[R-pkgs] New versions: mvbutils and debug packages

[Mark.Bravington at csiro.au]

Dear R users

New versions of the 'mvbutils' and 'debug' packages are now available on CRAN, both in source form and as precompiled binaries.

'mvbutils' offers the following (as well as many miscellaneous utilities):

  ?  hiearchical, searchable project organization, with workspaces switchable inside a single R session, and objects in "ancestor" projects always visible in R from "child" projects;
  ?  function editing (interface to text editors), with multiple simultaneous edits, an "unfrozen" R prompt, and automatic backup;
  ?  function code and plain-text documentation stored in the same R object, and editable in the same file;
  ?  informal plain-text documentation via help, and conversion to Rd format;
  ?  nested 'source'ing, and interspersal of R code and data in the same file;
  ?  macro-like functions, executing inside their caller's environment;
  ?  untangling and display of "what calls what" within groups of functions.

'debug' is for debugging functions (yours or other people's). It requires 'mvbutils'. 'debug' offers:

  ?  a visible code window with line-numbered code and highlighted execution point;
  ?  the ability to set (conditional) breakpoints in advance, at any line number;
  ?  the opportunity to keep going after errors;
  ?  multiple debugging windows open at once (when one debuggee calls another, or itself);
  ?  full debugging of 'on.exit' code;
  ?  the ability to move the execution point around without executing intervening statements;
  ?  direct interpretation of typed-in statements, as if they were in the function itself.

For further information on 'debug', see the article "Debugging without (too many) tears" in R-news 3/3.

The new versions fix a few minor bugs in the 1.0.0 releases, as documented in the CHANGES.TXT files in each package.

Mark

*******************************

Mark Bravington
CSIRO (CMIS)
PO Box 1538
Castray Esplanade
Hobart
TAS 7001

Email name: Mark.Bravington
Email location: csiro.au