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webR 0.2.0
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@georgestagg georgestagg released this 16 Aug 16:51
· 143 commits to main since this release
v0.2.0
7130d0a

New features

  • Improve accessibility of xterm.js in the webR REPL app by enabling screenReaderMode.

  • Issue an output message of type 'closed' when the webR communication channel closes.

  • Build Cairo graphics library and its prerequisites for Wasm as part of the webR build process. This allows the default Cairo-based graphics devices in R, such as png(), bmp() and svg(), to work in webR.

  • Build Pango text layout library and its prerequisites for Wasm. This provides modern text rendering features and better support for internationalisation (e.g. font-fallback and RTL scripts) for the Cairo-based bitmap graphics devices.

  • Update webR's version of R to 4.3.0.

  • Include additional type predicate functions for subclasses of RObject, such as isRDouble(). These can be used by TypeScript applications to narrow the typing of an RObject without assertion using the as keyword. The new type predicate functions have also been re-exported through the default WebR module.

  • Introduce lazy virtual filesystem entries. The webR filesystem is populated at initialisation time with only the files required to startup R. Other files made available (e.g. documentation and HTML pages) are downloaded on demand when the files are opened for reading by some process. The optional lazy filesystem entries can be avoided in entirety by setting createLazyFilesystem: false in WebROptions.

  • Add a quiet argument to webr::install() and webR.installPackages() APIs that allows for silencing webR package downloading messages.

  • Add custom WebRError classes so that errors from webR can be identified by testing thrown exceptions with instanceof WebRError.

  • Reimplemented the demo webR REPL app using the React framework, allowing us to drop jQuery as a dependency. The reworked app has various new features and improvements: now includes a tabbed CodeMirror editor with R syntax highlighting and autocomplete, support for text document paging and displaying built-in R help/demos/documentation, expanded UI for virtual filesystem management, improved plot handling including paged multiple plots.

Breaking changes

  • The webR npm package has been renamed from '@r-wasm/webr' to simply 'webr'. An npm depreciation notice will be put in place for the old package name.

  • Removed the legacy console.mjs build target. The Console class is re-exported on the default WebR entrypoint, and so the extra build target is not required. This is technically a breaking change, but the legacy entrypoint was never documented and so we believe the change has only minor effect.

  • The webR HTML canvas() graphics device has been moved from the default grDevices package to the webr support package. In addition, it has been reimplemented using the OffscreenCanvas API. Users of the Safari web browser will now require at least version 16.4 to use the canvas graphics device. Users with older browsers not supporting OffscreenCanvas will need to use an alternative plotting method, such as bitmap graphics using the png() Cairo device.

  • Output messages from the canvas() graphics device have been restructured so as to handle more event types in addition to transmitting image bitmap data. For example, an output message is now also emitted when the device creates a new empty plot. WebR apps making use of HTML canvas graphics will need to be updated for the new message structure. See the newly added "Plotting" section in the webR documentation for further details.

  • The version of Emscripten used to build the public webR binaries hosted on r-wasm.org and npm has been set to v3.1.37. R packages built for Wasm should be compiled with this same version of Emscripten to ensure Wasm ABI compatibility.

Bug fixes

  • The REnv property of a user provided WebROptions is now merged with the default value, rather than replacing it. With this a user need not explicitly include the default R_HOME value when adding new environment variables.
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