Summary and Schedule
Chances are that you used R packages before but, did you know you can write your own? Even more, did you know that this can be a brilliant idea? Packaging helps you creating a more robust, more reproducible and more enjoyable scientific coding experience. And who knows?, perhaps you’ll see your package published in CRAN one day!
This workshop will provide you with the basics for writing your own packages in R.
R packages are no more and no less than a standard way of structuring your work. You’ll have a folder for code, a folder for tests, a folder for data, a folder for documents, and so on. The standardization makes packages easily installable and shareable.
Even if you are not planning to publish your package, structuring your research as one is also a very good idea. It enforces, in a relatively effortless manner, the implementation of software development best practices. This will lead to a safer, more robust, more manageable and more enjoyable working experience.
Syllabus
In this lesson you will find episodes on:
- Introduction to packages
- Setup of a package
- Installing packages
- Testing packages
- Documenting packages
- Writing vignettes
Prerequisites
In order to follow this lesson you will need:
- To be able to understand simple
Rcode. - To understand the concept of an
Rfunction.
In case you are not familiar with the abovementioned topics, please follow first one of our lessons about R.
| Setup Instructions | Download files required for the lesson | |
| Duration: 00h 00m | 1. Introduction |
“What is an R package?” “Why do we want an R package?” ::: |
| Duration: 00h 30m | 2. Accessing packages |
How do I use someone else’s package? How do I use my own package? What is the difference between installing and attaching? ::: |
| Duration: 01h 00m | 3. Getting started |
“I want to write a package. Where should I start?” ::: |
| Duration: 01h 30m | 4. Writing our own functions |
“How can I add functionality to my package?” ::: |
| Duration: 02h 00m | 5. Licenses |
How do I allow the use of my package? ::: |
| Duration: 02h 25m | 6. Testing |
How can I know that my package works as expected? ::: |
| Duration: 03h 55m | 7. Managing dependencies |
How can I make my package as easy to install as possible? ::: |
| Duration: 04h 15m | 8. Documenting your package |
How can I make my package understandable and reusable? ::: |
| Duration: 05h 15m | 9. Data |
How can I include data in my package? ::: |
| Duration: 06h 15m | 10. Vignettes |
How can I use R packages to write my research? ::: |
| Duration: 07h 15m | Finish |
The actual schedule may vary slightly depending on the topics and exercises chosen by the instructor.
Required software
This lesson assumes you have reasonably up-to-date versions of the following software installed on your computer:
- the R software itself,
- RStudio Desktop,
- Rtools (Windows users only).
Required R Packages
You will also need to install the following R packages:
devtoolsrmarkdownroxygen2
They can be installed by executing the code below in your R console:
R
install.packages(c("devtools", "rmarkdown", "roxygen2"))