Testing how the polycule handles conflict by bringing an infect deck to the commander pod.

The 2026 International RSE Survey is now live! This survey will help us better understand what RSEs need and how we can advocate for the community with policymakers and funders. We'd really appreciate your input. Please share with your networks. #RSEng www.software.ac.uk/news/2026-in...

It's exciting to see the #RSEng map getting more filled in, with RSE Argentina (rse-argentina.github.io) joining the global community

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Join us tomorrow to hear about political entanglements of prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe and world famous writer George Orwell, beginning with Childe's inclusion by Orwell on a secret government list of suspected crypto-Communists and Communist sympathisers. www.sal.org.uk/event/orwell...

Here's another exciting opportunity to join the ERC FORAGER team! This one is a 3-year postdoc on paleoclimate modelling with the fantastic Matt Osman here in @cam.ac.uk, with opportunity for synergies (pun intended 😜) with other team members in archaeology and zoology www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/54411/

We are looking for a research project manager for the upcoming FORAGER ERC Synergy Project. Based at the University of York, this is an exciting opportunity to work in a team of 37 researchers from the UK, the US, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Japan. Join us! jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/rese...

And as a friendly reminder, we hold monthly meetings where we host amazing speakers, organize collectively-maintained projects, and discuss all things relating to scripting languages in archaeology! (we also sometimes spill out into other #digitalarchaeology and #ComputationalArchaeology topics […]

RE: https://archaeo.social/@CAA_SSLA/115881087318544124 👾 For those who might have missed it, earlier this month we organized the inaugural Digital Archaeology Maintainathon --- an opportunity to clean, document and revise older code together. We wrote a brief summary of the event here […]

Really cool work by @jmoyanodicarlo.bsky.social! phys.org/news/2026-01...

📈 We’ve showcased many great projects throughout the week, many of which are developed by junior researchers and volunteer labour. If any of these are especially interesting to you, consider reaching out to offer support! This can take the form of contributions to the code base, helping promote […]

🔭 Something that always needs to be done, is documenting code. We all seem to lack behind in this task. So, why not take half an hour today to write a short documentation on one of your repositories? Just as a start? Read more about documenting code here 👉 […]

🌐 Do you publish your code properly? While commercial platforms like GitHub and GitLab may provide very useful collaboration features, they should not be trusted as long-term stewards of software or data. Professional archives are better suited for this. There are some options. Check out our […]

For the #digiarchmaintainathon I just updated the open-archaeo roadmap: https://github.com/zackbatist/open-archaeo/blob/master/ToDo.md This involved checking off some completed items on our to do list, adding a few new ones, and restructuring the document for greater clarity. I also added […]

Step one: remind myself how the code works because I last looked properly six years ago 😭 Step two: resolve the outstanding issues (https://github.com/joeroe/rintchron/issues), which are mostly about improving the robustness of response parsing to deal with unusual data (and performance, but I […]

Unfortunately mostly what I've been doing so far in #digiarchmaintainathon week is maintaining my sanity in the face of university bureaucracy. But with what's left I will try to get my #rstats package wrapping the #intchron chronological data API ship-shape and ready for CRAN […]

RE: https://archaeo.social/@zackbatist/115894441545778394 ✨ Advertisement block for open-archaeo.info ✨ It's your first resource if you are looking for a software tool to solve your #digitalarchaeology or #ComputationalArchaeology problem. And if you know a good one: Have a look whether it is […]

🤖 Continuous integration (CI) automates tasks that always need to be done after you update your codebase e.g. building a software, testing, generating documentation, or producing accessible outputs. This is great, as it ensures robust software development. Want to learn more? Check out our short […]

RE: https://archaeo.social/@CAA_SSLA/115893524040726408 Yesterday I updated the roadmap for open-archaeo, which is a list of open source archaeological software and resources (https://open-archaeo.info). while it's fairly comprehensive, it could really benefit from a focused attempt by people […]

Testing is the only way I can keep up a software with many moving parts like Pytheas (github.com/mtomasini/py...) and be relatively sure that it's working. Writing tests takes a lot of time if you start testing after a software was developed, but it is very manageable if you test from the start!

✅ Check out our resources page for a very simple practical guide on how to write unit tests, written by @lsteinmann: http://sslarch.github.io/maintainathon/resources#test-your-codes-functionality #digiarchmaintainathon #digitalarchaeology #ComputationalArchaeology #maintainathon

✅ Good tests help you make sure that your script, package, or software is maintainable and functional, and does exactly what you want it to. They are also a great form of documentation, communicating what you expected from your functions and methods to others who may want to reuse your code […]

✅ Testing your code involves including additional logic to test whether your code is operating as you expect it to. Aside from supporting users with different computational environments, they’re a great way to slow down and think about the code you’re writing and whether it supports your goals […]

We definitely missed many relevant papers on optimizing for speed and efficiency, so please reply with additional recommendations! #digiarchmaintainathon

📚 Plenty of research has been done to encourage better software engineering practices, among archaeological and non-archaeological researchers alike. We compiled a brief list of papers addressing challenges in this space, and we encourage you to take a gander […]

🐾 Remember: effective roadmaps have tangible and measurable outcomes, and are comprised of tasks that can actually be acted upon! Check out the SMART guidelines **S**pecific **M**easurable **A**chievable **R**elevant **T**ime-bound (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria) if you […]

🐾 A roadmap is a documented plan of action that structures future work. Having a checklist of things to do (and already done!) can help garner momentum while also making your plans more transparent for prospective users. Roadmaps should document what features are planned over short- and […]

One of many reasons why tech professionals should study the humanities (economy, sociology, ethics... does "little" things that make you understand how software has an impact on a grander scale, you know?)

RE: https://archaeo.social/@scschmidt/115888509446346811 Following this excellent tip from @scschmidt I learned about cffr (https://docs.ropensci.org/cffr/), a package that automates generation of CITATION.cff for R packages using existing package metadata and keeps it up to date with a GitHub […]

📜 Check: Is your code properly licensed? ⁉️ If not, go and give one of your repositories a license now! It is such a quick and easy way to improve the re-usability of your contribution. Have a look at our small introduction, if you need guidance 👉 […]

#LightPollution legislation remains extremely limited and piecemeal, but small, slow changes. Maine's first law to battle light pollution goes into effect this year www.mainepublic.org/environment-...

In the spirit of the #digiarchmaintainathon I've updated a couple of Repo READMEs, added cff files and enjoyed the quick "do a release and automatically push it to zenodo" - feature from GitHub. Once it's set up this is such a good and quick way to safeguard a repository, I can really encourage […]

💛 Similarly, developers often lack insight into who is actually using the software they make. So if you’re using an open source tool or a resource developed by a fellow archaeologist, post about it in the replies! I am sure they will appreciate the shoutout. #digiarchmaintainathon […]

💛 Open source projects thrive on community support, and acknowledging contributors is important. If you’re leading a collaborative project that produces open source software, members of your team will surely appreciate a public acknowledgement of their work! Account for how people contribute […]

✨ The Journal of Open Source Software @joss is a great venue for writing a software review. They tend to focus on technical aspects, but if you prefer to focus on application-oriented feedback, Archäologische Informationen (https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/arch-inf) is happy to […]

✨ Code reviews are constructive, arms length commentary on published research software. In addition to providing structured feedback to maintainers, they help raise awareness of a tool. This is a win-win for developers and users alike! #digiarchmaintainathon #digitalarchaeology […]

📝 For some great tips on how to write or enhance your README, check out makeareadme.com. It also provides a template that you can adapt for your own project. It is so very helpful for people finding your repository on Github (or anywhere else) if the README gives the most important information […]

📝 A README is a plaintext file that includes a detailed description of a project. It typically includes: * A broad overview of the project, why it was developed, and the rationale behind its implementation * Instructions for how to install or run the code * Links to other related tools or […]

I'm starting #DigiArchMaintainathon today, working further with @jfy133#digiarchmaintainathonand Deon de Jager on a new standard for reporting #radiocarbon dates: https://github.com/MIxS-MInAS/miaard/

In the context of #DigiArchMaintainathon, I just uploaded a CFF file to some of my research software, including the Pytheas seafaring simulator. It was so incredibly easy, I do not understand why I did not do this before! #DigitalArchaeology #ComputationalArchaeology

RE: https://archaeo.social/@scschmidt/115882076779565982 Yes! Making a cff is such a simple yet high impact action. Anyone else who's currently working on a manuscript or research compendium should follow @scschmidt's example (and post about it with #digiarchmaintainathon ) […]

RE: https://archaeo.social/@ClemensSchmid/115882042615914290 We should all strive to write efficient code. As @ClemensSchmid also pointed out on the #digiarchmaintainathon resources page, software efficiency makes code more accessible, more reproducible, and more effective in derivative […]

"Le problème n'est pas l'absence d'éclaire nocturne, mais les hommes" C'est simple : aucune étude scientifique ne fait le lien entre l’augmentation du vandalisme ou des violences à la personne et l’extinction de l’éclairage public la nuit. Le problème est donc ailleurs : bonpote.com/analyse-lecl...

RE: https://archaeo.social/@CAA_SSLA/115881966254704540 When @zackbatist wrote his short explanation on citation file format he took a package by me and Simon Maddison as a positive example. Which shames me into admitting that it is the only repo I have on github, which has a CFF. 😳 I will […]

#digiarchmaintainathon motivated me to finally write a blog post about the integration of #futhark code into #rstats packages. I've done this last year for my ggpointgrid package and wanted to document the workflow since then. Link […]

🧭 A very easy task to make your code more easily citable is the so-called Citation File Format, a CFF. This file is a yaml-style plaintext document giving metadata on your repository (author, date of release, version etc). This can be picked up by zotero or another citation manager. For a small […]

💬 Commenting code is a great way to enhance clarity, reveal the decisions that went into the code’s design, and encourage re-use! Code comments should be clear and concise, written for your future self, and explain the “why”, not the “what”. If you want to learn more about best practices […]

👾🏺We will post threads to explain terms and best practices and to encourage you to join us in a certain task from today until Friday. Feel free to join in, but don’t despair, if you can only do a small task this week. Every small step will count towards your project! 💪 #digiarchmaintainathon […]

👾🏺We also developed a handy resource describing some common #maintenance practices, including practical advice: 👉 http://sslarch.github.io/maintainathon/resources And if you want to contribute additional information to the resources page, please get in touch or submit at PR: 👉 […]

With the CAA special interest group on Scientific Scripting Languages in Archaeology, we are hosting a joint #DigitalArchaeology #maintainathon! We will spend part of the week cleaning, documenting and revising our old code. Through our Mastodon instance we will post ideas and tips all week long!