# How to handle case studies on website with old syntax

**URL:** <https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698>\
**Category:** Developers\
**Created:** [September 8, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698 "2023-09-08T16:02:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/jonah/32/200_2.png) [@jonah](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/1 "2023-09-08T16:02:29Z")

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[@SGB](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/groups/sgb) Many (most?) case studies hosted on the Stan website will now error with 2.33+ because they use the old array syntax. How should we address this? Ask devs and/or community members to volunteer to update them all? Ask authors to update them? Add a disclaimer at the top of the case studies page that some use old syntax? Something else?

It would be good to address this soon since 2.33 is now released.

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**Author:** ![WardBrian](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/wardbrian/32/12078_2.png) [@WardBrian](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/WardBrian)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/2 "2023-09-08T16:37:38Z")

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I think we (devs/community, which I guess includes the original authors but not limited to) should update any Stan code contained in them, to keep copy-pasting possible. If they link to code in a repo instead of it being in the text, this is a bit harder, but we could open PRs to said repos.

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**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/jonah/32/200_2.png) [@jonah](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/3 "2023-09-08T16:58:59Z")

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That sounds good to me. It will just take a bit of a coordinated effort to get this done (if we want it to happen soon) since there are a lot of case studies. Obviously anyone is free to start updating them now, but we may need [@SGB](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/groups/sgb) to organize this (since they have ultimate authority over the website) if there isn’t a lot of movement on this soon.

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**Author:** ![avehtari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/avehtari/32/5935_2.png) [@avehtari](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/avehtari)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 7:19pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/4 "2023-09-08T19:19:29Z")

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Maybe create an issue which lists all case studies to keep track of progress anyway? Plus instructions for how updated cases study htmls should be submitted.

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**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/jonah/32/200_2.png) [@jonah](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/5 "2023-09-08T20:13:14Z")

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Seems like a good idea. Maybe the [@SGB](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/groups/sgb) can organize this or ask someone else to take the lead? I’m not sure I have the bandwidth right now to track all the progress, I just happened to be the one to notice the problem and mention it. That said, I’m happy to help out.

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**Author:** ![avehtari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/avehtari/32/5935_2.png) [@avehtari](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/avehtari)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/6 "2023-09-09T08:33:42Z")

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I made an issue [Update case studies to use new language syntax · Issue #189 · stan-dev/stan-dev.github.io · GitHub](https://github.com/stan-dev/stan-dev.github.io/issues/189). We have 42 case studies.

My case study has only `fabs` to `abs` change and working on rerendering the html.

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**Author:** ![avehtari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/avehtari/32/5935_2.png) [@avehtari](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/avehtari)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 10:50am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/7 "2023-09-09T10:50:20Z")

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And I’ve fixed my case study. 41/42 to go.

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**Author:** ![avehtari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/avehtari/32/5935_2.png) [@avehtari](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/avehtari)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 11:22am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/8 "2023-09-09T11:22:09Z")

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At least 20/42 have old syntax (based on greping html)

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**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/jonah/32/200_2.png) [@jonah](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/how-to-handle-case-studies-on-website-with-old-syntax/32698/9 "2023-09-09T13:55:42Z")

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Thank you Aki!!