Positron notes

Getting up and running with R is pretty straightforward: install R, install RStudio, install packages from CRAN, and off you go. Python is more, uh, nonlinear: Install an environment manager and have it cordon off little subversions of Python and sublibraries, install some IDE or work in the browser 🤷. I’m not a Python guy; I don’t know the easy route to get up and running. I know that there is some amount of configuration overhead.

This contrast between R and Python also describes the different experiences between RStudio and Positron. Why does it feel like I’m always configuring stuff in Positron? Well, it’s because it inherits from VSCode and VSCode is for everything and you can’t support everything without being extremely configurable or “hackable”. Plus, I don’t know what I want from Positron quite yet, and RStudio has had like 10 year headstart on Positron, so I’m going to remain charitable and supportive of the team.

That said, here are keyboard shortcuts I added recently. I would have added WrapRmd but they need to fix some things.

// Place your key bindings in this file to override the defaults
[
  {
    // targets::tar_load() a symbol
    "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+l",
    "command": "workbench.action.executeCode.console",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "args": {
        "langId": "r",
        "code": "targets::rstudio_addin_tar_load()",
        "focus": false
    }
  },
  {
    // Preview result of knitr::knit() on selection
    "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+k",
    "command": "workbench.action.executeCode.console",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "args": {
        "langId": "r",
        "code": "WrapRmd::knit_selection_addin()",
        "focus": false
    }
  }
]