R Weekly Highlights

A roundtrip between formatted tables and spreadsheets is now very much possible, how {shinyreact} represents a new path for user interface development in Shiny, and a candid take on ownership of code and the products we build from it (including very awesome art). Episode Links  This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @parmsam@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter) From spreadsheet to...

After a massive backlog issue sprint, the foundational {knitr} gains terrific updates to supercharge SQL code chunks. The R Project moves to an open source platform for asynchronous communication, and a key technique for bringing the user's perspective on error messages when you test your R package.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) &...

Have you found a rogue line of rm(list=ls()) in your R scripts? Then we have a terrific update to a package to find those environment issues and much more. Plus a candid take on the lifecycle of spreadsheet-creating packages, and how to take matters to your "R" hands when faced with a perplexing reviewer comment. Mike and I also share our takeaways from an eventful posit::conf(2026)!  Episode...

A data-driven investigation on how September is a dangerous month for bikers in Wisconsin, a novel look at the distribution of castles across the globe, and the fundamentals behind an influential analysis method commonly used in experimental designs. Episode Links  This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky) Madison bike crashes peak in September An Atlas of Stone...

The newest linter on the R block gains a bold new feature in version 0.6.0, and a new package documentation framework altdown enters the world.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Jon Calder - @jonmcalder@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter) Jarl 0.6.0: A fast R linter A new take on documentation sites for R packages Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W36 Suppl...

A collection of techniques to unlock creativity for your next visualisation, a look at the exciting present and future of the futurize transpiler package, and how to avoid an all-to-common pitfall managing database connections in mirai daemons. Episode Links  This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twit...

A collection of tips to ensure reproducibility for R-based clinical submissions, a modern architecture lands in R-Universe, and going beyond the built-in mtcars set to educate students with NYC Open Data.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @parmsam@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter) Making R Submissions Reviewable for FDA Windows ARM64 comes to R-universe...

Orchestrating multiple package quality checking frameworks all within a single R package, and how learning in the world of AI has fundamentally shifted once you get over that initial hump (inspired by a quick quote from one of your hosts).  Episode Links  This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter) rsonar: The R equivalent of Sonar...

The value of community and sustainability in full view at UserR 2026, a new tool ready to equip reproducibility and more for command-line utilities built with R, and the conclusion to LLM-prompting black magic that draws upon the awesome glue package.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Colin Fay - @colinfay@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFa...

The first wave of 2026 R Consortium technical grants has arrived, how the new ggchord2 can round out your next process visualizations, and a clever take on supplementing your prompts with R objects.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter) R Consortium Awards First Round of...

An exciting new way to search and discover R packages wrapping novel technology, how the new checktor package finds the key issues standard checks will miss, and yes, you can play Doom in R (what?) Episode Links  This week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @R_by_Ryo@mstdn.social (Mastodon) & @rbyryo.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @R_by_Ryo ) (X/Twitter) Searching the R Ecosystem by Function, Not P...

A set of principles to enhance testing APIs created inside R, and the engine behind automatic reloading of rendered Shiny apps becomes available for new use cases. Episode Links  This week's curator: Jon Calder - @jonmcalder@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter) Testing Your Plumber APIs from R watcher 0.2.0: filesystem watching for R, and the engine behind Shiny auto-reload...

The R Core team receives a prestigious award in the world of Statistics, a month-long recognition of the rOpenSci package maintainers, and a collection of helpful tips for obtaining robust R code from AI agents.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter) 2026 Rousseeuw Prize f...

The evolution of Posit's data science agents, robust approaches to unnamed parameters in R functions, and the power of math and visualization collide in an unexpected way. Episode Links  This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @parmsam@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter) A brief and biased history of Posit data science agents Three small dots for more readable code Little useless-u...

A friendly reminder on checking customization when upgrading R, how refactoring may not be so tedious when using the Jarl utility, and honest takes on various code smells you can prevent in your next testing suite.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter) The Lurking Dangers of the R Version Update Refactoring wi...

R is capable of many analyes in the world of data science, but can it build a computer? Also a massive usability feature landing in the latest bslib to power up your cards, and optimizing memory usage with the latest rleases of mirai and mori.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky) Building a Computer in R Introducing Toolbars: Supercharg...

The power of choice is in full effect! How you can leverage GitLab to publish your next Quarto document online, how to bring key R functional paradigms to a Python session, and adding a larger safety net with your unit tests with {mutagen} 0.2.0.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Jon Carroll - @jonocarroll@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy (Bluesky)...

Applying novel statistical and visualization techniques to predict war duration, why there is more than meets the statistical eye behind a classical model benchmarking statistic, and celebrating a major milestone for pioneers in open science with R.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Colin Fay - @colinfay@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFay]...

A massive milestone for the language that eventually led to the R we know and love, plus a comprehensive look at two popular workflow frameworks across the R and Python ecosystems.   Episode Links  This week's curator: Jon Calder - @jonmcalder@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter) S at 50 Comparing R's {targets} and dbt for Data Engineering Entire issue available at rwee...

If Shiny wasn't awesome enough, a new toolkit is bringing the awesome to new heights! Plus a handful of ggplot2 functions that can immediate impact common visualization operations, and knitr gains support for a much-hyped typesetting format for the static document crowd.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social...

How the new logrittr package gives you a peek behind the tidy pipelines of dplyr, and a fascinating glimpse into the universe of seeds going far beyond a favorite 80's song.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky) logrittr: A Verbose Pipe Operator for Logging dplyr Pipelines Generating universes within universes with a single seed Working...

After an unexpected break we are back with a new episode of R Weekly Highlights! If you thought the easiest way to create pivot tables was in Excel, the a new package just might change your perspective. Plus how you can pull the strings for a multi-agent LLM workflow with the new puppeteeR package. Episode Links  This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @b...

Choice is good, but sometimes you may want a little help! Our first two highlights showcase approaches you can take to inform your next LLM for analyses and open-source license. Plus how to make your mark(s) within your version control history.  Episode Links  This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @parmsam@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter) How to choose the best LLM using...

A glimpse into the R Consortium Submissions Working Group's recent successes and future work, and a new way to view those nested lists from a familiar face making his return to blogging!  Episode Links  This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter) Submissions Working Group: 2026 Plans and 2025 Success Viewing Nested Lists with xfun:...

A prominent leader at the intersection of data science and data engineering across multiple languages shares her insights, how a recent Git workshop tailored for data science de-mystifies common pitfalls, and for the second straight episode a new transpiler bringing dplyr syntax to databases (quite literally).  Episode Links  This week's curator: Jon Carroll - @jonocarroll@fosstodon.org...