isAvailable() returns TRUE in Positron

[vincentarelbundock]

The documentation for rstudioapi::isAvailable() says:

Check if RStudio is running.

But that function returns TRUE when called in Positron.

[gadenbuie]

The docs for rstudioapi::isAvailable() were accurate back when rstudioapi was only useful in RStudio, but it now has counterpart uses in both VS Code and Positron. A more up-to-date description of isAvailable() would be "Check if running in an R session with access to an IDE with rstudioapi support."

For availability of specific functions, I recommend using rstudioapi::hasFun() to test if the IDE supports the function you want to use.

Here's the output of both functions in Positron:

rstudioapi::isAvailable()
#> [1] TRUE
rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer")
#> [1] FALSE

Whereas in RStudio...

rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer")
#> [1] TRUE

[vincentarelbundock]

Thanks a lot for the clarification and for the suggestion. Very useful!

I'll leave this issue open in case you need a reminder to update the docs, but feel free to close if you think that is more appropriate.

[kylebutts]

Should rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer") return TRUE since positron has getOption("viewer")?

[gadenbuie]

Should rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer") return TRUE since positron has getOption("viewer")?

I think that's a good sign that it will eventually return TRUE, but until rstudio::viewer() is wired up in Positron, rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer") should return FALSE to help avoid the error seen in the linked post.