Video

Breakpoints are not available yet. You can create a similar experience by placing above the line of code you wanted to explore by typing: browser() So, if we had: f <- function(x, y) { z <- x + 1 browser() a <- z + y return(a) } f(1, 2) The debugger would be engaged after the function was called and its first statement was executed.

R Markdown support for Quarto is a bit iffy at the moment. I should have a video or two in another week or so.

When you go to the selector in the top right, is Positron able to find your R installation? There's been a few issues with the R installation path being detected on Windows. I would check out: github.com/posit-dev/positron/discussions/3677

​@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Hi, thank you for your quick response. Yes, I selected R 4.4.1 but if I run the app using the the option 'Run Shiny App', I get the error I previously mentioned. Instead, if I run step by step the code using the option 'Source R file', the app works. R is regurarly recognized by Positron, because I am also able to run R scripts or quarto scripts. I have just problems when I try to run a shiny app (both single file and splitted files ui.R - server.R) using directly the option 'Run Shiny App'

Solved!. I re-installed R 4.4.1 on my laptop without modifying the default library where packages are stored (C:\Users\<my_user>\AppData\Local\R\win-library\4.4) and now the shiny app works perfectly using directly the option 'Run Shiny App'. In my previous R installation I changed the .libPaths variable to store all packages elsewhere and this caused the error in Positron

@@alessandrosperanza3909 Ahh! Thanks for reporting back. Glad to hear everything is working.

That's a bit odd. What happens when you try to use RStudio to render the same file? A couple of thoughts off the top of my head: 1. Do you have Quarto installed on your system? And are you using the latest version of Positron? quarto.org/docs/download/ 2. Can you move the document onto your Desktop? Off of `My Drive`? 3. Can you remove the space and period inside of the file path? e.g. `3. MGT6203_Exams` goes to `3_MGT6203_Exams`?

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Thank you for your reply! 0. The same file is rendered normally in RStudio 1. I do not have Quarto installed - I figured RStudio, VSCode, and now Positron should be more than enough. Do I need Quarto to run Positron smoothly? 2. I tried to run the file after moving it to Desktop, same Warning in Output and error message in Terminal 3. I tried this, same issue

@@anhc3440 You need to ensure that Quarto is installed in order to render an Rmd document in Positron. Please make sure you have the latest version of Positron to have access to the Quarto Extension.

​@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 installing Quarto was part of the solution! Thank you!! Order of events: installed Quarto - reran file UNSUCCESSFULLY - uninstalled/reinstalled everything - everything works now! Part of the issue prior was that the editor didn't even display the .rmd files properly - the whole file appears like a text file, none of the code lines were color coded, code chunks did not have "run cell/run above" buttons. After the reinstalling, everything appears properly and file renders successfully. Unsure why the first installation didn't run things properly, but alas, it's forever the mythical "turn it off and back on" phenomenon

I apologize for jumping straight in with my problem! I want to say I appreciated your content! very clear and easy to follow!

Let's say you have the following "hello_world()" function: hello_world <- function(name) { message("Hello world", name) } After running source("c:\path_to_script"), you need to attach the debugger to the function, e.g. debugonce(hello_world) or for multiple calls, specify: debug(hello_world) Then, call the hello_world("test") function. This should engage the debugger.

It helps greatly with more advanced features to have the R session run separately from the IDE instead of inside it. You can quickly end up having RStudio run into a few hiccups.

You will have to go through the command palette. Open it by pressing CNTRL + SHIFT + P (Windows) or CMD + SHIFT + P (macOS). Then, type: Quarto: Create Project From there, you have the option of default, website, blog, book, or manuscript.

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Thank you a lot!

You shouldn't be able to. The Shiny application is running in a virtual file system instead of your local file system. Thus, the data.csv file you have will not be present. You can add data to a shiny app by following: tutorials.thecoatlessprofessor.com/r-shinylive-data-include/include-download-from-url.html

Okidokie. I’ll record something later today.

It's similar; but there are some features that are MIA and other features that reorganization different portions. For instance, the jupyter tab is now being reported inside of the variables panel (note issue at: 11:33.), the in-cell notebook debugger is missing, and the python setup process is painless.

I agree completely! Unfortunately, this is the only way for someone who has access to GitHub Copilot to take advantage of their subscription within the Positron IDE at the moment due to licensing issues, c.f. github.com/posit-dev/positron/issues/476 The Posit team are aware of the limitation and are planning for improvements around the first release candidate.

See video description for link to repository. I have two videos on the channel showing the download steps for macOS/Windows

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674thanks, I have figured it out!

The Positron IDE and Python are RAM and CPU hungry. Unless you are fitting a neural network/doing deep learning, the amount of RAM on a GPU is unlikely to play a role in being able to do data analysis effectively.

I’ll have to give that a go. Thanks for the suggestion!

It’s not possible to use a GitHub copilot extension due to MS licensing issues in Positron. If you have a Copilot subscription, the only way forward is to use {chattr} R package. Otherwise, you will need to stay in VS code or switch to an LLM that has an extension on OpenVSX.

Not at all. The set up here is instantaneous and it's using a new high-performance R kernel and Language Server Protocol implementation called Ark that is licensed under the MIT License, c.f. github.com/posit-dev/ark

Heh, nice!

Glad it was helpful!

Yup, it's early days for the new IDE. If you already leaped to VS Code for more advanced features, this IDE is probably missing some features of your current workflow.

You can establish a connection using odbc to a Databricks cluster via its connection panel, c.f. solutions.posit.co/connections/db/databases/databricks/

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Thank you!

There is no option yet in the Positron IDE for zooming on plots. You can only focus different windows. They are tracking it as a feature in: github.com/posit-dev/positron/issues/2270

Yes, you can select a theme and, then, personalize it by adding into the user settings. Use CMD + SHIFT + P on macOS or CNTRL + SHIFT + P on Windows and search for: Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) Next, use the following to change the sidebar color only under the Monokai theme: ``` "workbench.colorCustomizations": { "[Monokai]": { "sideBar.background": "#347890" } } ``` Switch [Monokai] with the relevant theme name and use relevant keys via: code.visualstudio.com/api/references/theme-color Section on Customizing a Theme: code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/themes#_customize-a-color-theme

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Awesome. Thank you so much.

You're welcome!

Need to enable RStudio Keymap extension, c.f. czcams.com/video/-jhTjOK4vQ8/video.html github.com/posit-dev/positron/wiki/Keyboard-Shortcuts#rstudio-keymap

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Legend!

Videos are recorded using Screenflow (macOS app).

Mmm, what happens when you try to drag and drop different parts of the interface? Also, what happens when you click on the layout button in the upper right corner of Positron?

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 i uninstalled and reinstalled on my newer machine, works fine, on the old one changing layout wasn't doing anything. Like i still would end up having the same layout. Now it is just the way i like it.🤝🏻

It works great with Quarto! There’s a bit of setup required prior to creating a Quarto document. See: m.czcams.com/video/Xs6UnArkG4c/video.html

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Awesome, thank you Professor once again for sharing the resources and keeping us abreast with new developments making data analytics even more exciting.

Glad it was helpful!

Could you clarify a bit on the functionality remark? Is there a particular use case you are after or are you trying to understand where the editor would fall in your workflow?

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Well, one thing I wonder about is running a chunk of code --- and getting the output in the console, or the plot displayed --- like you can do by highlighting a chunk and pressing the run button in RStudio. I guess for people who use this kind of IDE, that's not desirable ? Better to ctrl-enter ? ... And then basically everything with the debugger. I can't make heads or tails of how to use it.

So, I think there's a lot of questions surrounding an analysis using Quarto instead of just an R script? Does that sound about right? In that case, I would say you still have the ability to run code cells by using Cmd/Ctrl+Enter for a single line, Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Enter or the "Run Cell" button for the entire cell. If you want to create in the R script file a similar "cell" appearance, you need to use `#+` instead of the python version of `# %%`. It's really good to develop keyboard muscle memory instead of using a point-and-click mouse as that takes additional time to complete a task, e.g. pressing a run button. Regarding the debugger, have you check out this video? czcams.com/video/p_4ZS-nnQ2Q/video.html

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Thanks. For my comments, no, nothing about Quarto. Just running a script. I still can't figure out how to run a chunk of the script. But more fundamentally, why this isn't a simple press of a button. Like, obviously, that's not how people use this software. Or they set cells or breakpoints or something if they want to do that. I just haven't quite figured the mentality of using this software. (I'm not familiar with VSCode, just RStudio and Spyder). ... I do think a few issues come down to things being in beta. Your debugging video was helpful. But, for example, trying to use Run and Debug; it tells me I don't have an R debugger; and then when I try to install from the options, it tells me it's not compatible with Positron. I take it this is just a beta issue, or I just have no idea what I'm doing. ... It's no biggy. None of this I need to figure out right away. Just trying to see if this kind of software will improve what I do, or if I'm just a RStudio and Spyder person.

The Positron IDE is a _fork_ of the open source Visual Studio Code (OSS - Code). So, it should feel a lot like VS Code in certain areas. One huge benefit to this approach: Access to VS Code extensions published onto OpenVSX.

With much better IDE experience for data workflows! VScode data analysis experience is a mess with chaotic interpreter manager, subpar dataframe viewer via 3rd party plug-ins and a missing variable viewer pane

Actually VS Code can be set in a very similar manner for Python with the Data Wrangler Extension for data frame viewing (it is official Microsoft Extension) and a variable pane is present when running code through an interactive jupyter window (it can be set in the settings when running a line of code to be automatically send to a jupyter window). However, in Positron it is great that all this functionality is available out of the box and also for R because in VS Code I never found a suitable R extension to work with.

I agree it's really nice that a lot of the functionality is just _there_ without needing to setup the editor. Psst, the variable panel is still present in the panel bar when using a Jupyter notebook ;) Though, none of the variables will appear nor will the debugger/breakpoints work correctly in notebook view (so a slight downgrade from the current status quo in VS Code for Python).

Great 🎉

Yes! That's coming a little later today. I had to do some last minute traveling this weekend that prevented me from showing a workflow video. In the interim, you can use Cmd + Enter to run individual lines inside of the editor. They'll automatically be populated over to the Console. Similarly, any graphing functions like ggplot() or plot() will appear inside of the "Plot" window on the lower right. This fork of VS Code for DS isn't necessarily explained well at the moment. So, I wouldn't worry too heavily. Again, it's early days. Be prepared to ask questions.

Check out: czcams.com/video/-jhTjOK4vQ8/video.html Let me know what you think. This is just exploring the data side. I'll need a separate one for the R packages component...

Can you provide a bit more details on the error? Is the error associated with the Shiny for Python or Shiny for R demo? Did you accidentally save the `app.R`/`app.py` into the home directory, e.g. `~/`, instead of into a subfolder like `~/Documents` or `~/Desktop`?

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 It was downloaded from positron itself, but in some other videos it explains with GitHub installation, It worked then. Thank you for your prompt reply.

Not that I'm aware of. I do know that if you directly write into the console there is some highlighting that is applied. However, once the code is executed then it is just treated as output. Since they tried to stick a bit close to what is possible with VS Code's theming, maybe check inside the theme file? github.com/posit-dev/positron/blob/f82368fc01eb72ff844d304174eeb81a585477ce/extensions/theme-defaults/themes/light_modern.json The reference spec for a VS Code theme is over at: code.visualstudio.com/api/references/theme-color You could also raise this as a question on the Positron repository's discussion board: github.com/posit-dev/positron/discussions

Sorry, I can't! I do not have a VM setup for Fedora Linux.

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Ok, no problem.

Yes, it is a standalone IDE that is built ontop of the open source version of VS Code. github.com/microsoft/vscode

No, Positron is not replacing RStudio. Posit will still support the RStudio IDE. Per the FAQ page: 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. github.com/posit-dev/positron/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions#is-rstudio-going-away

Glad it was helpful!

I don't think I have any "intro R" lectures public. Outside of installing R and RStudio, you might want to setup a compiled code toolchain; but, that will likely come much later down the road for you!

@@thecoatlessprofessor7674 Thank you!

Welcome

Thanks!

I think this was an issue that was resolved over on the project's GitHub page: github.com/coatless-mac/macrtools/issues/16 The short rundown: there was either an internet connection hiccup or CRAN's servers briefly were updated during the time the installer tried to download gfortran.

Thank you 👍

The reason everything "works" in RStudio is because the Shinylive application is being run through a local server. If you directly double-click on the shinylive rendered .html, the app will not load in a browser without it being launched with permissions to look at the local file system, c.f. quarto-webr.thecoatlessprofessor.com/qwebr-troubleshooting.html#directly-accessing-rendered-html So, you will need to either publish it using any ol' web server (GitHub Pages, Netlify, Quarto Pub, ...) and share the link or setup the necessary local modifications.

Happy it helped!

No worries; happy it helped!