Måns Magnusson
Statistics and Machine learning
Department of computer and information science
based on the article
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
1.1 A program should not require its readers to hold more than a handful of facts in memory at once
1.2 Make names consistent, distinctive, and meaningful
1.3 Make code style and formatting consistent
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
2.1 Make the computer repeat tasks
2.2 Save recent commands in a file for re-use
2.3 Use a build tool to automate workflows
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
3.1 Work in small steps with frequent feedback and course correction
3.2 Use a version control system
3.3 Put everything that has been created manually in version control
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
4.1 Every piece of data must have a single authoritative representation in the system
4.2 Modularize code rather than copying and pasting
4.3 Re-use code instead of rewriting it
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
5.1 Add assertions to programs to check their operation
5.2 Use an off-the-shelf unit testing library
5.3 Turn bugs into test cases
5.4 Use a symbolic debugger
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
6.1 Use a profiler to identify bottlenecks
6.2 Write code in the highest-level language possible
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
7.1 Document interfaces and reasons, not implementations
7.2 Refactor code in preference to explaining how it works
7.3 Embed the documentation for a piece of software in that software
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
8.1 Use pre-merge code reviews
8.2 Use pair programming when bringing someone new up to speed and when tackling particularly tricky problems
8.3 Use an issue tracking tool
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
An environment with functions and/or data
The way to share code and data
~4 000 developers
> 7000 packages
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
library() :: :::
install.packages() devtools::install_github()
devtools::install_local()
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
"Dependency hell"
[MAJOR].[MINOR].[PATCH]
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
1. Who?
2. When updated?
3. In development?
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Free for public repos
Private repos cost
Student accounts
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Writing performant code (best practice)
The way to collaborate (R ecosystem)
Combine code, data and analysis
Easy to distribute and reuse (public api)
Learn how to reuse code from other packages
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
R/
man/
vignette/
tests/
data/
scr/
inst/
DESCRIPTION
NAMESPACE
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Fewer bugs
Better code structure
Faster restarts
Robust code - correct a bug only once
A must in complicated projects!
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson
Advanced R Programming
Måns Magnusson