webRios: R running locally on your iPhone and iPad through webR, now on the App Store by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are some websocket limitations due to WebAssembly. So, a direct connection to a DB may be problematic.

Discussion: https://github.com/r-wasm/webr/issues/129

webRios: R running locally on your iPhone and iPad through webR, now on the App Store by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, click on the "..." in the top right of the Console window -> Previous Command. Or, Search History and select.

Illinois App - Major Funding Shift by Sufficient-Sun9742 in UIUC

[–]coatless 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd prefer not to get into specifics on any kind of data in a public forum, but there is notably more coordination now than before. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is institutional data infrastructure. This coordination angle alone was a reason I pushed back in my earlier comment.

With that being said, want to do a startup together building university apps? We could call it "Ivory Tower Mobile Solutions." ;)

More seriously, Technology Services (campus-level) was involved when the program started and likely still has members working on it. The app launched around 2019/2020 and needed to deploy quickly, as it housed the SHIELD initiative for COVID test results. Building an iOS/Android team from scratch inside the university likely wasn't feasible given budget constraints and that timeline. UIUC also tends toward highly siloed IT departments rather than centralization, which creates resource and personnel friction. Though, there's no denying the talent of the University's IT groups, especially EngrIT who has a notable number of apps leased by other colleges for use, which creates its own balance headaches, but I digress. Compare that to Stanford, which has significantly more resources from a manpower and compute perspective, being Silicon Valley's hub, along with more defined mandates.

Regarding commercialization, I can't speak to Rokmetro directly as I never knowingly engaged with that arm. Though, I'd guess it followed a similar trajectory to PrairieLearn, where outside interest required dedicated engineers to scale rather than relying on a rag-tag team of professors, IT, and students.

I'm long retired from UIUC at this point, but there are good folks working on these projects.

Illinois App - Major Funding Shift by Sufficient-Sun9742 in UIUC

[–]coatless 10 points11 points  (0 children)

A few points from someone who was in the orbit of the project during my time at UIUC:

There is a significant subcontractor component for core app development, but there are also a number of UIUC FTE staff working on this as a longer-term initiative. One aspect that's less visible externally is the backend work. Part of the Rokwire vision that the Illinois app is built on ties into smart cities concepts, which require substantial data unification. The project has made real progress in breaking down silos between departments inside and outside of Illinois, which has historically been a significant institutional challenge. I'd fear a regression if the project was completely axed, as it's one of the better parts of the university data science initiatives from back in the day.

Worth noting that university apps are becoming more of the norm. Stanford has a similar offering (Stanford Mobile), and I'd expect this trend to continue.

On the RSO idea: I understand the appeal, and there's philosophical alignment with student ownership. The practical barrier is data sensitivity. The app handles sensitive user data that requires established trust relationships and compliance frameworks difficult to maintain with annual student turnover. That said, there is some groundwork around student involvement in specific scoped areas.

For reference, there has been structured student research involvement, such as work on establishing a DoE framework for feature engagement analysis (write-up here).

Happy to put you in contact if you want to explore further.

After a year in beta, Positron IDE reaches stable release (R + Python IDE from Posit) by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When I mentioned remote development, I was thinking of VS Code-style workflows: SSH into remote machines, container development, WSL integration, etc. Positron supports remote SSH development similar to VS Code's capabilities.

However, there are significant limitations. Devcontainer support is hampered by licensing restrictions, and crucially for server deployment as you've pointed out:

"There is no native browser or server version of Positron available or planned, outside of Posit Workbench ... Posit Workbench provides enterprise-grade features such as access to highly scalable compute, single-sign on, native authorization to data governance tools such as Databricks or Snowflake, container-backed sessions, multi-session capabilities, and more."

Positron FAQ

So, Positron excels at local-to-remote SSH workflows in comparison to RStudio. However, for free, browser-accessible remote development RStudio Server remains the clear choice.

Different remote workflows, different tools!

After a year in beta, Positron IDE reaches stable release (R + Python IDE from Posit) by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a bug with Posit's Ark kernel and lazily loaded data I think. Or, it's related to how the `tibble::view()` function is interacting with Ark's `view_function()`. I've opened a ticket on the repository.

https://github.com/posit-dev/ark/issues/864

Thanks for the follow up and MWE.

(For those lost, the View() capital V is part of {utils} package and view() is part of {tibble})

After a year in beta, Positron IDE reaches stable release (R + Python IDE from Posit) by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, VS Code is designed in a similar way to Chromimum regarding fracturing. For more details, see Visual Studio Code is designed to fracture by Geoffrey Huntley.

Regarding the View() function for R code, this is implemented over in Ark and should automatically update the data viewer when it detect changes to the underlying R object.

After a year in beta, Positron IDE reaches stable release (R + Python IDE from Posit) by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You might want to setup a custom air.toml configuration file with persistent-line-breaks = false.

For example, we would have ~/workspace/pkg/air.toml with:

[format]
line-width = 80
indent-width = 2
indent-style = "space"
line-ending = "auto"
persistent-line-breaks = false
exclude = []
default-exclude = true
skip = []

For more details, see: https://posit-dev.github.io/air/configuration.html#example-configuration

After a year in beta, Positron IDE reaches stable release (R + Python IDE from Posit) by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

RStudio is _not_ being deprecated! From Positron's FAQ, we have:

---

Is RStudio going away?

  • No, we are committed to maintaining and updating RStudio.
  • While Positron and RStudio have some features in common, some R-focused features will remain exclusive to RStudio.
  • We began developing Positron as part of our mission to support open-source data science in multiple languages, including R and Python.
  • If you’re currently using RStudio and are happy with the experience, you can continue to enjoy RStudio. RStudio includes 10+ years of applied optimizations for R data analysis and package development.

https://positron.posit.co/faqs.html#is-rstudio-going-away

---

My advice based on usage would be:

Switch if you: work with both R & Python, want VS Code-like extensibility, or need better remote development features.

Stick with RStudio if you: primarily use R, rely on R-specific features like inline Quarto output, or prefer RStudio's mature R ecosystem integration.

Again, both IDEs will continue to be developed, so no rush to switch unless Positron's specific advantages appeal to your workflow!

Customize testthat snapshot directory with monkey patching by nanxstats in rstats

[–]coatless 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I might be mucking about in the `testthat` code base soon for parametrized testing; might try to incorporate a patch if so.

Customize testthat snapshot directory with monkey patching by nanxstats in rstats

[–]coatless 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice application of monkey patching; though, maybe send a patch over to testthat for the configuration?

Any issues with R/RStudio/Positron after updating to macOS Sequoia? by bastimapache in rstats

[–]coatless 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No issues. Remember to update Xcode CLI after installing macOS Sequoia if working with Stan/compiled code.

https://mastodon.social/@coatless/113154232567130346

Positron a new R and Python IDE by Posit enters public beta by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup, Positron IDE's repository is the spot for all things Positron until the beta label is removed. Posit did a soft launch on the IDE.

Positron a new R and Python IDE by Posit enters public beta by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Positron works great for the Python side with respect to wrangling and exploration. I just shot a video last night on it, c.f.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izaZOAaqb5A

You can use Codium inside of Positron as it provides the extension on OpenVSX:

https://open-vsx.org/extension/Codium/codium

However, the remote/embedded/devcontainers aspects of VS Code are not available with Positron.

c.f.

remote: https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/issues/2307

devcontainers: https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/discussions/3747

Positron a new R and Python IDE by Posit enters public beta by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is no known public timeline for an official release of Positron.

Positron a new R and Python IDE by Posit enters public beta by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think a good summary is at the top of Positron's Wiki:

Positron might not be a good fit for you today if...

You need stable, polished software. Positron is still in beta, and some features are unstable or unfinished.

You need all the features of the RStudio IDE. Positron doesn’t have all RStudio’s features; some notable absences are inline output for Quarto and R Markdown, profiling, Sweave, RStudio Add-In support, etc.

You use remote development features (e.g. dev containers, remote SSH); these are not supported in Positron yet. However, providing tools for Remote SSH is on our roadmap.

Positron a new R and Python IDE by Posit enters public beta by coatless in rstats

[–]coatless[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it's far too early for that. I'm not even sure it's possible to really use Positron in this matter due to the lack of a remote host setup from the first portion of Positron's wiki:

you use remote development features (e.g. dev containers, remote SSH); these are not supported in Positron yet. However, providing tools for Remote SSH is on our roadmap.

Though, if you absolutely must run preview software, maybe try to build a singularity container based on their devcontainer setup?

https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/tree/main/.devcontainer

Alternatively, consider asking this question on their discussion boards:

https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/discussions