All posts (Page 65 of 120)
This week version 2.0 of the V8 package has been released to CRAN. Go get it now!
install.packages("V8")
The V8 package provides an embedded JavaScript engine that can be used inside of R. You can use it interactively as a JavaScript console, but it is mostly useful for wrapping JavaScript libraries in R packages. Some cool examples include jsonld, jsonvalidate, and daff.
This major and much anticipated upgrade brings a new version of the JavaScript engine, effectively upgrading the JavaScript language. This opens up a lot of new possibilities, but it can also introduce some subtle behavioral changes, so read on carefully.
...rOpenSci’s suite of packages is comprised of contributions from staff engineers and the wider R community, bringing considerable diversity of skills, expertise and experience to bear on the suite. How do we ensure that every package is held to a high standard? That’s where our software review system comes into play: packages contributed by the community undergo a transparent, constructive, non adversarial and open review process. For that process relying mostly on volunteer work, associate editors manage the incoming flow and ensure progress of submissions; authors create, submit and improve their package; reviewers, two per submission, examine the software code and user experience....
We are pleased to welcome Brooke Anderson and Melina Vidoni to our team of Associate Editors for rOpenSci Software Peer Review. They join Scott Chamberlain, Anna Krystalli, Lincoln Mullen, Karthik Ram, Noam Ross and Maëlle Salmon. With the addition of Brooke and Melina, our editorial board now includes four women and four men, located in North America, South America and Europe.
Our open Software Peer Review system for community-contributed R tools is a key component of our mission to create technical infrastructure that lowers barriers to working with data sources on the web. Editors manage the review process, performing initial package checks, identifying reviewers, and moderating the process until the package is accepted by reviewers and transferred to rOpenSci. The number of packages submitted for review has increased every year, resulting in an increased workload for Editors and the need to expand the team.
...There seem to be a lot of ways to write about your R package, and rather than have
to decide on what to focus on I thought I’d write a little bit about everything.
To begin with I thought it best to describe what problem rdhs tries to solve,
why it was developed and how I came to be involved in this project. I then give a
brief overview of what the package can do, before continuing to
describe how writing my first proper package and the rOpenSci
review process was. Lastly I wanted to share a couple of things that I learnt along
the way. These are not very clever or difficult things,
but rather things that were difficult to Google, which now I think about it should probably
be the best metric for a difficult problem....
Do you know what that sound is, Highness? Those are the Shrieking Eels — if you don’t believe me, just wait. They always grow louder when they’re about to feed on human flesh. If you swim back now, I promise, no harm will come to you. I doubt you will get such an offer from the Eels.
Vizzini, The Princess Bride
European eels (Anguilla anguilla) have it tough. Not only are they depicted as monsters in movies, they are critically endangered in real life. One of the many aspects that is contributing to their decline is the reduced connectivity between their freshwater and marine habitats. Eels are catadromous: they live in freshwater, but migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, a route that is blocked by numerous human structures (shipping locks, sluices, pumping stations, etc.). Pieterjan Verhelst studies the impact of these structures on the behaviour of eels, making use of the fish acoustic receiver network that was established as part of the Belgian LifeWatch observatory. This animated video gives a quick introduction to his research and the receiver network:
...
