galaaz 2.1.8 → 2.1.9

data/blogs/nse_dplyr/nse_dplyr.md

@@ -1,134 +1,151 @@
+---
+title: "Non Standard Evaluation in dplyr with Galaaz"
+author:
+    - "Rodrigo Botafogo"
+    - "Daniel Mossé - University of Pittsburgh"
+tags: [Tech, Data Science, Ruby, R, JRuby, "GNU R", Galaaz, dplyr]
+date: "10/05/2019 (narrative updated for Galaaz 2.0, 2026)"
+output:
+  html_document:
+    self_contained: true
+    keep_md: true
+    toc: true
+    toc_float: true
+    toc_depth: 2
+    number_sections: true
+    includes:
+      before_body: _logo_before_body.html
+  pdf_document:
+    includes:
+      in_header:
+        - "../../sty/galaaz.sty"
+        - "../../sty/galaaz-headers-from-p3.tex"
+    keep_tex: yes
+    number_sections: yes
+    toc: true
+    toc_depth: 2
+  md_document:
+    variant: markdown_github
+fontsize: 11pt
+---
+
+
+
+
+
 # Introduction
 
-According to Steven Sagaert’s answer on Quora about “Is programming
-language R overrated?”:
+According to Steven Sagaert’s answer on Quora about “Is programming language R overrated?”:
 
-> R is a sophisticated language with an unusual (i.e. non-mainstream)
-> set of features. It‘s an impure functional programming language with
-> sophisticated metaprogramming and 3 different OO systems.
+> R is a sophisticated language with an unusual (i.e. non-mainstream) set of features. It‘s 
+> an impure functional programming language with sophisticated metaprogramming and 3 
+> different OO systems.
 
-> Just like common lisp you can completely customise how things work via
-> metaprogramming. The biggest example is the tidyverse: by creating
-> it’s own evaluation system (tidyeval) was able to create a custom
-> syntax for dplyr.
+> Just like common lisp you can completely customise how things work via metaprogramming. 
+> The biggest example is the tidyverse: by creating it’s own evaluation system (tidyeval)
+> was able to create a custom syntax for dplyr.
 
-> Mastering R (the language) and its ecosystem is not a matter of weeks
-> or months but takes years. The rabbit hole goes pretty deep…
+> Mastering R (the language) and its ecosystem is not a matter of weeks or months but 
+> takes years. The rabbit hole goes pretty deep…
 
-Although a highly configurable language can give programmers a great
-deal of power, it can also take years to master—as noted above.
-Programming with *dplyr*, for instance, means learning evaluation rules
-that are not always approachable for **statisticians and analysts who
-are not full-time software engineers**. That is not a criticism: R was
-**built** for **statisticians** who need trustworthy results on a
-deadline, not necessarily for building large applications.
+Although a highly configurable language can give programmers a great deal of power,
+it can also take years to master—as noted above. Programming with _dplyr_, for instance,
+means learning evaluation rules that are not always approachable for **statisticians and
+analysts who are not full-time software engineers**. That is not a criticism: R was **built**
+for **statisticians** who need trustworthy results on a deadline, not necessarily for building
+large applications.
 
-**Unfortunately**, when such a user moves on to more **sophisticated**
-programming patterns, the learning curve can become a real hurdle.
+**Unfortunately**, when such a user moves on to more **sophisticated** programming patterns,
+the learning curve can become a real hurdle. 
 
-In this post we will see how to program with *dplyr* in Galaaz and how
-Ruby can simplify the learning curve of mastering *dplyr* coding.
+In this post we will see how to program with _dplyr_ in Galaaz and how Ruby can simplify
+the learning curve of mastering _dplyr_ coding.
 
 # But first, what is Galaaz??
 
-Galaaz is a system for tightly coupling Ruby and R. Ruby is a powerful
-language, with a large community, a very large set of libraries and
-great for web development. It is also easy to learn. However, it lacks
-libraries for data science, statistics, scientific plotting and machine
-learning. On the other hand, R is considered one of the most powerful
-languages for solving all of the above problems. **Python** is a strong
-competitor, with NumPy, pandas, SciPy, scikit-learn, and **many
-thousands** of other packages on PyPI. We will not dwell on R **versus**
-Python here: both are excellent languages with different strengths. Our
-interest is to bring to yet another excellent language, Ruby, the data
-science libraries that it lacks.
-
-With Galaaz we do not intend to re-implement any of the scientific
-libraries in R. However, we allow for very tight coupling between the
-two languages to the point that the Ruby developer does not need to know
-that there is an R engine running. Also, from the point of view of the R
-user/developer, Galaaz looks a lot like R, with just minor syntactic
-difference, so there is almost no learning curve for the R developer.
-And as we will see in this post that programming with *dplyr* is easier
-in Galaaz than in R.
-
-R users are probably quite knowledgeable about *dplyr*. For the Ruby
-developer, *dplyr* and the *tidyverse* libraries are a set of libraries
-for data manipulation in R, developed by Hadley Wickham, Chief Scientist
-at Posit (formerly RStudio) and a prolific R coder and writer.
-
-For the coupling of Ruby and R, **Galaaz 2.0** uses
-**[JRuby](https://www.jruby.org/)** (Ruby on the JVM) together with
-**GNU R**. A **bridge** sends expressions and data between Ruby and an R
-process so that Ruby can call **dplyr** and the rest of the tidyverse as
-if they were part of the same workflow. An **earlier** Galaaz line of
-work used Oracle’s **GraalVM** with **TruffleRuby** and **FastR** in a
-single runtime; that approach is **no longer** the supported stack—see
-the project **manual** for setup, **`bin/galaaz-jruby`**, and **gKnit**.
+Galaaz is a system for tightly coupling Ruby and R.  Ruby is a powerful language, with
+a large community, a very large set of libraries and great for web development.  It is also
+easy to learn. However,
+it lacks libraries for data science, statistics, scientific plotting and machine learning.
+On the other hand, R is considered one of the most powerful languages for solving all of the
+above problems.  **Python** is a strong competitor, with NumPy, pandas, SciPy, scikit-learn,
+and **many thousands** of other packages on PyPI.  We will not dwell on R **versus** Python here:
+both are excellent languages with different strengths.
+Our interest is to bring to yet another excellent language, Ruby, the data science libraries
+that it lacks.
+
+With Galaaz we do not intend to re-implement any of the scientific libraries in R. However, we 
+allow for very tight coupling between the two languages to the point that the Ruby 
+developer does not need to know that there is an R engine running.  Also, from the point of
+view of the R user/developer, Galaaz looks a lot like R, with just minor syntactic difference,
+so there is almost no learning curve for the R developer. And as we will see in this
+post that programming with _dplyr_ is easier in Galaaz than in R.
+
+R users are probably quite knowledgeable about _dplyr_. For the Ruby developer, _dplyr_ and
+the _tidyverse_ libraries are a set of libraries for data manipulation in R, developed by
+Hadley Wickham, Chief Scientist at Posit (formerly RStudio) and a prolific R coder and writer.
+
+For the coupling of Ruby and R, **Galaaz 2.0** uses **[JRuby](https://www.jruby.org/)** (Ruby on the JVM)
+together with **GNU R**. A **bridge** sends expressions and data between Ruby and an R process so that
+Ruby can call **dplyr** and the rest of the tidyverse as if they were part of the same workflow.
+An **earlier** Galaaz line of work used Oracle’s **GraalVM** with **TruffleRuby** and **FastR** in a single
+runtime; that approach is **no longer** the supported stack—see the project **manual** for setup,
+**`bin/galaaz-jruby`**, and **gKnit**.
+
 
 # Tidyverse and dplyr
 
-In [What is the
-tidyverse?](https://rviews.rstudio.com/2017/06/08/what-is-the-tidyverse/)
-the tidyverse is explained as follows:
-
-> The tidyverse is a coherent system of packages for data manipulation,
-> exploration and visualization that share a common design philosophy.
-> These were mostly developed by Hadley Wickham himself, but they are
-> now being expanded by several contributors. Tidyverse packages are
-> intended to make statisticians and data scientists more productive by
-> guiding them through workflows that facilitate communication, and
-> result in reproducible work products. Fundamentally, the tidyverse is
-> about the connections between the tools that make the workflow
-> possible.
-
-*dplyr* is one of the many packages that are part of the tidyverse. It
-is:
-
-> a grammar of data manipulation, providing a consistent set of verbs
-> that help you solve the most common data manipulation challenges:
-
-> 1.  mutate() adds new variables that are functions of existing
->     variables
-> 2.  select() picks variables based on their names.
-> 3.  filter() picks cases based on their values.
-> 4.  summarise() reduces multiple values down to a single summary.
-> 5.  arrange() changes the ordering of the rows.
-
-Very often R is used interactively and users use *dplyr* to manipulate a
-single dataset without programming. When users want to replicate their
-work for multiple datasets, programming becomes necessary.
+In [What is the tidyverse?](https://rviews.rstudio.com/2017/06/08/what-is-the-tidyverse/) the 
+tidyverse is explained as follows:
+
+> The tidyverse is a coherent system of packages for data manipulation, exploration and 
+> visualization that share a common design philosophy. These were mostly developed by 
+> Hadley Wickham himself, but they are now being expanded by several contributors. Tidyverse 
+> packages are intended to make statisticians and data scientists more productive by 
+> guiding them through workflows that facilitate communication, and result in reproducible 
+> work products. Fundamentally, the tidyverse is about the connections between the tools 
+> that make the workflow possible.
+
+_dplyr_ is one of the many packages that are part of the tidyverse.  It is:
+
+> a grammar of data manipulation, providing a consistent set of verbs that help you solve 
+> the most common data manipulation challenges:
+
+> 1. mutate() adds new variables that are functions of existing variables
+> 2. select() picks variables based on their names.
+> 3. filter() picks cases based on their values.
+> 4. summarise() reduces multiple values down to a single summary.
+> 5. arrange() changes the ordering of the rows.
+
+Very often R is used interactively and users use _dplyr_ to manipulate a single dataset
+without programming. When users want to replicate their work for
+multiple datasets, programming becomes necessary.
 
 # Programming with dplyr
 
-In the vignette [“Programming with
-dplyr”](https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/articles/programming.html), Hadley
-Wickham states:
+In the vignette ["Programming with dplyr"](https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/articles/programming.html), 
+Hadley Wickham states:
 
-> Most dplyr functions use non-standard evaluation (NSE). This is a
-> catch-all term that means they don’t follow the usual R rules of
-> evaluation. Instead, they capture the expression that you typed and
-> evaluate it in a custom way. This has two main benefits for dplyr
-> code:
+> Most dplyr functions use non-standard evaluation (NSE). This is a catch-all term that 
+> means they don’t follow the usual R rules of evaluation. Instead, they capture the 
+> expression that you typed and evaluate it in a custom way. This has two main 
+> benefits for dplyr code:
 
-> Operations on data frames can be expressed succinctly because you
-> don’t need to repeat the name of the data frame. For example, you can
-> write filter(df, x == 1, y == 2, z == 3) instead of df\[df$x == 1 &
-> df$y ==2 & df$z == 3, \].
+> Operations on data frames can be expressed succinctly because you don’t need to repeat 
+> the name of the data frame. For example, you can write filter(df, x == 1, y == 2, z == 3) 
+> instead of df[df\$x == 1 & df\$y ==2 & df\$z == 3, ].
 
-> dplyr can choose to compute results in a different way to base R. This
-> is important for database backends because dplyr itself doesn’t do any
-> work, but instead generates the SQL that tells the database what to
-> do.
+> dplyr can choose to compute results in a different way to base R. This is important for 
+> database backends because dplyr itself doesn’t do any work, but instead generates the SQL 
+> that tells the database what to do.
 
 But then he goes on:
 
-> Unfortunately these benefits do not come for free. There are two main
-> drawbacks:
+> Unfortunately these benefits do not come for free. There are two main drawbacks:
+
+> Most dplyr arguments are not referentially transparent. That means you can’t replace a value 
+> with a seemingly equivalent object that you’ve defined elsewhere. In other words, this code:
 
-> Most dplyr arguments are not referentially transparent. That means you
-> can’t replace a value with a seemingly equivalent object that you’ve
-> defined elsewhere. In other words, this code:
 
 ``` r
 df <- data.frame(x = 1:3, y = 3:1)
@@ -138,78 +155,65 @@ print(filter(df, x == 1))
 #>   <int> <int>
 #> 1     1     3
 ```
-
 > Is not equivalent to this code:
 
+
 ``` r
 my_var <- x
 #> Error in eval(expr, envir, enclos): object 'x' not found
 filter(df, my_var == 1)
 #> Error: object 'my_var' not found
 ```
+> This makes it hard to create functions with arguments that change how dplyr verbs are computed.
 
-> This makes it hard to create functions with arguments that change how
-> dplyr verbs are computed.
+As a result of this, programming with _dplyr_ requires learning a set of new ideas and concepts.
+In this vignette Hadley goes on showing how to program ever more difficult problems with _dplyr_, 
+showing the problems it faces and the new concepts needed to solve them.
 
-As a result of this, programming with *dplyr* requires learning a set of
-new ideas and concepts. In this vignette Hadley goes on showing how to
-program ever more difficult problems with *dplyr*, showing the problems
-it faces and the new concepts needed to solve them.
+In this blog, we will look at all the problems presented by Harley on the vignette and show how
+those same problems can be solved using Galaaz and the Ruby language. 
 
-In this blog, we will look at all the problems presented by Harley on
-the vignette and show how those same problems can be solved using Galaaz
-and the Ruby language.
+This blog is organized as follows: first we show how to write expressions using Galaaz.  
+Expressions are a fundamental concept in _dplyr_ and are not part of basic Ruby.  We extend
+the Ruby language create a manipulate expressions that will be used by _dplyr_ functions. 
 
-This blog is organized as follows: first we show how to write
-expressions using Galaaz.  
-Expressions are a fundamental concept in *dplyr* and are not part of
-basic Ruby. We extend the Ruby language create a manipulate expressions
-that will be used by *dplyr* functions.
+Then we show very succintly how Ruby and R can be integrated and how R functions are 
+transparently called from Ruby. Galaaz [user manual](https://github.com/rbotafogo/galaaz/wiki)
+(still in development) goes in much deeper detail about this integration.
 
-Then we show very succintly how Ruby and R can be integrated and how R
-functions are transparently called from Ruby. Galaaz [user
-manual](https://github.com/rbotafogo/galaaz/wiki) (still in development)
-goes in much deeper detail about this integration.
+Next in section "Data manipulation wiht _dplyr_" we go through all the problems on the 
+_dplyr_ vignette and look at how they are solved in Galaaz.  We then discuss why programming
+with Galaaz and _dplyr_ is easier than programming with _dplyr_ in plain R.
 
-Next in section “Data manipulation wiht *dplyr*” we go through all the
-problems on the *dplyr* vignette and look at how they are solved in
-Galaaz. We then discuss why programming with Galaaz and *dplyr* is
-easier than programming with *dplyr* in plain R.
-
-The following section looks at another more advanced problem and shows
-that Galaaz can still handle it without any difficulty. We then provide
-further reading and concluding remarks.
+The following section looks at another more advanced problem and shows that Galaaz can still
+handle it without any difficulty.  We then provide further reading and concluding remarks.
 
 # Writing Expressions in Galaaz
 
-Galaaz extends Ruby to work with expressions, similar to R’s expressions
-build with ‘quote’ (base R) or ‘quo’ (tidyverse). Expressions in this
-context are like mathematical expressions or formulae. For instance, in
-mathematics, the expression *y* = *s**i**n*(*x*) describes a function
-but cannot be computed unless the value of *x* is bound to some value.
+Galaaz extends Ruby to work with expressions, similar to R's expressions build with 'quote' 
+(base R) or 'quo' (tidyverse).  Expressions in this context are like mathematical expressions or
+formulae.  For instance, in mathematics, the expression $y = sin(x)$ describes a function but cannot
+be computed unless the value of $x$ is bound to some value. 
 
-Expressions are fundamental in *dplyr* programming as they are the input
-to *dplyr* functions, for instance, as we will see shortly, if a data
-frame has a column named ‘x’ and we want to add another column, y, to
-this dataframe that has the values of ‘x’ times 2, then we would call a
-*dplyr* function with the expression ‘y = x \* 2’.
+Expressions are fundamental in _dplyr_ programming as they are the input to _dplyr_ functions,
+for instance, as we will see shortly, if a data frame has a column named 'x' and we want 
+to add another column, y, to this dataframe that has the values of 'x' times 2, then we would
+call a _dplyr_ function with the expression 'y = x * 2'.
 
 ## A note on notation
 
-This blog was written in Rmarkdown and automatically converted to HTML
-or PDF (depending on where you are reading this blog) with gKnit (a tool
-provided by Galaaz). In Rmarkdown, it is possible to write text and code
-blocks that are executed to generate the final report. Code blocks
-appear inside a ‘box’ and the result of their execution appear either in
-another type of ‘box’ with a different background (HTML) or as normal
-text (PDF). Every output line from the code execution is preceded by
-‘\##’.
+This blog was written in Rmarkdown and automatically converted to HTML or PDF (depending on
+where you are reading this blog) with gKnit (a tool provided by Galaaz). In Rmarkdown, it is
+possible to write text and code blocks that are executed to generate the final report. Code
+blocks appear inside a 'box' and the result of their execution appear either in another type 
+of 'box' with a different background (HTML) or as normal text (PDF).  Every output line from
+the code execution is preceded by '##'.
 
 ## Expressions from operators
 
-The code below creates an expression summing two symbols. Note that :a
-and :b are Ruby symbols and are not bound to any values at the time of
-expression definition:
+The code below creates an expression summing two symbols. Note that :a and :b are Ruby symbols and
+are not bound to any values at the time of expression definition:
+
 
 ``` ruby
 begin
@@ -221,36 +225,41 @@ rescue => e
 end
 ```
 
-    ## NoMethodError: undefined method '+' for an instance of Symbol
-
+```
+## NoMethodError: undefined method '+' for an instance of Symbol
+```
 In Galaaz, we can build any complex mathematical expression such as:
 
+
 ``` ruby
 exp2 = (R[:a] + R[:b]) * 2.0 + R[:c] ** 2 / R[:z]
 puts exp2
 ```
 
-    ## a + b * 2.0 + c ^ 2L / z
-
-Expressions are printed with the same format as the equivalent R
-expressions. The ‘L’ after 2 indicates that 2 is an integer.
+```
+## a + b * 2.0 + c ^ 2L / z
+```
+Expressions are printed with the same format as the equivalent R expressions. The 'L' after 
+2 indicates that 2 is an integer. 
 
-The R developer should note that in R, if she writes the number ‘2’, the
-R interpreter will convert it to float. In order to get an interger she
-should write ‘2L’. Galaaz follows Ruby notation and ‘2’ is an integer,
-while ‘2.0’ is a float.
+The R developer should note that in R, if she writes the
+number '2', the R interpreter will convert it to float. In order to get an interger she
+should write '2L'. Galaaz follows Ruby notation and '2' is an integer, while '2.0' is a
+float.
 
 It is also possible to use inequality operators in building expressions:
 
+
 ``` ruby
 exp3 = (R[:a] + R[:b]) >= R[:z]
 puts exp3
 ```
 
-    ## a + b >= z
+```
+## a + b >= z
+```
+Expressions' definition can also make use of normal Ruby variables without any problem:
 
-Expressions’ definition can also make use of normal Ruby variables
-without any problem:
 
 ``` ruby
 x = 20
@@ -259,116 +268,133 @@ exp_var = (R[:a] + R[:b]) * x <= R[:z] - y
 puts exp_var
 ```
 
-    ## a + b * 20L <= z - 30.0
+```
+## a + b * 20L <= z - 30.0
+```
+
+Galaaz provides both symbolic representations for operators, such as (>, <, !=) as functional 
+notation for those operators such as (.gt, .ge, etc.).  So the same expression written 
+above can also be written as
 
-Galaaz provides both symbolic representations for operators, such as
-(\>, \<, !=) as functional notation for those operators such as (.gt,
-.ge, etc.). So the same expression written above can also be written as
 
 ``` ruby
 exp4 = (R[:a] + R[:b]).ge R[:z]
 puts exp4
 ```
 
-    ## a + b >= z
+```
+## a + b >= z
+```
+
+Two types of expressions, however, can only be created with the functional representation 
+of the operators.  Those are expressions involving '==', and '='. This is the case since
+those symbols have special meaning in Ruby and should not be redefined.
 
-Two types of expressions, however, can only be created with the
-functional representation of the operators. Those are expressions
-involving ‘==’, and ‘=’. This is the case since those symbols have
-special meaning in Ruby and should not be redefined.
+In order to write an expression involving '==' we
+need to use the method '.eq' and for '=' we need the function '.assign':
 
-In order to write an expression involving ‘==’ we need to use the method
-‘.eq’ and for ‘=’ we need the function ‘.assign’:
 
 ``` ruby
 exp5 = (R[:a] + R[:b]).eq R[:z]
 puts exp5
 ```
 
-    ## a + b == z
+```
+## a + b == z
+```
+
 
 ``` ruby
 exp6 = R[:y].assign R[:a] + R[:b]
 puts exp6
 ```
 
-    ## y <- a + b
+```
+## y <- a + b
+```
+Users should be careful when writing expressions not to inadvertently use '==' or '=' as 
+this will generate an error, that might be a bit cryptic (in future releases of Galaza, we 
+plan to improve the error message).
 
-Users should be careful when writing expressions not to inadvertently
-use ‘==’ or ‘=’ as this will generate an error, that might be a bit
-cryptic (in future releases of Galaza, we plan to improve the error
-message).
 
 ``` ruby
 exp_wrong = (R[:a] + R[:b]) == R[:z]
 puts exp_wrong
 ```
 
-    ## false
-
-The problem lies with the fact that when using ‘==’ we are comparing
-expression (R\[:a\] + R\[:b\]) to expression R\[:z\] with ‘==’. When
-this comparison is executed, the system tries to evaluate :a, :b and :z,
-and those symbols, at this time, are not bound to anything giving the
-“object ‘a’ not found” message.
+```
+## false
+```
+The problem lies with the fact that
+when using '==' we are comparing expression (R[:a] + R[:b]) to expression R[:z] with '=='.  When this 
+comparison is executed, the system tries to evaluate :a, :b and :z, and those symbols, at 
+this time, are not bound to anything giving the "object 'a' not found" message.
 
 ## Expressions with R methods
 
-It is often necessary to create an expression that uses a method or
-function. For instance, in mathematics, it’s quite natural to write an
-expressin such as *y* = *s**i**n*(*x*). In this case, the ‘sin’ function
-is part of the expression and should not be immediately executed. When
-we want the function to be part of the expression, we call the function
-preceeding it by the letter E, such as ‘E.sin(x)’
+It is often necessary to create an expression that uses a method or function.  For instance, in
+mathematics, it's quite natural to write an expressin such as $y = sin(x)$. In this case, the
+'sin' function is part of the expression and should not be immediately executed. When we want 
+the function to be part of the expression, we call the function preceeding it
+by the letter E, such as 'E.sin(x)'
+
 
 ``` ruby
 exp7 = R[:y].assign E.sin(R[:x])
 puts exp7
 ```
 
-    ## y <- sin(x)
+```
+## y <- sin(x)
+```
+Function expressions can also be written using '.' notation:
 
-Function expressions can also be written using ‘.’ notation:
 
 ``` ruby
 exp8 = R[:y].assign R[:x].sin
 puts exp8
 ```
 
-    ## y <- sin(x)
+```
+## y <- sin(x)
+```
+When a function has multiple arguments, the first one can be used before the '.'.  For instance,
+the R concatenate function 'c', that concatenates two or more arguments can be part of 
+an expression as:
 
-When a function has multiple arguments, the first one can be used before
-the ‘.’. For instance, the R concatenate function ‘c’, that concatenates
-two or more arguments can be part of an expression as:
 
 ``` ruby
 exp9 = R[:x].c(R[:y])
 puts exp9
 ```
 
-    ## c(x, y)
-
-Note that this gives an OO feeling to the code, as if we were saying ‘x’
-concatenates ‘y’. As a side note, ‘.’ notation can be used as the R pipe
-operator ‘%\>%’, but is more general than the pipe.
+```
+## c(x, y)
+```
+Note that this gives an OO feeling to the code, as if we were saying 'x' concatenates 'y'. As a
+side note, '.' notation can be used as the R pipe operator '%>%', but is more general than the
+pipe.
 
 ## Evaluating an Expression
 
-Although we are mainly focusing on expressions to pass them to *dplyr*
-functions, expressions can be evaluated by calling function ‘eval’ with
-a binding.
+Although we are mainly focusing on expressions to pass them to _dplyr_ functions, expressions 
+can be evaluated by calling function 'eval' with a binding. 
 
 A binding can be provided with a list or a data frame as shown below:
 
+
 ``` ruby
 exp = (R[:a] + R[:b]) * 2.0 + R[:c] ** 2 / R[:z]
 puts exp.eval(R.list(a: 10, b: 20, c: 30, z: 40))
 ```
 
-    ## [1] 72.5
+```
+## [1] 72.5
+```
 
 with a data frame:
 
+
 ``` ruby
 df = R.data__frame(
   a: R.c(1, 2, 3),
@@ -379,83 +405,90 @@ df = R.data__frame(
 puts exp.eval(df)
 ```
 
-    ## [1] 31 62 93
+```
+## [1] 31 62 93
+```
 
 # Using Galaaz to call R functions
 
-Galaaz tries to emulate as closely as possible the way R functions are
-called and migrating from R to Galaaz should be quite easy requiring
-only minor syntactic changes to an R script. In this post, we do not
-have enough space to write a complete manual on Galaaz (a short manual
-can be found at: <https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/galaaz/0.4.9>), so we
-will present only a few examples scripts using Galaaz.
+Galaaz tries to emulate as closely as possible the way R functions are called and migrating from 
+R to Galaaz should be quite easy requiring only minor syntactic changes to an R script.  In 
+this post, we do not have enough space to write a complete manual on Galaaz 
+(a short manual can be found at: https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/galaaz/0.4.9), so we will 
+present only a few examples scripts using Galaaz.
+
+Basically, to call an R function from Ruby with Galaaz, one only needs to preced the function
+with 'R.'.  For instance, to create a vector in R, the 'c' function is used. In Galaaz, a
+vector can be created by using 'R.c':
 
-Basically, to call an R function from Ruby with Galaaz, one only needs
-to preced the function with ‘R.’. For instance, to create a vector in R,
-the ‘c’ function is used. In Galaaz, a vector can be created by using
-‘R.c’:
 
 ``` ruby
 vec = R.c(1.0, 2, 3)
 puts vec
 ```
 
-    ## [1] 1 2 3
+```
+## [1] 1 2 3
+```
+A list is created in R with the 'list' function, so in Galaaz we do:
 
-A list is created in R with the ‘list’ function, so in Galaaz we do:
 
 ``` ruby
 list = R.list(a: 1.0, b: 2, c: 3)
 puts list
 ```
 
-    ## $a
-    ## [1] 1
-    ## 
-    ## $b
-    ## [1] 2
-    ## 
-    ## $c
-    ## [1] 3
+```
+## $a
+## [1] 1
+## 
+## $b
+## [1] 2
+## 
+## $c
+## [1] 3
+```
+Note that we can use named arguments in our list.  The same code in R would be:
 
-Note that we can use named arguments in our list. The same code in R
-would be:
 
 ``` r
 lst = list(a = 1, b = 2L, c = 3L)
 print(lst)
 ```
 
-    ## $a
-    ## [1] 1
-    ## 
-    ## $b
-    ## [1] 2
-    ## 
-    ## $c
-    ## [1] 3
+```
+## $a
+## [1] 1
+## 
+## $b
+## [1] 2
+## 
+## $c
+## [1] 3
+```
+Now, let's say that 'x' is an angle of 45$^\circ$ and we acttually want to create
+the expression $y = sin(45^\circ)$, which is $y = 0.850...$.  In this case, 
+we will use 'R.sin':
 
-Now, let’s say that ‘x’ is an angle of 45<sup>∘</sup> and we acttually
-want to create the expression *y* = *s**i**n*(45<sup>∘</sup>), which is
-*y* = 0.850.... In this case, we will use ‘R.sin’:
 
 ``` ruby
 exp10 = R[:y].assign R.sin(45)
 puts exp10
 ```
 
-    ## y <- 0.850903524534118
+```
+## y <- 0.850903524534118
+```
+
+# Data manipulation wiht _dplyr_
 
-# Data manipulation wiht *dplyr*
+In this section we will give a brief tour _dplyr_'s usage in Galaaz and how to manipulate 
+data in Ruby with it.  This section will follow [_dplyr_'s vignette](https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/articles/dplyr.html) that explores the nycflights13 data set. This dataset contains all 336776 
+flights that departed from New York City in 2013. The data comes from the US Bureau of 
+Transportation Statistics.
 
-In this section we will give a brief tour *dplyr*’s usage in Galaaz and
-how to manipulate data in Ruby with it. This section will follow
-[*dplyr*’s vignette](https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/articles/dplyr.html)
-that explores the nycflights13 data set. This dataset contains all
-336776 flights that departed from New York City in 2013. The data comes
-from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
+Let's start by taking a look at this dataset:
 
-Let’s start by taking a look at this dataset:
 
 ``` ruby
 R.library('nycflights13')
@@ -465,137 +498,141 @@ puts ~R[:flights].dim
 ~R[:flights].str
 ```
 
-    ## ~(dim(flights))
-    ## <environment: 0x57d8ad019298>
+```
+## ~(dim(flights))
+## <environment: 0x5cd09170df98>
+```
 
-Now, let’s use a first verb of *dplyr*: ‘filter’. This verb, obviously,
-will filter the data by the given expression. In the next block, we
-filter by columns ‘month’ and ‘day’. The first argument to the filter
-function is symbol ‘:flights’. A Ruby symbol, when given to an R
-function will convert to the R variable of the same name, in this case
-‘flights’, that holds the nycflights13 data frame.
+Now, let's use a first verb of _dplyr_: 'filter'. This verb, obviously, will filter the data
+by the given expression. In the next block, we filter by columns 'month' and 'day'. The
+first argument to the filter function is symbol ':flights'. A Ruby symbol, when given to
+an R function will convert to the R variable of the same name, in this case 'flights', that
+holds the nycflights13 data frame. 
+
+The second and third arguments are expressions that will be used by the filter function to
+filter by columns, looking for entries in which the month and day are equal to 1.
 
-The second and third arguments are expressions that will be used by the
-filter function to filter by columns, looking for entries in which the
-month and day are equal to 1.
 
 ``` ruby
 puts R.filter(:flights, (R[:month].eq 1), (R[:day].eq 1))
 ```
 
-    ## # A tibble: 842 × 19
-    ##     year month   day dep_time sched_dep_time dep_delay arr_time
-    ##    <int> <int> <int>    <int>          <int>     <dbl>    <int>
-    ##  1  2013     1     1      517            515         2      830
-    ##  2  2013     1     1      533            529         4      850
-    ##  3  2013     1     1      542            540         2      923
-    ##  4  2013     1     1      544            545        -1     1004
-    ##  5  2013     1     1      554            600        -6      812
-    ##  6  2013     1     1      554            558        -4      740
-    ##  7  2013     1     1      555            600        -5      913
-    ##  8  2013     1     1      557            600        -3      709
-    ##  9  2013     1     1      557            600        -3      838
-    ## 10  2013     1     1      558            600        -2      753
-    ## # ℹ 832 more rows
-    ## # ℹ 12 more variables: sched_arr_time <int>, arr_delay <dbl>,
-    ## #   carrier <chr>, flight <int>, tailnum <chr>, origin <chr>,
-    ## #   dest <chr>, air_time <dbl>, distance <dbl>, hour <dbl>,
-    ## #   minute <dbl>, time_hour <dttm>
-
-## Programming with *dplyr*: problems and how to solve them in Galaaz
-
-In this section we look at the list of problems that Hadley describes in
-the “Programming with dplyr” vignette and show how those problems are
-solved and coded with Galaaz. Readers interested in how those problems
-are treated in *dplyr* should read the vignette and use it as a
-comparison with this blog.
+```
+## # A tibble: 842 × 19
+##     year month   day dep_time sched_dep_time dep_delay arr_time
+##    <int> <int> <int>    <int>          <int>     <dbl>    <int>
+##  1  2013     1     1      517            515         2      830
+##  2  2013     1     1      533            529         4      850
+##  3  2013     1     1      542            540         2      923
+##  4  2013     1     1      544            545        -1     1004
+##  5  2013     1     1      554            600        -6      812
+##  6  2013     1     1      554            558        -4      740
+##  7  2013     1     1      555            600        -5      913
+##  8  2013     1     1      557            600        -3      709
+##  9  2013     1     1      557            600        -3      838
+## 10  2013     1     1      558            600        -2      753
+## # ℹ 832 more rows
+## # ℹ 12 more variables: sched_arr_time <int>, arr_delay <dbl>,
+## #   carrier <chr>, flight <int>, tailnum <chr>, origin <chr>,
+## #   dest <chr>, air_time <dbl>, distance <dbl>, hour <dbl>,
+## #   minute <dbl>, time_hour <dttm>
+```
+
+
+## Programming with _dplyr_: problems and how to solve them in Galaaz
+
+In this section we look at the list of problems that Hadley describes in the "Programming with dplyr"
+vignette and show how those problems are solved and coded with Galaaz. Readers interested in
+how those problems are treated in _dplyr_ should read the vignette and use it as a comparison with
+this blog.
 
 ## Filtering using expressions
 
-Now that we know how to write expressions and call R functions, let’s do
-some data manipulation in Galaaz. Let’s first start by creating a data
-frame. In R, the ‘data.frame’ function creates a data frame. In Ruby,
-writing ‘data.frame’ will not parse as a single object. To call R
-functions that have a ‘.’ in them, we need to substitute the ‘.’ with
-’\_\_‘. So, method ’data.frame’ in R, is called in Galaaz as
-‘R.data\_\_frame’:
+Now that we know how to write expressions and call R functions, let's do some data manipulation in
+Galaaz.  Let's first start by creating a data frame. In R, the 'data.frame' function creates a
+data frame.  In Ruby, writing 'data.frame' will not parse as a single object. To call R 
+functions that have a '.' in them, we need to substitute the '.' with '__'. So, method
+'data.frame' in R, is called in Galaaz as 'R.data\_\_frame':
+
 
 ``` ruby
 df = R.data__frame(x: (1..3), y: (3..1))
 puts df
 ```
 
-    ##   x y
-    ## 1 1 3
-    ## 2 2 2
-    ## 3 3 1
+```
+##   x y
+## 1 1 3
+## 2 2 2
+## 3 3 1
+```
 
-*dplyr* provides the ‘filter’ function, that filters data in a data
-brame. The ‘filter’ function can be called on this data frame either by
-using ‘R.filter(df, …)’ or by using dot notation.
+_dplyr_ provides the 'filter' function, that filters data in a data brame. The 'filter' 
+function can be called on this data frame either by using 'R.filter(df, ...)' or 
+by using dot notation.  
 
-——-FIX———
+-------FIX---------
+
+We prefer to use dot notation as shown below.  The argument to 'filter' should be an 
+expression. Note that if we gave to filter a Ruby expression such as
+'x == 1', we would get an error, since there is no variable 'x' defined and if 'x' was a variable
+then 'x == 1' would either be 'true' or 'false'. Our goal is to filter our data frame returning
+all rows in which the 'x' value is equal to 1. To express this we want: 'R[:x].eq 1', where :x will
+be interpreted by filter as the 'x' column.
 
-We prefer to use dot notation as shown below. The argument to ‘filter’
-should be an expression. Note that if we gave to filter a Ruby
-expression such as ‘x == 1’, we would get an error, since there is no
-variable ‘x’ defined and if ‘x’ was a variable then ‘x == 1’ would
-either be ‘true’ or ‘false’. Our goal is to filter our data frame
-returning all rows in which the ‘x’ value is equal to 1. To express this
-we want: ‘R\[:x\].eq 1’, where :x will be interpreted by filter as the
-‘x’ column.
 
 ``` ruby
 puts df.filter(R[:x].eq 1)
 ```
 
-    ##   x y
-    ## 1 1 3
+```
+##   x y
+## 1 1 3
+```
+In R, and when coding with 'tidyverse', arguments to a function are usually not 
+*referencially transparent*. That is, you can’t replace a value with a seemingly equivalent 
+object that you’ve defined elsewhere. In other words, this code
 
-In R, and when coding with ‘tidyverse’, arguments to a function are
-usually not *referencially transparent*. That is, you can’t replace a
-value with a seemingly equivalent object that you’ve defined elsewhere.
-In other words, this code
 
 ``` r
 my_var <- x
 filter(df, my_var == 1)
 ```
+Generates the following error: "object 'x' not found.
 
-Generates the following error: “object ‘x’ not found.
+However, in Galaaz, arguments are referencially transparent as can be seen by the 
+code below.  Note initially that 'my_var = R[:x]' will not give the error "object 'x' not found" 
+since ':x' is treated as an expression and assigned to my\_var. Then when doing (my\_var.eq 1), 
+my\_var is a variable that resolves to ':x' and it becomes equivalent to (R[:x].eq 1) which is
+what we want.
 
-However, in Galaaz, arguments are referencially transparent as can be
-seen by the code below. Note initially that ‘my_var = R\[:x\]’ will not
-give the error “object ‘x’ not found” since ‘:x’ is treated as an
-expression and assigned to my_var. Then when doing (my_var.eq 1), my_var
-is a variable that resolves to ‘:x’ and it becomes equivalent to
-(R\[:x\].eq 1) which is what we want.
 
 ``` ruby
 my_var = R[:x]
 puts df.filter(my_var.eq 1)
 ```
 
-    ##   x y
-    ## 1 1 3
-
+```
+##   x y
+## 1 1 3
+```
 As stated by Hadley
 
-> dplyr code is ambiguous. Depending on what variables are defined
-> where, filter(df, x == y) could be equivalent to any of:
+> dplyr code is ambiguous. Depending on what variables are defined where, 
+> filter(df, x == y) could be equivalent to any of:
 
-    df[df$x == df$y, ]
-    df[df$x == y, ]
-    df[x == df$y, ]
-    df[x == y, ]
+```
+df[df$x == df$y, ]
+df[df$x == y, ]
+df[x == df$y, ]
+df[x == y, ]
+```
+In galaaz this ambiguity does not exist, filter(df, x.eq y) is not a valid expression as 
+expressions are build with symbols.  In doing filter(df, R[:x].eq y) we are looking for elements
+of the 'x' column that are equal to a previously defined y variable.  Finally in 
+filter(df, R[:x].eq R[:y]) we are looking for elements in which the 'x' column value is equal to
+the 'y' column value. This can be seen in the following two chunks of code:
 
-In galaaz this ambiguity does not exist, filter(df, x.eq y) is not a
-valid expression as expressions are build with symbols. In doing
-filter(df, R\[:x\].eq y) we are looking for elements of the ‘x’ column
-that are equal to a previously defined y variable. Finally in filter(df,
-R\[:x\].eq R\[:y\]) we are looking for elements in which the ‘x’ column
-value is equal to the ‘y’ column value. This can be seen in the
-following two chunks of code:
 
 ``` ruby
 y = 1
@@ -605,8 +642,11 @@ x = 2
 puts df.filter(R[:x].eq R[:y])
 ```
 
-    ##   x y
-    ## 1 2 2
+```
+##   x y
+## 1 2 2
+```
+
 
 ``` ruby
 # looking for values where the 'x' column is equal to the 'y' variable
@@ -614,35 +654,37 @@ puts df.filter(R[:x].eq R[:y])
 puts df.filter(R[:x].eq y)
 ```
 
-    ##   x y
-    ## 1 1 3
-
+```
+##   x y
+## 1 1 3
+```
 ## Writing a function that applies to different data sets
 
-Let’s suppose that we want to write a function that receives as the
-first argument a data frame and as second argument an expression that
-adds a column to the data frame that is equal to the sum of elements in
-column ‘a’ plus ‘x’.
-
-Here is the intended behaviour using the ‘mutate’ function of ‘dplyr’:
+Let's suppose that we want to write a function that receives as the first argument a data frame
+and as second argument an expression that adds a column to the data frame that is equal to the
+sum of elements in column 'a' plus 'x'. 
 
-    mutate(df1, y = a + x)
-    mutate(df2, y = a + x)
-    mutate(df3, y = a + x)
-    mutate(df4, y = a + x)
+Here is the intended behaviour using the 'mutate' function of 'dplyr':
 
+```
+mutate(df1, y = a + x)
+mutate(df2, y = a + x)
+mutate(df3, y = a + x)
+mutate(df4, y = a + x)
+```
 The naive approach to writing an R function to solve this problem is:
 
-    mutate_y <- function(df) {
-      mutate(df, y = a + x)
-    }
+```
+mutate_y <- function(df) {
+  mutate(df, y = a + x)
+}
+```
+Unfortunately, in R, this function can fail silently if one of the variables isn’t present 
+in the data frame, but is present in the global environment.  We will not go through here how
+to solve this problem in R.
 
-Unfortunately, in R, this function can fail silently if one of the
-variables isn’t present in the data frame, but is present in the global
-environment. We will not go through here how to solve this problem in R.
+In Galaaz the method mutate_y below will work fine and will never fail silently.
 
-In Galaaz the method mutate_y below will work fine and will never fail
-silently.
 
 ``` ruby
 def mutate_y(df)
@@ -651,23 +693,25 @@ def mutate_y(df)
   df.mutate(y: R[:a] + R[:x])
 end
 ```
+Here we create a data frame that has only one column named 'x':
 
-Here we create a data frame that has only one column named ‘x’:
 
 ``` ruby
 df1 = R.data__frame(x: (1..3))
 puts df1
 ```
 
-    ##   x
-    ## 1 1
-    ## 2 2
-    ## 3 3
+```
+##   x
+## 1 1
+## 2 2
+## 3 3
+```
+
+Note that method mutate_y will fail independetly from the fact that variable 'a' is defined and
+in the scope of the method.  Variable 'a' has no relationship with the symbol `R[:a]` used in the
+definition of 'mutate\_y' above:
 
-Note that method mutate_y will fail independetly from the fact that
-variable ‘a’ is defined and in the scope of the method. Variable ‘a’ has
-no relationship with the symbol `R[:a]` used in the definition of
-‘mutate_y’ above:
 
 ``` ruby
 a = 10
@@ -679,17 +723,18 @@ rescue => e
 end
 ```
 
-    ## NewBridge::SessionClient::RProcessError: Error: ℹ In argument: `y = a + x`.
-    ## Caused by error:
-    ## ! object 'a' not found
-
+```
+## NewBridge::SessionClient::RProcessError: Error: ℹ In argument: `y = a + x`.
+## Caused by error:
+## ! object 'a' not found
+```
 ## Different expressions
 
-Let’s move to the next problem as presented by Hadley where trying to
-write a function in R that will receive two argumens, the first a
-variable and the second an expression is not trivial. Below we create a
-data frame and we want to write a function that groups data by a
-variable and summarises it by an expression:
+Let's move to the next problem as presented by Hadley where trying to write a function in R 
+that will receive two argumens, the first a variable and the second an expression is not trivial.
+Below we create a data frame and we want to write a function that groups data by a variable and
+summarises it by an expression:
+
 
 ``` r
 set.seed(123)
@@ -704,39 +749,46 @@ df <- data.frame(
 as.data.frame(df)
 ```
 
-    ##   g1 g2 a b
-    ## 1  1  1 3 3
-    ## 2  1  2 2 1
-    ## 3  2  1 5 2
-    ## 4  2  2 4 5
-    ## 5  2  1 1 4
+```
+##   g1 g2 a b
+## 1  1  1 3 3
+## 2  1  2 2 1
+## 3  2  1 5 2
+## 4  2  2 4 5
+## 5  2  1 1 4
+```
 
 ``` r
 d2 <- df %>%
   group_by(g1) %>%
   summarise(a = mean(a))
-           
+	       
 as.data.frame(d2)
 ```
 
-    ##   g1        a
-    ## 1  1 2.500000
-    ## 2  2 3.333333
+```
+##   g1        a
+## 1  1 2.500000
+## 2  2 3.333333
+```
 
 ``` r
 d2 <- df %>%
   group_by(g2) %>%
   summarise(a = mean(a))
-           
-as.data.frame(d2)          
+	       
+as.data.frame(d2)	       
 ```
 
-    ##   g2 a
-    ## 1  1 3
-    ## 2  2 3
+```
+##   g2 a
+## 1  1 3
+## 2  2 3
+```
 
 As shown by Hadley, one might expect this function to do the trick:
 
+
 ``` r
 my_summarise <- function(df, group_var) {
   df %>%
@@ -748,17 +800,15 @@ my_summarise <- function(df, group_var) {
 #> Error: Column `group_var` is unknown
 ```
 
-In order to solve this problem, coding with dplyr requires the
-introduction of many new concepts and functions such as ‘quo’, ‘quos’,
-‘enquo’, ‘enquos’, ‘!!’ (bang bang), ‘!!!’ (triple bang). Again, we’ll
-leave to Hadley the explanation on how to use all those functions.
+In order to solve this problem, coding with dplyr requires the introduction of many new concepts
+and functions such as 'quo', 'quos', 'enquo', 'enquos', '!!' (bang bang), '!!!' (triple bang). 
+Again, we'll leave to Hadley the explanation on how to use all those functions.
+
+Now, let's try to implement the same function in galaaz.  The next code block first prints the
+'df' data frame defined previously in R (to access an R variable from Galaaz, we use the tilde 
+operator '~' applied to the R variable name as symbol, i.e., ':df'.  We then create the 
+'my_summarize' method and call it passing the R data frame and the group by variable ':g1':
 
-Now, let’s try to implement the same function in galaaz. The next code
-block first prints the ‘df’ data frame defined previously in R (to
-access an R variable from Galaaz, we use the tilde operator ‘~’ applied
-to the R variable name as symbol, i.e., ‘:df’. We then create the
-‘my_summarize’ method and call it passing the R data frame and the group
-by variable ‘:g1’:
 
 ``` ruby
 puts ~R[:df]
@@ -773,59 +823,64 @@ end
 puts my_summarize(~R[:df], R[:g1])
 ```
 
-    ##   g1 g2 a b
-    ## 1  1  1 3 3
-    ## 2  1  2 2 1
-    ## 3  2  1 5 2
-    ## 4  2  2 4 5
-    ## 5  2  1 1 4
-    ## 
-    ## # A tibble: 2 × 2
-    ##      g1     a
-    ##   <dbl> <dbl>
-    ## 1     1  2.5 
-    ## 2     2  3.33
+```
+##   g1 g2 a b
+## 1  1  1 3 3
+## 2  1  2 2 1
+## 3  2  1 5 2
+## 4  2  2 4 5
+## 5  2  1 1 4
+## 
+## # A tibble: 2 × 2
+##      g1     a
+##   <dbl> <dbl>
+## 1     1  2.5 
+## 2     2  3.33
+```
+It works!!! Well, let's make sure this was not just some coincidence
 
-It works!!! Well, let’s make sure this was not just some coincidence
 
 ``` ruby
 puts my_summarize(~R[:df], R[:g2])
 ```
 
-    ## # A tibble: 2 × 2
-    ##      g2     a
-    ##   <dbl> <dbl>
-    ## 1     1     3
-    ## 2     2     3
+```
+## # A tibble: 2 × 2
+##      g2     a
+##   <dbl> <dbl>
+## 1     1     3
+## 2     2     3
+```
 
-Great, everything is fine! No magic, no new functions, no complexities,
-just normal, standard Ruby code. If you’ve ever done NSE in R, this
-certainly feels much safer and easy to implement.
+Great, everything is fine! No magic, no new functions, no complexities, just normal, standard Ruby
+code.  If you've ever done NSE in R, this certainly feels much safer and easy to implement.
 
 ## Different input variables
 
-In the previous section we’ve managed to get rid of all NSE formulation
-for a simple example, but does this remain true for more complex
-examples, or will the Galaaz way prove inpractical for more complex
-code?
+In the previous section we've managed to get rid of all NSE formulation for a simple example, but
+does this remain true for more complex examples, or will the Galaaz way prove inpractical for
+more complex code?
 
-In the next example Hadley proposes us to write a function that given an
-expression such as ‘a’ or ‘a \* b’, calculates three summaries. What we
-want a function that does the same as these R statements:
+In the next example Hadley proposes us to write a function that given an expression such as 'a'
+or 'a * b', calculates three summaries.  What we want a function that does the same as these R
+statements:
 
-    summarise(df, mean = mean(a), sum = sum(a), n = n())
-    #> # A tibble: 1 x 3
-    #>    mean   sum     n
-    #>   <dbl> <int> <int>
-    #> 1     3    15     5
+```
+summarise(df, mean = mean(a), sum = sum(a), n = n())
+#> # A tibble: 1 x 3
+#>    mean   sum     n
+#>   <dbl> <int> <int>
+#> 1     3    15     5
+
+summarise(df, mean = mean(a * b), sum = sum(a * b), n = n())
+#> # A tibble: 1 x 3
+#>    mean   sum     n
+#>   <dbl> <int> <int>
+#> 1   9    45     5
+```
 
-    summarise(df, mean = mean(a * b), sum = sum(a * b), n = n())
-    #> # A tibble: 1 x 3
-    #>    mean   sum     n
-    #>   <dbl> <int> <int>
-    #> 1   9    45     5
+Let's try it in galaaz:
 
-Let’s try it in galaaz:
 
 ``` ruby
 def my_summarise2(df, expr)
@@ -840,49 +895,50 @@ puts my_summarise2((~R[:df]), :a)
 puts my_summarise2((~R[:df]), R[:a] * R[:b])
 ```
 
-    ##   mean sum n
-    ## 1    3  15 5
-    ##   mean sum n
-    ## 1    9  45 5
+```
+##   mean sum n
+## 1    3  15 5
+##   mean sum n
+## 1    9  45 5
+```
 
-Once again, there is no need to use any special theory or functions. The
-only point to be careful about is the use of ‘E’ to build expressions
-from functions ‘mean’, ‘sum’ and ‘n’.
+Once again, there is no need to use any special theory or functions.  The only point to be 
+careful about is the use of 'E' to build expressions from functions 'mean', 'sum' and 'n'.
 
 ## Different input and output variable
 
-Now the next challenge presented by Hadley is to vary the name of the
-output variables based on the received expression. So, if the input
-expression is ‘a’, we want our data frame columns to be named ‘mean_a’
-and ‘sum_a’. Now, if the input expression is ‘b’, columns should be
-named ‘mean_b’ and ‘sum_b’.
-
-    mutate(df, mean_a = mean(a), sum_a = sum(a))
-    #> # A tibble: 5 x 6
-    #>      g1    g2     a     b mean_a sum_a
-    #>   <dbl> <dbl> <int> <int>  <dbl> <int>
-    #> 1     1     1     1     3      3    15
-    #> 2     1     2     4     2      3    15
-    #> 3     2     1     2     1      3    15
-    #> 4     2     2     5     4      3    15
-    #> # … with 1 more row
-
-    mutate(df, mean_b = mean(b), sum_b = sum(b))
-    #> # A tibble: 5 x 6
-    #>      g1    g2     a     b mean_b sum_b
-    #>   <dbl> <dbl> <int> <int>  <dbl> <int>
-    #> 1     1     1     1     3      3    15
-    #> 2     1     2     4     2      3    15
-    #> 3     2     1     2     1      3    15
-    #> 4     2     2     5     4      3    15
-    #> # … with 1 more row
-
-In order to solve this problem in R, Hadley needs to introduce some more
-new functions and notations: ‘quo_name’ and the ‘:=’ operator from
-package ‘rlang’
+Now the next challenge presented by Hadley is to vary the name of the output variables based on 
+the received expression.  So, if the input expression is 'a', we want our data frame columns to
+be named 'mean\_a' and 'sum\_a'.  Now, if the input expression is 'b', columns
+should be named 'mean\_b' and 'sum\_b'.
+
+```
+mutate(df, mean_a = mean(a), sum_a = sum(a))
+#> # A tibble: 5 x 6
+#>      g1    g2     a     b mean_a sum_a
+#>   <dbl> <dbl> <int> <int>  <dbl> <int>
+#> 1     1     1     1     3      3    15
+#> 2     1     2     4     2      3    15
+#> 3     2     1     2     1      3    15
+#> 4     2     2     5     4      3    15
+#> # … with 1 more row
+
+mutate(df, mean_b = mean(b), sum_b = sum(b))
+#> # A tibble: 5 x 6
+#>      g1    g2     a     b mean_b sum_b
+#>   <dbl> <dbl> <int> <int>  <dbl> <int>
+#> 1     1     1     1     3      3    15
+#> 2     1     2     4     2      3    15
+#> 3     2     1     2     1      3    15
+#> 4     2     2     5     4      3    15
+#> # … with 1 more row
+```
+In order to solve this problem in R, Hadley needs to introduce some more new functions and notations:
+'quo_name' and the ':=' operator from package 'rlang'
 
 Here is our Ruby code:
 
+
 ``` ruby
 def my_mutate(df, expr)
   mean_name = "mean_#{expr.to_s}"
@@ -896,37 +952,36 @@ puts my_mutate((~R[:df]), :a)
 puts my_mutate((~R[:df]), :b)
 ```
 
-    ##   g1 g2 a b mean_a sum_a
-    ## 1  1  1 3 3      3    15
-    ## 2  1  2 2 1      3    15
-    ## 3  2  1 5 2      3    15
-    ## 4  2  2 4 5      3    15
-    ## 5  2  1 1 4      3    15
-    ##   g1 g2 a b mean_b sum_b
-    ## 1  1  1 3 3      3    15
-    ## 2  1  2 2 1      3    15
-    ## 3  2  1 5 2      3    15
-    ## 4  2  2 4 5      3    15
-    ## 5  2  1 1 4      3    15
-
-It really seems that “Non Standard Evaluation” is actually quite
-standard in Galaaz! But, you might have noticed a small change in the
-way the arguments to the mutate method were called. In a previous
-example we used df.summarise(mean: E.mean(:a), …) where the column name
-was followed by a ‘:’ colom. In this example, we have
-df.mutate(mean_name =\> E.mean(expr), …) and variable mean_name is not
-followed by ‘:’ but by ‘=\>’. This is standard Ruby notation.
-
-\[explain….\]
+```
+##   g1 g2 a b mean_a sum_a
+## 1  1  1 3 3      3    15
+## 2  1  2 2 1      3    15
+## 3  2  1 5 2      3    15
+## 4  2  2 4 5      3    15
+## 5  2  1 1 4      3    15
+##   g1 g2 a b mean_b sum_b
+## 1  1  1 3 3      3    15
+## 2  1  2 2 1      3    15
+## 3  2  1 5 2      3    15
+## 4  2  2 4 5      3    15
+## 5  2  1 1 4      3    15
+```
+It really seems that "Non Standard Evaluation" is actually quite standard in Galaaz! But, you 
+might have noticed a small change in the way the arguments to the mutate method were called.
+In a previous example we used df.summarise(mean: E.mean(:a), ...) where the column name was
+followed by a ':' colom.  In this example, we have df.mutate(mean_name => E.mean(expr), ...)
+and variable mean\_name is not followed by ':' but by '=>'.  This is standard Ruby notation.
+
+[explain....]
 
 ## Capturing multiple variables
 
-Moving on with new complexities, Hadley proposes us to solve the problem
-in which the summarise function will receive any number of grouping
-variables.
+Moving on with new complexities, Hadley proposes us to solve the problem in which the 
+summarise function will receive any number of grouping variables.
+
+This again is quite standard Ruby.  In order to receive an undefined number of paramenters
+the paramenter is preceded by '*':
 
-This again is quite standard Ruby. In order to receive an undefined
-number of paramenters the paramenter is preceded by ’\*’:
 
 ``` ruby
 def my_summarise3(df, *group_vars)
@@ -937,89 +992,85 @@ end
 puts my_summarise3((~R[:df]), :g1, :g2)
 ```
 
-    ## # A tibble: 4 × 3
-    ## # Groups:   g1 [2]
-    ##      g1    g2     a
-    ##   <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
-    ## 1     1     1     3
-    ## 2     1     2     2
-    ## 3     2     1     3
-    ## 4     2     2     4
+```
+## # A tibble: 4 × 3
+## # Groups:   g1 [2]
+##      g1    g2     a
+##   <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
+## 1     1     1     3
+## 2     1     2     2
+## 3     2     1     3
+## 4     2     2     4
+```
 
 # Why does R require NSE and Galaaz does not?
 
-NSE introduces a number of new concepts, such as ‘quoting’,
-‘quasiquotation’, ‘unquoting’ and ‘unquote-splicing’, while in Galaaz
-none of those concepts are needed. What gives?
-
-R is an extremely flexible language and it has lazy evaluation of
-parameters. When in R a function is called as ‘summarise(df, a = b)’,
-the summarise function receives the litteral ‘a = b’ parameter and can
-work with this as if it were a string. In R, it is not clear what a and
-b are, they can be expressions or they can be variables, it is up to the
-function to decide what ‘a = b’ means.
-
-In Ruby, there is no lazy evaluation of parameters and ‘a’ is always a
-variable and so is ‘b’. Variables assume their value as soon as they are
-used, so ‘x = a’ is immediately evaluate and variable ‘x’ will receive
-the value of variable ‘a’ as soon as the Ruby statement is executed.
-Ruby also provides the notion of a symbol; ‘:a’ is a symbol and does not
-evaluate to anything. Galaaz uses Ruby symbols to build expressions that
-are not bound to anything: ‘R\[:a\].eq R\[:b\]’ is clearly an expression
-and has no relationship whatsoever with the statment ‘a = b’. By using
-symbols, variables and expressions all the possible ambiguities that are
-found in R are eliminated in Galaaz.
-
-The main problem that remains, is that in R, functions are not clearly
-documented as what type of input they are expecting, they might be
-expecting regular variables or they might be expecting expressions and
-the R function will know how to deal with an input of the form ‘a = b’,
-now for the Ruby developer it might not be immediately clear if it
-should call the function passing the value ‘true’ if variable ‘a’ is
-equal to variable ‘b’ or if it should call the function passing the
-expression ‘R\[:a\].eq R\[:b\]’.
+NSE introduces a number of new concepts, such as 'quoting', 'quasiquotation', 'unquoting' and 
+'unquote-splicing', while in Galaaz none of those concepts are needed. What gives?
+
+R is an extremely flexible language and it has lazy evaluation of parameters. When in R a 
+function is called as 'summarise(df, a = b)', the summarise function receives the litteral
+'a = b' parameter and can work with this as if it were a string. In R, it is not clear what
+a and b are, they can be expressions or they can be variables, it is up to the function to
+decide what 'a = b' means.
+
+In Ruby, there is no lazy evaluation of parameters and 'a' is always a variable and so is 'b'.
+Variables assume their value as soon as they are used, so 'x = a' is immediately evaluate and 
+variable 'x' will receive the value of variable 'a' as soon as the Ruby statement is executed. 
+Ruby also provides the notion of a symbol; ':a' is a symbol and does not evaluate to anything.
+Galaaz uses Ruby symbols to build expressions that are not bound to anything: 'R[:a].eq R[:b]' is
+clearly an expression and has no relationship whatsoever with the statment 'a = b'. By using
+symbols, variables and expressions all the possible ambiguities that are found in R are 
+eliminated in Galaaz.
+
+The main problem that remains, is that in R, functions are not clearly documented as what type
+of input they are expecting, they might be expecting regular variables or they might be 
+expecting expressions and the R function will know how to deal with an input of the form 
+'a = b', now for the Ruby developer it might not be immediately clear if it should call the 
+function passing the value 'true' if variable 'a' is equal to variable 'b' or if it should
+call the function passing the expression 'R[:a].eq R[:b]'.
+
 
 # Advanced dplyr features
 
-In the blog: [Programming with dplyr by using
-dplyr](https://www.r-bloggers.com/programming-with-dplyr-by-using-dplyr/)
-Iñaki Úcar shows surprise that some R users are trying to code in dplyr
-avoiding the use of NSE. For instance he says:
+In the blog: [Programming with dplyr by using dplyr](https://www.r-bloggers.com/programming-with-dplyr-by-using-dplyr/) Iñaki Úcar shows surprise that some R users are trying to code in dplyr avoiding
+the use of NSE.  For instance he says:
 
-> Take the example of seplyr. It stands for standard evaluation dplyr,
-> and enables us to program over dplyr without having “to bring in (or
-> study) any deep-theory or heavy-weight tools such as rlang/tidyeval”.
+> Take the example of seplyr. It stands for standard evaluation dplyr, and enables us to 
+> program over dplyr without having “to bring in (or study) any deep-theory or 
+> heavy-weight tools such as rlang/tidyeval”.
 
-For me, there isn’t really any surprise that users are trying to avoid
-dplyr deep-theory. R users frequently are not programmers and learning
-to code is already hard business, on top of that, having to learn how to
-‘quote’ or ‘enquo’ or ‘quos’ or ‘enquos’ is not necessarily a ‘piece of
-cake’. So much so, that ‘tidyeval’ has some more advanced functions that
-instead of using quoted expressions, uses strings as arguments.
+For me, there isn't really any surprise that users are trying to avoid dplyr deep-theory. R
+users frequently are not programmers and learning to code is already hard business, on top
+of that, having to learn how to 'quote' or 'enquo' or 'quos' or 'enquos' is not necessarily
+a 'piece of cake'. So much so, that 'tidyeval' has some more advanced functions that instead
+of using quoted expressions, uses strings as arguments.
+
+In the following examples, we show the use of functions 'group\_by\_at', 'summarise\_at' and
+'rename\_at' that receive strings as argument. The data frame used in 'starwars' that describes
+features of characters in the Starwars movies:
 
-In the following examples, we show the use of functions ‘group_by_at’,
-‘summarise_at’ and ‘rename_at’ that receive strings as argument. The
-data frame used in ‘starwars’ that describes features of characters in
-the Starwars movies:
 
 ``` ruby
 puts (~R[:starwars]).head
 ```
 
-    ## # A tibble: 6 × 14
-    ##   name   height  mass hair_color skin_color eye_color birth_year sex  
-    ##   <chr>   <int> <dbl> <chr>      <chr>      <chr>          <dbl> <chr>
-    ## 1 Luke …    172    77 blond      fair       blue            19   male 
-    ## 2 C-3PO     167    75 <NA>       gold       yellow         112   none 
-    ## 3 R2-D2      96    32 <NA>       white, bl… red             33   none 
-    ## 4 Darth…    202   136 none       white      yellow          41.9 male 
-    ## 5 Leia …    150    49 brown      light      brown           19   fema…
-    ## 6 Owen …    178   120 brown, gr… light      blue            52   male 
-    ## # ℹ 6 more variables: gender <chr>, homeworld <chr>, species <chr>,
-    ## #   films <list>, vehicles <list>, starships <list>
+```
+## # A tibble: 6 × 14
+##   name   height  mass hair_color skin_color eye_color birth_year sex  
+##   <chr>   <int> <dbl> <chr>      <chr>      <chr>          <dbl> <chr>
+## 1 Luke …    172    77 blond      fair       blue            19   male 
+## 2 C-3PO     167    75 <NA>       gold       yellow         112   none 
+## 3 R2-D2      96    32 <NA>       white, bl… red             33   none 
+## 4 Darth…    202   136 none       white      yellow          41.9 male 
+## 5 Leia …    150    49 brown      light      brown           19   fema…
+## 6 Owen …    178   120 brown, gr… light      blue            52   male 
+## # ℹ 6 more variables: gender <chr>, homeworld <chr>, species <chr>,
+## #   films <list>, vehicles <list>, starships <list>
+```
+The grouped_mean function below will receive a grouping variable and calculate summaries for
+the value\_variables given:
 
-The grouped_mean function below will receive a grouping variable and
-calculate summaries for the value_variables given:
 
 ``` r
 grouped_mean <- function(data, grouping_variables, value_variables) {
@@ -1034,40 +1085,45 @@ gm = starwars %>%
    grouped_mean("eye_color", c("mass", "birth_year"))
 ```
 
-    ## Warning: `funs()` was deprecated in dplyr 0.8.0.
-    ## ℹ Please use a list of either functions or lambdas:
-    ## 
-    ## # Simple named list: list(mean = mean, median = median)
-    ## 
-    ## # Auto named with `tibble::lst()`: tibble::lst(mean, median)
-    ## 
-    ## # Using lambdas list(~ mean(., trim = .2), ~ median(., na.rm = TRUE))
-    ## Call `lifecycle::last_lifecycle_warnings()` to see where this warning
-    ## was generated.
+```
+## Warning: `funs()` was deprecated in dplyr 0.8.0.
+## ℹ Please use a list of either functions or lambdas:
+## 
+## # Simple named list: list(mean = mean, median = median)
+## 
+## # Auto named with `tibble::lst()`: tibble::lst(mean, median)
+## 
+## # Using lambdas list(~ mean(., trim = .2), ~ median(., na.rm = TRUE))
+## Call `lifecycle::last_lifecycle_warnings()` to see where this warning
+## was generated.
+```
 
 ``` r
 as.data.frame(gm)   
 ```
 
-    ##        eye_color mean_mass mean_birth_year count
-    ## 1          black  76.28571        33.00000    10
-    ## 2           blue  86.51667        67.06923    19
-    ## 3      blue-gray  77.00000        57.00000     1
-    ## 4          brown  66.09231       108.96429    21
-    ## 5           dark       NaN             NaN     1
-    ## 6           gold       NaN             NaN     1
-    ## 7  green, yellow 159.00000             NaN     1
-    ## 8          hazel  66.00000        34.50000     3
-    ## 9         orange 282.33333       231.00000     8
-    ## 10          pink       NaN             NaN     1
-    ## 11           red  81.40000        33.66667     5
-    ## 12     red, blue       NaN             NaN     1
-    ## 13       unknown  31.50000             NaN     3
-    ## 14         white  48.00000             NaN     1
-    ## 15        yellow  81.11111        76.38000    11
+```
+##        eye_color mean_mass mean_birth_year count
+## 1          black  76.28571        33.00000    10
+## 2           blue  86.51667        67.06923    19
+## 3      blue-gray  77.00000        57.00000     1
+## 4          brown  66.09231       108.96429    21
+## 5           dark       NaN             NaN     1
+## 6           gold       NaN             NaN     1
+## 7  green, yellow 159.00000             NaN     1
+## 8          hazel  66.00000        34.50000     3
+## 9         orange 282.33333       231.00000     8
+## 10          pink       NaN             NaN     1
+## 11           red  81.40000        33.66667     5
+## 12     red, blue       NaN             NaN     1
+## 13       unknown  31.50000             NaN     3
+## 14         white  48.00000             NaN     1
+## 15        yellow  81.11111        76.38000    11
+```
 
 The same code with Galaaz, becomes:
 
+
 ``` ruby
 def grouped_mean(data, grouping_variables, value_variables)
   data.
@@ -1088,51 +1144,43 @@ puts grouped_mean(
   E.c("mass", "birth_year"))
 ```
 
-    ## # A tibble: 15 × 4
-    ##    eye_color     mean_mass mean_birth_year count
-    ##    <chr>             <dbl>           <dbl> <dbl>
-    ##  1 black              76.3            33      10
-    ##  2 blue               86.5            67.1    19
-    ##  3 blue-gray          77              57       1
-    ##  4 brown              66.1           109.     21
-    ##  5 dark              NaN             NaN       1
-    ##  6 gold              NaN             NaN       1
-    ##  7 green, yellow     159             NaN       1
-    ##  8 hazel              66              34.5     3
-    ##  9 orange            282.            231       8
-    ## 10 pink              NaN             NaN       1
-    ## 11 red                81.4            33.7     5
-    ## 12 red, blue         NaN             NaN       1
-    ## 13 unknown            31.5           NaN       3
-    ## 14 white              48             NaN       1
-    ## 15 yellow             81.1            76.4    11
+```
+## # A tibble: 15 × 4
+##    eye_color     mean_mass mean_birth_year count
+##    <chr>             <dbl>           <dbl> <dbl>
+##  1 black              76.3            33      10
+##  2 blue               86.5            67.1    19
+##  3 blue-gray          77              57       1
+##  4 brown              66.1           109.     21
+##  5 dark              NaN             NaN       1
+##  6 gold              NaN             NaN       1
+##  7 green, yellow     159             NaN       1
+##  8 hazel              66              34.5     3
+##  9 orange            282.            231       8
+## 10 pink              NaN             NaN       1
+## 11 red                81.4            33.7     5
+## 12 red, blue         NaN             NaN       1
+## 13 unknown            31.5           NaN       3
+## 14 white              48             NaN       1
+## 15 yellow             81.1            76.4    11
+```
 
 # Further reading
 
-- [JRuby](https://www.jruby.org/) — Ruby on the JVM (Galaaz 2.0)
-- [How to make Beautiful Ruby Plots with
-  Galaaz](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-to-make-beautiful-ruby-plots-with-galaaz-320848058857)
-  (plots; narrative partly pre-2.0)
-- [Ruby Plotting with Galaaz in
-  GraalVM](https://towardsdatascience.com/ruby-plotting-with-galaaz-an-example-of-tightly-coupling-ruby-and-r-in-graalvm-520b69e21021)
-  (older stack; ideas still useful)
-- [How to do reproducible research in Ruby with
-  gKnit](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-do-reproducible-research-in-ruby-with-gknit-c26d2684d64e)
-- [R for Data Science](https://r4ds.had.co.nz/)
-- [Advanced R](https://adv-r.hadley.nz/)
-- Historical context: [GraalVM](https://www.graalvm.org/),
-  [TruffleRuby](https://github.com/oracle/truffleruby),
-  [FastR](https://github.com/oracle/fastr)
+* [JRuby](https://www.jruby.org/) — Ruby on the JVM (Galaaz 2.0)
+* [How to make Beautiful Ruby Plots with Galaaz](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-to-make-beautiful-ruby-plots-with-galaaz-320848058857) (plots; narrative partly pre-2.0)
+* [Ruby Plotting with Galaaz in GraalVM](https://towardsdatascience.com/ruby-plotting-with-galaaz-an-example-of-tightly-coupling-ruby-and-r-in-graalvm-520b69e21021) (older stack; ideas still useful)
+* [How to do reproducible research in Ruby with gKnit](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-do-reproducible-research-in-ruby-with-gknit-c26d2684d64e)
+* [R for Data Science](https://r4ds.had.co.nz/)
+* [Advanced R](https://adv-r.hadley.nz/)
+* Historical context: [GraalVM](https://www.graalvm.org/), [TruffleRuby](https://github.com/oracle/truffleruby), [FastR](https://github.com/oracle/fastr)
 
 # Conclusion
 
-Ruby and Galaaz provide a nice framework for developing code that uses R
-functions. Although R is a very powerful and flexible language,
-sometimes, too much flexibility makes life harder for the casual user.
-We believe however, that even for the advanced user, Ruby integrated
-with R throught Galaaz, makes a powerful environment for data analysis.
-In this blog post we showed how Galaaz consistent syntax eliminates the
-need for complex constructs such as quoting, enquoting, quasiquotation,
-etc. This simplification comes from the fact that expressions and
-variables are clearly separated objects, which is not the case in the R
-language.
+Ruby and Galaaz provide a nice framework for developing code that uses R functions. Although R is
+a very powerful and flexible language, sometimes, too much flexibility makes life harder for
+the casual user. We believe however, that even for the advanced user, Ruby integrated 
+with R throught Galaaz, makes a powerful environment for data analysis.  In this blog post we
+showed how Galaaz consistent syntax eliminates the need for complex constructs such as quoting,
+enquoting, quasiquotation, etc. This simplification comes from the fact that expressions and
+variables are clearly separated objects, which is not the case in the R language.