subplot_kw = {'projection': 'polar'} 
)
ax.plot(theta, r)
ax.set_rticks([0.5, 1, 1.5, 2])
ax.grid(True)
plt.show()
```

What about the CLI?

Quarto is a command line interface (CLI) that renders plain text formats (.qmd, .rmd, .md) OR mixed formats (.ipynb/Jupyter notebook) into static PDF/Word/HTML reports, books, websites, presentations and more

01 - Performing magic

with Quarto

Tom Mock

2022-08-02