---
title: Thanks, Karl, for Cross-referencing on GitHub!
date: '2017-10-10'
slug: github-cross-references
---

Today is my second day of triaging GitHub issues of the **rmarkdown** repo. I just came across [rstudio/rmarkdown#980](https://github.com/rstudio/rmarkdown/issues/980), an issue that is almost 8 months old. I didn't immediately start working on it, but took a look at the cross-references first. Then I saw Karl Broman cross-referenced this issue from [ramnathv/htmlwidgets#265](https://github.com/ramnathv/htmlwidgets/pull/265), so I clicked the link and went over there.

Problem solved. I didn't need to do anything, and happily closed the **rmarkdown** issue. Had Karl not referenced this issue in his **htmlwidgets** pull request, I'd probably have to redo what he had done (debug the problem and figure out the fix independently), hence waste my time.

Thanks, Karl, for the "free ride". You are so cool.

![Dog riding motorcyle](https://slides.yihui.org/gif/dog-motor.gif)
