In episode 208 of R Weekly Highlights, the LLM train keeps moving along in the data science community: First impressions of the new Positron Assistant for code completion and basic package development, plus a friendly app for exploring the upcoming posit::conf(2025) agenda created by one of our talented R Weekly curators!
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter) * @[email protected]
• Positron Assistant: GitHub Copilot and Claude-Powered Agentic Coding in R
• Your LLM-powered guide to the posit::conf(2025) agenda
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W30

Supplement Resources

• Positron Assistant https://positron.posit.co/assistant
• posit::conf(2025) Agenda Chat Bot https://posit-ai-posit-conf-agenda-chat.share.connect.posit.cloud/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• The Quick and the Blue - Mega Man 2 - The Megas - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02090

It's been far too long since our last episode of R Weekly Highlights, but we are finally back with episode 207! In this episode we learn about novel ways to automate fancy Quarto content, how we can be on our best behavior with behavior-driven-development, and finding that pesky portion of data breaking long data pipelines with a magical debugging technique. Plus one of your hosts could not resist a hot take or two!
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rbyryo.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @R_by_Ryo) (X/Twitter)
• Generating quarto syntax within R
• An Introduction to Behavior-Driven Development in R
• Dive()ing into the hunt #rstats
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W28

Supplement Resources

• Add links discussed in the episode (in place of this sentence)
• {quartose}: Dynamically Generate Quarto Syntax https://quartose.djnavarro.net/
• Cucumber: write automated tests in plain language https://cucumber.io/
• {cucumber}: An implementation of the Cucumber testing framework in R https://jakubsobolewski.com/cucumber/
• Shiny App-Packages https://mjfrigaard.github.io/shiny-app-pkgs/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Chillin' with the Bros - Super Smash Bros - Jamphibious - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03072
• Flames of Darkness - Mega Man ZX - Vyper - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01966

The summer schedule has been crazy, but we finally have a new episode of R Weekly Highlights! In this episode: How the new shiny2docker package eases your entry to the world of containers, the power of WebAssembly in full ggplot2 glory, and how the latest solution for speeding up R code draws upon a classic computing language you may not expect.
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• Containerizing Shiny Apps with {shiny2docker}: A Step-by-Step Guide
• ggplot2 layer explorer
• {quickr} 0.1.0: Compiler for R
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W24

Supplement Resources

• {attachment} - Tools to deal with dependencies in scripts, Rmd, and packages https://thinkr-open.github.io/attachment/
• The Rocker Project - Docker Containers for the R Environment https://rocker-project.org/
• r2u - CRAN as Ubuntu binaries https://eddelbuettel.github.io/r2u/
• ShinyProxy https://shinyproxy.io/
• GitHub repository for ggplot2 Explorer https://github.com/yjunechoe/ggplot2-layer-explorer

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• WillRocky - Return All Robots! - WillRock - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02280
• The Unnamed Frontier - Metroid II: Return of Samus - Pyro Paper Planes, Viking Guitar - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02892

Have you wanted a chance to rewrite your own history? With Git, you certainly can! We learn that and other amazing tips to supercharge your version control skills. Plus a promising new package to let your Shiny app users make the call on their preferred layouts, and how mocking is not something to dread when you build unit tests interacting with external services.
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
• Hack your way to a good Git history (SLC-RUG May) (slides)
• Introducing dockViewR 0.1.0: a layout manager for R and Shiny.
• Mock Them All: Simulate to Better Test with testthat
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W21

Supplement Resources

• {saperpolette} Exercises (playgrounds) to go with oh (****) Git and beyond, for R users https://docs.ropensci.org/saperlipopette/
• No code data analysis with {blockr} (R/Pharma 2024 Workshop) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQvTQqcmadY
• Prototype Shiny apps in Excalidraw with Shinydraw https://github.com/MikeJohnPage/shinydraw
• Multi-language pipelines with rixpress https://brodrigues.co/posts/2025-05-13-test_rixpress.html
• R/Medicine 2025 https://rconsortium.github.io/RMedicine_website/
• Fonts in R https://www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/05/fonts-in-r/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Dovahkiin in Jamaica- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - M Benson, Ben Cureton - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04390
• Crysis Crystal - Megaman 9: Back in Blue - k-wix - https://backinblue.ocremix.org/music.php

Episode 204 of R Weekly Highlights is jam-packed with four highlights! We discuss the recent improvements to the recipes package in the tidymodels suite, Nicola Rennie's adventures with this year's 30 day chart challenge, going back to math school with Jon Carroll's latest explorations in digit rotation, and our picks out of the excellent collection of the top 40 R packages for March.
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• recipes 1.3.0
• 30 Day Chart Challenge 2025
• Rotation with Modulo
• March 2025 Top 40 New CRAN Packages
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W19

Supplement Resources

• {recipes} Pipeable steps for feature engineering and data preprocessing to prepare for modeling https://recipes.tidymodels.org/
• tidymodels books https://www.tidymodels.org/books/index.html
• Nicola's 30 day chart challenge browser app https://nrennie.rbind.io/30DayChartChallenge/
• {tidyplots} https://tidyplots.org
• {echarts4r} https://echarts4r.john-coene.com
• https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/1kfd57j/oc_round_2_matchups_are_set_lego_style/
• Using {autodb} https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/autodb/vignettes/autodb.html
• {kitesquare} Kite-Square plots for contingency tables https://github.com/HUGLeipzig/kitesquare
• {EQRN} Extreme Quantile Regression Neural Networks for Risk Forecasting https://cran.r-project.org/package=EQRN https://opasche.github.io/EQRN/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• A Simple Coin Flip Can Change Fate - Final Fantasy VI - Level 99 - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02692
• No Time - Chrono Trigger - Jaxx - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00386
• Sly Thai Guy - Street Fighter II: The World Warrior - Tim Sheehy - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01750

In this episode of R Weekly Highlights we hear from industry experts on how they choose a programming language for their projects, a big boost to the use of copilot for building your next Shiny app, and the learning journey of a new R user.
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter)
• Which programming language should I use? A guide for early-career researchers
• Reliable Shiny Code with Copilot and Posit’s VS Code Extension
• My Journey Learning R as a Humanities Undergrad
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W18

Supplement Resources

• R for Data Science 2nd Edition https://r4ds.hadley.nz/
• Data Science Learning Community https://dslc.io/
• IssueTrackeR https://tanguybarthelemy.github.io/IssueTrackeR 
• 3MW (Scalable reporting with Quarto) https://3mw.albert-rapp.de/p/scalable-reporting-with-quarto

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
   
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Secrets Abound - Final Fantasy - Midgarian Sky - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02452
• Voodoo, Roots 'n Grog - The Secret of Monkey Island - Alex Jones, Diggi Dis - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02180

It's not every day that we get to dive into a brand new release of R, but we get to do just that in episode 202! We share our takes on the major new features of R 4.5.0. We also preview the re-imagination of the engine powering R-based APIs, and the LLM-powered helper to get some of those R package development chores done.
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• What's new in R 4.5.0?
• plumber2
• Introducing chores
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W16

Supplement Resources

• {basepenguins} Convert files that use palmerpenguins to work with datasets https://ellakaye.github.io/basepenguins/
• Upgrading from {plumber} https://posit-dev.github.io/plumber2/articles/migration.html
• {chores} gallery https://simonpcouch.github.io/chores/articles/gallery.html
• {chores} custom helpers https://simonpcouch.github.io/chores/articles/custom.html

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Put the lime in the Koopa shell and drink it all up - Mario Party - Mel Decision, darmock, DeLuxDolemite, Siolfor the Jackal - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04836
• Watermelon Flava - Breath of Fire III - Joshua Morse, posu yan - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01411

In this episode of R Weekly Highlights: We have a six-month follow-up perspective from an early Positron user, how the current landscape of AI tools perform when learning the ropes with the Tidyverse, and how you can create your first Observable plot while using R for data munging.

Episode Links

• This week's curator: Jon Carroll - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy (Bluesky) & @carroll_jono (X/Twitter)
• Positron: current joys and pains
• Learning the tidyverse with the help of AI tools
• Observable for R users
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W15

Supplement Resources

• Positron +1e https://open-vsx.org/extension/grrrck/positron-plus-1-e
• Vanishing Gradients episode 47 (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch of Code Slop with Joe Reis) https://vanishinggradients.fireside.fm/47
• Observable color palette viewer https://observablehq.com/plot/features/scales#color-scales
• Observable Plots (R/Pharma 2024 Workshop Series) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6fP68XnacM

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Sunny Side Up - Yoshi's Island DS - ZackParrish - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04558
• Costa Del Sol DANCE - Final Fantasy VII - Posu Yan - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00095

By some minor miracle (even on April Fools) the R Weekly Highlights podcast has made it to episode 200! We go "virtual" shopping for LLM-powered text analysis and prediction using the mall package, and how recent advancements in the grid and ggplot2 packages empower you to make use of highly-customized gradients. Plus listener feedback!

Episode Links

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
• Text Summarization, Translation, and Classification using LLMs: mall does it all
• The guide to gradients in R and ggplot2
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W14

Supplement Resources

• Mall: Run multiple LLM predictions against a data frame with R and Python https://mlverse.github.io/mall/
• Announcing rixpress https://brodrigues.co/posts/2025-03-20-announcing_rixpress.html
• Hack your way to scientific glory https://stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/538

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Dark World Jazz - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Gux - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00156

Thriving in a multi-lingual data science lifestyle while authoring your next Quarto project, putting LLMs to the scientific test with parsing manuscripts, and replicating a life-saving spatial visualization originally created over 170 years ago!
Episode Links

• This week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rbyryo.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @R_by_Ryo) (X/Twitter)
• Creating multilingual documentation with Quarto
• The ellmer package for using LLMs with R is a game changer for scientists
• {SnowData} 1.0.0: Historical Data from John Snow's 1854 Cholera Outbreak Map
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W12

Supplement Resources

• Wes McKinney & Hadley Wickham (on cross-language collaboration, Positron, career beginnings, & more) https://youtu.be/D-xmvFY_i7U
• Tabby Quarto extension https://quarto.thecoatlessprofessor.com/tabby/
• Plotting the Past: The 1854 Cholera Outbreak Visualized in R https://simplifyingstats.wordpress.com/2025/01/18/plotting-the-past-the-1854-cholera-outbreak-visualised-in-r/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Lost in a Nightmare - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Palpable - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03001
• Cammy's London Drizzle - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00453