PR for #18: Improve error handling

[lucamlouzada]

Closes #18.

Changes and deliverables: In issue #18, I made significant changes to the way errors are handled in the lab template. These changes were pushed in one commit per file, as follows:

• In 796332a, I changed run_python.sh
• In fc0e95e, I changed run_R.sh
• In 182cce5, I changed run_stata.sh
• In efc8d95, I changed run_latex.sh
• In 404e2d7, I changed run_shell.sh
• In af61c3e, I changed all the four make.sh files in the 1_data, 2_analysis, 3_slides, and 4_paper directories

A more detailed explanation for the changes is written in https://github.com/gentzkow/GentzkowLabTemplate/issues/18#issuecomment-2359557206.

Review: These are significant changes and therefore require a careful and thorough review. My suggested framework for review is as follows:

• [ ] Review the changes and explanations in the scripts and understand the main logic behind them, keeping in mind that one of the goals of these scripts is that they are as direct and short as possible and therefore if you think of ways to make them more efficient, please let me know
• [ ] Run example scripts as usual for R, Python, Stata, shell (run the my_shell_script), and compile paper and slides with latex. Check the successful output in the terminal and log files of the whole repository.

To test the behavior of error handling, force some errors as follows:

• [ ] Use a library or command that doesn’t exist in each of the R, Python, Stata and shell scripts, as well as latex

• [ ] Specify a path for the copy inputs line in make.sh that leads to a non-existing file

• [ ] Comment out the run_xx line for the appropriate language so that the shell script runs into an error like “run_python command not found"

• [ ] Try to call a script that doesn’t exist (e.g run_python fakescript.py)

• [ ] Change local_env.sh so that the paths for each program are wrong (e.g change python3 to python5)

• [ ] To test latex: in 4_paper, try running my_project.tex without copying my_project.bib to the source directory (this will cause the latex to compile with errors); also test adding a non-existing jpg to the .tex script

• [ ] (added in Sep 27th : Conduct tests above in both zsh and bash

I am assigning either @ShiqiYang2022 , @Xingtong-Jiang , or @linxicindyzeng to review.

[ShiqiYang2022]

Just a note for our workflow for peer reviews in template development and other projects that have >=2 RAs:

I am requesting @Xingtong-Jiang, @linxicindyzeng and myself as initial reviewers. Whoever come first to review this pull request should remove the request from other labmates, and post a comment here indicating the peer review is in progress.

After the labmates sign off for this PR, we will invite Matt to review this PR.

[Xingtong-Jiang]

Hi all, I’ll take on the initial review for this PR. I’m removing the request from other labmates and starting the review.

[ShiqiYang2022]

Per conversation with @Xingtong-Jiang, I can take over this PR.

[lucamlouzada]

Thanks @ShiqiYang2022 ! Note that I just pushed some updates discussed in https://github.com/gentzkow/GentzkowLabTemplate/issues/18#issuecomment-2380285621.