Targets productivity helpler extension for Positron

[RussellPolitzky]

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Description

Targets Helpers for Positron

I've written a simple, TypeScript extension for use with targets inside Positron. The functionality is roughly similar to that in the targets RStudio plugin. Targets Helpers, is a Positron extension designed to streamline your workflow with the targets package in R. This extension provides a set of commands to execute various targets functions directly from the editor, making it easier to manage and run your data pipelines. I've not published this to the Open VSX Registry at this point, but we'd be happy to donate the code to the R/targets community if anyone would like to use it as the basis for a more official targets extension for Positron.

Key Features:

• Execute targets::tar_read() on selected target.
• Execute targets::tar_load() on selected target.
• Execute targets::tar_make() on selected target or to build the whole pipeline.
• **Execute targets::tar_make() with debugging on selected target.
• Execute targets::tar_watch() to monitor targets.
• Document Symbol Provider: Recognizes specific comment patterns in R files and organizes them into a hierarchical structure so that targets pipelines can be more easily navigated with Positron outlines.

Installation:

1. Install it from a .vsix file.
2. Open Positron.
3. Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+X (Cmd+Shift+X on macOS).
4. Click on the ellipsis and choose "install from vsix".

Usage:

• Commands: Use key bindings or commands from the Command Palette to execute the desired targets function.
• Example: Select the target in your R script and use the corresponding key binding to execute/read/load it.

Requirements:

• Positron (will not run in VSC)
• R and the targets package installed

[wlandau]

Very cool @RussellPolitzky, thanks for sharing! I tried out Targets Helpers version 0.0.1, and it's really nice.

[RussellPolitzky]

Thanks for the kind words Will. I use targets extensively in my work, and have enjoyed the productivity boost the RStudio, targets plugin provides. Targets Helpers is intended to cover similar ground for Positron, and to make it as efficient for targets work, as RStudio is.