Introduction

Sooner or later you're going to want to share your findings
And learning how the web works is fun
Use modern Python and JavaScript tools
- Yes, you're going to have to learn some JavaScript…
- …but it's not as bad as you've been told
All of these materials can be freely re-used under the CC-BY-NC License (prose) and MIT License (software)

Setup

Install uv for managing Python packages and virtual environments and then run:
- uv venv in the root directory of this project to create a virtual environment in ./.venv
- source .venv/bin/activate to activate that virtual environment
- uv pip install -r pyproject.toml to install requirements
To regenerate the sample data, run make datasets to:
- install the default parameters for snailz in ./params, and
- regenerate the sample data in ./data
- We use Make to run tasks because every other option proved to be more complicated
Project uses McCole to generate and check HTML
- Run make render to regenerate the HTML in ./docs from the Markdown files
- Run make lint at any time to check the state of the project

snailz creates synthetic data for a study of mutant snails in the Pacific Northwest.

One or more surveys are conducted at one or more sites.
Each survey collects genomes and sizes of snails.
A grid at each site is marked out to show the presence or absence of pollution.
Staff perform assays of the snails' genetic material.
Each assay plate has a design showing the material applied and readings showing the measured response.
Plates may be invalidated after the fact if a staff member believes it is contaminated.