{choosethis}

Demonstrations of using {cli} to present clickable links to the user in their console. Read more in the accompanying blogpost.

Demos

You can install {choosethis} from GitHub.

if (!require(remotes)) install.packages("remotes")
install_github("matt-dray/choosethis")
library(choosethis)

1. Text adventure

To start a new game:

begin()

You reach a fork in the road.
* Go left
* Go right

If your console supports links (e.g. RStudio), then the words ‘left’ and ‘right’ in the printout will be clickable (not shown above). Click one and you’ll be taken to the next choice. If unsupported, you’ll be shown functions to copy-paste yourself.

2. Summarise a data.frame

To begin:

ask_col_mean(ChickWeight)

What column would you like the mean of?
* weight
* Time

If your console supports links (e.g. RStudio), then the column names in the printout (weight, Time) will be clickable (not shown above). Click one and you’ll be returned the mean value for that column.

Theory

The {cli} package lets you present clickable ANSI links to the user in supported terminals, such as RStudio.

choosethis::begin() uses cli::ansi_has_hyperlink_support() to discover whether a user’s terminal can support these links. If links aren’t supported, then the underlying expression will be presented to the user instead of a clickable link.