R Dev Day @ PLUS
Friday July 12, 2024
Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS), Austria
#RDevDayPLUS2024
Collaborate on contributions to base R!
An R Dev Day will be held as a satellite event to useR! 2024. This will be an opportunity for novice and experienced contributors to work alongside members of the R Core Team on contributions to base R. Interested contributors are encouraged to self-nominate by Sunday March 24, 2024.
© Universität Salzburg. PLUS
What will happen at the R Dev Day?
Tasks will be prepared in the run-up to the event, but are likely to include:
Who can take part?
The sprint will involve a mixture of invited and self-nominated participants, so that we have contributors at all experience levels.
The main criteria for participation is a good knowledge of R programming and a keen interest in contributing, as we hope participants continue to contribute after the event. The table below shows the type of knowledge/skills we expect participants to have
| Skills most will have | Skills some will have |
|---|---|
| Writing R functions | Programming in C |
| Debugging R functions | Knowledge of S3/S4 classes and methods |
| Writing R help files | Expertise in statistical methods in stats, splines |
| Using git/Subversion | Able to build R from source |
Other specialist skills e.g. expertise in building Windows/MacOS GUIs or fluency in a language with a low percentage of translated messages on Weblate, would of course be welcome!
It will help if you have some experience in contributing to base R, but novice contributors will be mentored in the run-up to the event. There will also be a Contributing to R tutorial at useR! 2024, which we encourage novice contributors to attend.
We are keen to foster a diverse community of contributors. If you are a member of the R-Ladies, MiR, RainbowR, AfricaR, ArabR, AsiaR, or LatinR communities, or otherwise identify as part of an underrepresented group among R contributors, then we especially encourage you to self-nominate! To ensure a welcoming environment, we have a code of conduct in place.
Apply for a place
Anyone one interested to attend the sprint is encouraged to self-nominate via the application form by Sunday March 24 (anywhere on earth). You will be asked about your experience, skills and background to help us balance participation overall.
Thanks to the R Foundation, participants can attend the R Dev Day free of charge, with refreshments and lunch provided. We regret that support is not available for travel or accommodation, but note that diversity and need-based scholarships are available for useR! 2024, which precedes the R Dev Day (deadline 17 March, 11:59 CET). Scholarship recipients would be expected to participate fully in useR! 2024, otherwise registration at useR! 2024 is not required to participate in R Dev Day.
We encourage people to self-nominate even if their attendance depends on other applications being successful (e.g. for useR! scholarship/presentation or visa).
Participation is in person by default. If you are an established contributor and wish to support the event remotely, please contact the organizing team.
Venue
The sprint will be held in rooms HS 414 and HS 415, which are on the 1st floor of the Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences at PLUS, which is ~30 minutes from the useR! 2024 venue by public transport.
See the travel information on the PLUS website for detail of how to reach the venue.
For people near Salzburg main station, we recommend to get the trolley bus line 3, which runs every 15 minutes (Google map of route, O-Bus 3 timetable). If you want to travel together, meet Heather Turner at the bus stop at 08:30 so there is time to buy a ticket for the 08:41 departure. We should arrive at the venue shortly after 9.
Schedule
The rooms are available from 09:00 to 18:00. A rough schedule is:
09:00 Arrive at the venue and make your way to the room (local professor Wolfgang Trutschnig (or a substitute) will be at the gate to direct people.
09:15 Whole group kick-off session, starting to form small groups around the dev day issues.
10:00 Coffee break
10:30 Work in small groups
12:30 Lunch in the MENSA
13:30 Work in small groups
14:30 Coffee break
15:00 Continue work
17:00 Wrap up within your group
19:00 Option to join group for dinner (self-funded). Location TBC
It is understood that people may need to leave early, so we will not have a full group report back at the end of the day. Coffee and lunch breaks are covered for participants.
Organizing team
This event is being organized by members of R Contribution Working Group in coordination with the R Core Team.
Heather Turner
University of Warwick
Shannon Pileggi
The Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium
Contact
For queries about this event, please contact r-dev-day-plus-team@gaggle.email.
Sponsors
The R Foundation is sponsoring venue hire and catering for this event.
As this is a satellite event to useR! 2024, we encourage any companies interested in providing further sponsorship to sponsor useR! 2024. Alternatively, anyone can donate to the R Foundation online.