Current news

RKWard 0.7.5

24 Oct 2022

A new release, RKWard 0.7.5, is available for download, today.

The most visible changes are the inclusion of many new and improved code snippets, and option to restart the R backend without leaving RKWard (this can be very useful when trying to make sure that a script is fully reproducible), and various improvements to code completion in scripts and the R Console.

As usual, we’re looking forward to your feedback suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2022

RKWard 0.7.4

30 May 2022

A new release, RKWard 0.7.4, is available for download, today. This release cycle was particularly focused on streamlining the first steps with RKWard (but long time users will appreciate these changes as well): The “Welcome to RKWard” page has been reworked, entirely, and now serves as a “dashboard” with some of the most important tasks, including, among others, several new options for importing data from other programs. Several excess dialogs that would greet new users have been removed.

Beyond this, almost all plugins now support a preview, helping to see results faster, and to send only intended output to the output window.

As usual, we’re looking forward to your feedback suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

RKWard 0.7.3

21 April 2022

A new release, RKWard 0.7.3, is available for download, today. This release brings support for the new R graphics features, a rework of RKWard output files, an integrated dialog to ask about all changed files at once on exit, and many other small improvments all over the place.

As usual, we’re looking forward to your feedback suggestions, and contributions!

Note: The RKWard 0.7.3 sources are compatible with a wide range of R releases, including (but not limited to) R 4.1.x and R 4.2.x. However, an RKWard binary compiled against R 4.1.x is not going to work with R 4.2.x, and vice versa. Windows and MacOS binaries are provided in two different variants, accordingly. Linux users upgrading to R 4.2.0, please contact your distribution maintainers, if needed.

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2020

RKWard 0.7.2 - Kate plugins

16 October 2020

A new release, RKWard 0.7.2, is available for download, today. This release brings kate plugins to RKWard, thereby adding a lot of functionality all at once, including search-in-files, and project management. But also the code hinting features from 0.7.1 have been brought to the R console window, a new “first run wizard” checks for common configuration issues.

As usual, please don’t hesitate to contact us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

RKWard 0.7.1 - Script and R markdown previews,

23 January 2020

We are happy to announce a new release, RKWard 0.7.1, is available for download, today. In addition to a large number of bug fixes and small improvements, the most prominent new set of features in this release is the addition of (live) previews in the script editor. The preview feature can be used to preview both interactive console sessions, and R markdown documents, but also RKWard output and plots, while you are developing. Further, there have been siginificant improvements to code hinting in the script editor. Besides visual improvements and fixes, the code hinting now also supports completion of function argument names.

Update: On May 23, RKWard 0.7.1b has been released. This addresses several issues, importantly it contains a workaround for a bug in R 4.0.0 (fixed in R 4.0.1) that RKWard is fairly likely to trigger, and that may render your RKWard session unusable. Upgrading to RKWard 0.7.1b is strongly recommended, esp. when working with R 4.0.0.

As usual, please don’t hesitate to contact us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2018

RKWard 0.7.0 - Split views, based on KF5

16 April 2018

It took much longer than we had hoped for, but today, we proudly announce that version 0.7.0 of RKWard is available for download. This is the first release of RKWard to be based on KF5 (version 5 of the KDE libraries), which means RKWard can again profit from the ongoing development of an actively supported platform. However, not all changes are behind the curtains. The most prominent addition in this release is “split view” functionality, which allows you to partition the main window for viewing your scripts or data side-by-side. Beyond that a number of bugs were fixed, and we polished our installers for Windows and Mac.

Update: Translations were missing from installations of 0.7.0. This problem has been addressed in version 0.7.0b of RKWard.

As usual, please don’t hesitate to contact us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2016

RKWard 0.6.5 - Much improved preview functionality, and more

02 April 2016

Today, we are pleased to announce that again, a new version of RKWard is available for download. This new release fixes some compilation problems with the upcoming R 3.3.0. However, it is much more than a “hot fix” release. The most notable area of improvements have been previews: In addition to the time-tested plot previews, many RKWard plugins now provide previews of imported data, or results. Also, we have once again fixed various usability issues in this, and other areas (details below).

Meanwhile work continues on porting RKWard to version 5 (“frameworks”) of the KDE libraries. The curious will find some first experimental binaries on our Release Schedule page.

As usual, please don’t be shy of contacting us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

RKWard 0.6.4 - Usability improvements, fixes, and preparation for porting to KDE frameworks version 5

21 December 2015

Shortly before the end of the year, a new version of RKWard is available for download. While the list of changes looks relatively short this time, beyond the usual fixes, with the help of usability expert Jan Dittrich, we have addressed some long standing potential for confusion in several important parts of RKWard’s user interface.

Among the changes that do not quite show in our ChangeLog, we continue receiving more and more translations from the KDE language teams. Also we are working to finish our move to KDE.org. Importantly, we now track new issues on the KDE bugtracking system (see Bugs)). A lot of work went into the rkwarddev package to make the plugin generating code much more intuitive. In particular, see the documentation on the new js() function.

Finally, already looking ahead to forthcoming releases, we are making good progress on porting RKWard to the more modular, more modern version 5 of the KDE libraries (aka KF5).

As usual, please don’t be shy of contacting us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2015

RKWard 0.6.3 - Much improved support for translations, reworked plugin management, first release on KDE.org

07 March 2015

A new version of RKWard is available for download, today. The new version brings changes all over the place: The distribution calculator plugins and the CSV-import plugin were reworked, from scratch. A plugin for test power analysis is now included in the default distribution. Also, the UI for managing pluginmaps has been reworked, to make it easier to deal with the growing number of plugins that are available for download, separately.

Perhaps the most important change is that RKWard, including its plugins, is now finally fully translatable. Not everything may be translated to your language, yet, but now it is possible, and the KDE language teams are doing a wonderful job at making RKWard available in your native language, soon.

Before reading on about the improvements and bugfixes in detail, be sure to check your browser’s location bar: RKWard is now hosted at KDE.org. This is a move towards better services, more expert knowledge in our reach, and not least towards becoming even more open to your contributions. Don’t be shy of contacting us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2014

RKWard 0.6.2 - Graphics features come to the Mac, many new features for plugin development

20 October 2014

The RKWard team is proud to announce the release of version 0.6.2 of the free statistical software suite – the first release since April 2013. Next to the usual round of bug-fixing, this release is packed with important new features. One of these is the new RKWard native on-screen graphics device RK(), which finally brings RKWard’s graphics device features to the Mac. Plugin developers can utilize some new controls, and fetch information from R, dynamically.

At the some time several of the official plugins have been improved (e.g., the plot export formats now include support for tikzDevice; there’s a new dialog to recode categorical data, and the linear regression dialog gains an option to save all predicted values to your workspace). But also there have been notable additions to RKWard plugins that can be downloaded from our external plugin repository. For instance, there is a new package rk.power which adds a GUI for power analysis and sample size estimation to RKWard.

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2013

RKWard 0.6.1 - Support for R 3.0.0, new features for plugin developers

02 April 2013

A new version of RKWard is available download. The most important bit for most users will be that RKWard 0.6.1 works with the upcoming R 3.0.0, while the previous version will not work with this version of R. Users installing RKWard from source should note that you will have to compile RKWard after upgrading to R 3.0.0 or later. If in doubt, feel free to ask for help.

Besides compatibility, the new release brings new features and fixes. A particular development focus has been the addition of new options for plugin developers. For a more detailed description of the new features,see these mails, or refer to the usual documentation on writing plugins for RKWard.

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2012

RKWard 0.6.0 is available - also on the Mac

24 October 2012

Today, a new version of RKWard is available for download. RKWard 0.6.0 adds initial support for debugging R code (a debugger console, and a display of current evaluation frames). Dialogs for - among others - t-tests and Wilcoxon-tests have been improved, a table of contents was added to the output window, and, as usual, many more features were added, and bugs were fixed, both in RKWard itself, and external plugins. Perhaps more importantly than all this, however, 0.6.0 is the first official release of RKWard to be readily available on Mac OS X.

Also, at this occasion, I’d like to take a short moment to look back: RKWard is approaching it’s tenth anniversary, version 0.1.0 was released on November 19, 2002. During those ten years, at times, the project has been on ice, or going at glacial speed. But the project is still here and - driven by a wonderful community - it’s looking younger than ever, after all this time. Many thanks to everybody involved!

As usual, please don’t hesitate to send us your feedback.

The changes in detail:

RKWard 0.5.7 - Support for R 2.14.0, improved package management, and more

23 October 2011

RKWard 0.5.7 is available for (download) today. Importantly, this version supports the upcoming version 2.14.0 of R. But there are many more reasons to update, today: We have re-thought our approach to downloading RKWard add-ons, and have replaced out previous solution with one that is based on regular R packages. Some first add-ons based on the new solution are already available, including the rkwarddev-package, aimed at making it even easier to create plugins for RKWard. As a side product, the package installation dialog has been modernized. But also there are many new features and bugfixes all over the place.

Read on, below, for more detail. And remember: We need your feedback!

The changes in detail:

Archived news 2011

RKWard 0.5.6 - Assorted new features and fixes

30 May 2011

Sometimes, it is not easy to summarize the changes that happened in only a bit over two month of development. Besides the usual bug-fixes, RKWard 0.5.6 (download) brings many small improvements all over the place. For users working with many different windows, the new Ctrl+Tab window switching feature will be of particular interest. R experts will appreciate that S4 slots and package namespaces can now be explored in the workspace browser. The output window can now also be used, easily, to document snippets of R code (including syntax highlighting) and the corresponding R output.

For more detail, read on, below, and most importantly, be sure to give the new version of RKWard a try. Remember: Your feedback is important!

The changes in detail:

RKWard 0.5.5 - Enhanced robustness and many small improvements

19 March 2011

On the surface, RKWard 0.5.5, released today (download) may appear to bring only few changes. Internally, however, the GUI and the R engine have been split into two separate processes. This brings better robustness, and better compatibility of RKWard esp. with R packages based on rJava and RGtk2. In addition, many bugs and quirks have been fixed in various areas. And, in case you experience a crash despite of these improvements, RKWard 0.5.5 will attempt to create an emergency save file of your data in the last moment.

Please give this new version of RKWard a try, and don’t forget: We are always eager to hear your feedback!

The changes in detail:

- Re-organize the default toolbar actions of the main window - Detached windows are now restored in detached state when restoring the workplace layout - Workplace layout is now saved in a separate file, instead of in a hidden object inside the .RData file - Added R functions rk.save.workplace() and rk.restore.workplace() to save / restore a set of document windows - RKWard now tries to detect, when a workspace has been moved to a new directory, and adjust the paths restored script editor windows, accordingly - All pages in the package installation dialog now support sorting and keyboard search - Allow entering factor labels instead of only numbers, when editing factors in the data editor

- Fixed: Crash when several environments on the search path have the same name - Fixed: Potential crashes when changing length of a data.frame that is currently opened for editing from R code - Fixed: Converting from factor to string in the data editor set values to numeric, internally - Fixed: On Windows, a wrong locale for LC_NUMERIC would be applied, resulting in malfunction of pdf() and postscript() - Fixed: Did not use system configured background color in data editor - Fixed: New columns would be always be added to the right, instead of to the left, in the data editor - Fixed: Would crash when trying to edit 0 row data.frame - Fixed: Output generated by external processes (system()) was not shown on the console - Fixed: Converting a variable to factor in the editor would drop existing levels, silently, and lead to NAs - Fixed: Cursor would keep jumping to the end, when typing a filename in the filename selection field in plugins - Fixed: Submit button would not become enabled in “Basic Statistics” plugin - Fixed: Portions of multi-line commands entered on the R Console would be run twice under some circumstances - Fixed: Lockups or crashes when using packages RGtk2 or rJava on the X11 platform - Fixed: R task callback handlers were not called - Do not load .RData file from current directory by default (configurable) - Correct interleaving of multi-line commands and the corresponding output in the R Console - Fixed: Did not respect system settings for tooltip background color in some styles - Fixed: Installation would continue, seemingly successfully, even if R support libraries could not be installed - Fixed: Function argument hints would sometimes persist after closing a script window - Fixed: Would fail to analyse structure of ReferenceClass-objects - Fixed: “Vector” mode in “Paste special” action did not work correctly - Also try to relay SIGABRT and SIGILL to the proper signal handlers - Fixed: Would crash on tcl/tk events in some cases

Archived news 2010

RKWard 0.5.4 - Plot history, bug fixes, and new possibilities for plugin writers

04 October 2010 - User:Tfry

The most visible change in RKWard 0.5.4 (download) may be the addition of a plot history for the on-screen graphics device. Supporting both regular and trellis plots, this can facilitate the creation and management of plots, considerably. Further, the data.frame editor now supports row names, and plugin authors now have new possibilities for scripting plugins, which we hope to put to good use in the coming releases. Documentation has been added for the functions in the rkward R package. Beyond that, there has been the usual bug fixing, and a number of assorted small new feature additions.

The changes in detail:

- Added full-featured plot history for the onscreen graphics device - Added option to specify default onscreen graphics dimensions - Added option to disable function argument hinting - New functions rk.show.message() and rk.show.question() for user interaction from R code - New options for scripting GUI logic in plugins - The current object of an active data editor can be referenced in plugins - Allow sorting of results in help search window - The save-object selector in plugins now allows to save as part of a data.frame / list - Support row names in the data.frame-editor - Added option to autosave script files (enabled by default) - The tabbar in the main window now shows a context menu with options to close/detach a window - The tabs in the main window can now be re-ordered by dragging with the mouse (left click if compiled with Qt 4.5 or above, middle click for earlier versions) - Added alternating row backgrounds in data.frame-editor

- Fixed: Running user commands would crash with R 2.12.0 - Fixed: Potential crash when editing data-frame with duplicate column names - Fixed: Graphics windows used to assume a minimum size of 640*480 pixels, even if a smaller size was specified - Fixed: Placement of several menu items was broken - again - with KDE 4.4 and above - Fixed: CPU usage would go to 100% for no good reason under certain circumstances - Fixed: On some systems, dev.off() would spawn two new graphics windows - Fixed: When starting with an empty table, RKWard would sometimes claim that this object has been removed - Fixed: Would crash when trying to configure toolbars under certain circumstances (workaround for bug in kdelibs) - Fixed: Crash while analysing some objects returned by XML::xmlParseTree() for invalid XML - Fixed: Error while installing packages with R 2.11.0, when archiving packages in a non-existing directory

We always welcome your feedback!

RKWard 0.5.3 - New features, and no longer depends on PHP

30 April 2010 - User:Tfry

RKWard 0.5.3, is available for download, today. Internally, the largest change in this release is that plugins no longer use PHP for scripting but Javascript. This reduces the requirements for running RKWard, considerably, and also fixes a number of issues. While this change should be largely invisible to users, this version incorporates a number of new features and bugfixes, esp. on windows.

The changes in detail:

- File browser window saves settings on exit - Plugin dialogs are shown with a larger initial size - Add close buttons to each tab in the main document view area (not available in KDE 4.0) - Make “print”, “export as HTML”, “dynamic word wrap”, and “increase/descress font size” available for the console window - Use a native menu, instead of the default TclTk-menu - Added “paste special” action to script editor and console for pasting R vectors and matrices from spreadsheets - File->Open R Script File now allows to specify the character encoding to use - Initialize the output file with an appropriate encoding specification - Add SVG support to export (graphics) plugin - Add basic settings format settings for graphics output - Convert all plugins to use ECMAscript instead of PHP; RKWard no longer depends on PHP

- Fixed: Windows->Activate->Window left / right actions were always disabled - Several windows-specific bugs were fixed - Fixed: Newly created variables were not properly updated when closing and re-opening the editor - Fix order of menus for detached windows - Fixed: No entries were added the recent script/workspaces actions after “save as” - Fixed: Frequent crashes while running automated plugintests - Fixed: Filenames without extension would not be shown in file dialogs - Fixed: Calling “fix(my.fun)” would remove comments - Fixed: Removing “@CRAN@” from the repositories would break package installation

We always welcome your feedback!

RKWard 0.4.9c - Backport of R 2.10.0-support

18 March 2010 - User:Tfry

RKWard 0.4.9c, is available for download, now. This is a backport of some bugfixes from the 0.5.x-series of RKWard, most importantly providing support for the new help system in R 2.10.x. Also, a number of plugin enhancements has been backported from the main branch.

Most users will not want to use this version! RKWard 0.4.9c is intended for systems which are still limited to KDE 3, only. Where KDE 4 libraries are available, we recommend using RKWard 0.5.2.

The changes in detail:

We always welcome your feedback!

Archived news 2009

RKWard 0.5.2 - Support for R 2.10.0 and many small improvements

26 October 2009 - User:Tfry

RKWard 0.5.2, is available for download, now. This version brings a number of small changes all over the place. Perhaps most importantly, support was added for the new dynamic help system in R 2.10.0 (also released, today). Apart from that, the toolbars are now configurable, plugin dialogs do not stick around, a plugin was added for Stata import (by Michael Ash), a number of bugs was fixed, and many more small things as detailed, below:

The changes in detail:

- Add Stata data file import plugin (by Michael Ash) - Plugin dialogs close automatically after submitting (by default) - Fetching object structure is much faster for very large data.frames - “Analysis” menu was restructured, slightly - On plugin help pages, display a link to invoke the plugin - Double-clicking an item in the workspace browser now opens an object viewer, or (if possible) editor - Safeguard against removal of essential packages via the GUI - Add context menu action to unload packages in the workspace browser window - Add shortcut to the load / unload packages dialog also in the workspace menu and the workspace browser context menu - Make toolbar buttons configurable

- Add support for the dynamic help server introduced in R 2.10.0 - Assorted minor fixes and improvements to several plugins - Fix deadlock while handling some Tcl events - Fix crash when loading certain packages on Windows - Fix some potential path issues on Windows - Fixed: Console window would sometimes remain in partially active state after piping commands

- Tolerate missing libraries in testing framework - Debug output (previously sent to stderr) is now written to a temporary file - All directly accessible plugins now have at least one automated test

Please send us your feedback!

RKWard 0.5.1 - New Features and Initial Windows Port

04 August 2009 - User:Tfry

RKWard 0.5.1, is available for download, now. Perhaps most excitingly, this is the first official version of RKWard to also be available for the Windows operating system. The Windows port still has some issues, but we hope to iron those out in the coming release(s). On Linux/BSD systems, RKWard 0.5.1 also comes with new features. Perhaps most importantly, the output window now has links to re-run a plugin with the same (or adjusted) settings, and the keyboard shortcuts can finally be customized to your own liking.

The changes in detail:

Please don’t hesitate to send us your feedback.

RKWard 0.4.9b and 0.5.0d - Bugfixing and backports

11 May 2009 - User:Tfry

A new set of RKWard releases is available for download. This brings another series of bugfixes to the KDE 4 branch of RKWard (0.5.0d) and long awaited backports to the KDE 3 branch (0.4.9b).

The changes in detail:

RKWard 0.5.0d (KDE 4)

RKWard 0.4.9b (KDE 3)

If you have feedback, if you need support, or if you want to help, let us know.

RKWard 0.5.0c - Maintenance and more

March 30 2009 - User:Tfry

After a long time without news, a new RKWard release is finally available for download. Most importantly RKWard 0.5.0c addresses problems that have arisen due to changes in KDE and in R.

However, RKWard 0.5.0c also comes with a whole set of plugins dealing with Item Response Theory, contributed by Meik Michalke.

Bug fixes and maintenance:

New features and improvements:

Version 0.5.0c is available on the download page. For feedback and support, contact us on the mailing list.

Note: A backport of the applicable fixes to KDE 3 is planned, but will take some more time to complete.

Archived news 2008

Maintenance releases 0.4.9a and 0.5.0b

April 20 2008 - User:Tfry

Both the KDE 3 and KDE 4 versions of RKWard have been updated today. Most importantly RKWard now compiles with R 2.7.0 (which is due to be release, officially, soon). Both releases are available from the download page.

For the KDE 3 version (RKWard 0.4.9a), the only changes are:

The KDE 4 version (RKWard 0.5.0b) has the following changes:

As usual, your feedback is welcome on our mailing list.

Bugfix release 0.5.0a (for KDE4)

January 23 2008 - User:Tfry

A simple but important bug in RKWard 0.5.0 was discovered a bit too late (in most plugins no objects were selectable at all). This is corrected in version 0.5.0a, which is available for download, now. Please use this version instead of RKWard 0.5.0. Other than the correction there are virtually no changes since 0.5.0.

RKWard 0.5.0 for KDE4 is released

January 21 2008 - User:Tfry

The first version of RKWard for KDE4 is available for download, now. The list of actual enhancements (see below) is relatively small, but internally a lot of code has been rewritten. The move to KDE4 / Qt4 provides a new foundation for RKWard, and offers a number of promising opportunities for further development, which we hope to put to good use, soon. The list of current changes over 0.4.9 (as far we kept track of them):

Bugfixes and internals:

UI enhancements and new features:

Please note that this release has seen considerable code changes. This should fix a lot of small bugs not listed above, but also, of course, we expect there are a number of new bugs that we did not discover during testing. If you find some, or would like to share your opinions on RKWard, please contact us on the mailing list.

NOTES: Versions of RKWard 0.5.0 or higher are designed for KDE 4, and cannot be used with KDE 3. For KDE 3 use the 0.4.x versions. The build system was changed to CMake. Read INSTALL (also provided in the source .tar.gz) for details on how to build RKWard. Due to clashes with kate default shortcuts, the shortcuts for Run->Run Line, Run Selection, and Run All were changed to Shift+F7, Shift+F8, Shift+F9, respectively.

The tabs in the main workplace view no longer have a close button that is shown when hovering the mouse over the respective icon. Rather, there is a single button to close the current tab, shown at the right of the tab bar

RKWard 0.4.9 is released

January 14 2008 - User:Tfry

Version 0.4.9 of RKWard is now available for download. The following changes are contained in the new release:

In case you are wondering why the list of changes is shorter than usual: This release is one of the last releases of RKWard for KDE 3. Meanwhile we’ve been working hard to produce a version which will run natively in the newly released KDE 4. This will be released as RKWard 0.5.0 in - according to plan - roughly one week. We will continue to support KDE 3 versions of RKWard for some time to come, and probably also provide some new or improved plugins, but the main development will focus on KDE 4 versions of RKWard from now on.

Remember: Your feedback is always welcome on the mailing list.

Archived news 2007

Bugfix release 0.4.8a

November 11 2007 - User:Tfry

While development continues on the next versions of RKWard (including a port to the upcoming KDE 4), we would like to address some bugs that were discovered since the release of RKWard 0.4.8. This release (download) does not add new user features, but fixes several problems. The changes in detail:

As usual, we welcome your feedback on the mailing list.

Version 0.4.8 is released

October 03 2007 - User:Tfry

Version 0.4.8 of RKWard is available for download, now. The new release features changes all over the place, including new plugins, an integrated filesystem browser, and several bug fixes. Also optimizations were done to speed up some aspects, slightly, and to reduce typical memory usage, considerably. Many thanks to all who helped with the release. The full list of changes:

NOTES:

Enthusiastic? Disappointed? Need help with RKWard? Your feedback is welcome on the mailing list.

Bugfix release 0.4.7a

May 07 2007 - User:Tfry

Recently, some problems have been discovered related to resolving some fortran symbols, on at least some systems. Since these can make RKWard crash even on simple operations, and not compile on some systems, a bugfix release dealing with these issues has been prepared. While at it, a number of additional bugfixes contained in the development version have been included, here, as well.

In detail, the changes are:

If you are experiencing any of the above problems, please download and upgrade to version 0.4.7a of RKWard.

RKWard 0.4.7 released

April 11 2007 - User:Tfry

Version 0.4.7 of RKWard is now available for download.

Once again the list of new features and improvements is long. Most importantly, a large number of plugins has been added, making more R statistics features available via graphical dialogs. Many thanks to all who contributed to this release!

The changes in detail:

We’re looking forward to your feedback on the mailing list.

New mailing list: rkward-users

April 04 2007 - User:Tfry

The past few months there has been a lot of active development on RKWard. The outcome of this - version 0.4.7 - is scheduled for release, next week. As a side effect, our main mailing list has become rather busy, with lots of discussion about development details. At the same time, the stats show a nice number of downloads, and hence a considerable increase in the RKWard user base.

For these reasons, it’s time to create a dedicated users’ mailing list. This list will be read by most active developers, and it will receive notifications about the most important steps of development (new testing versions and releases). However, instead of discussing low level details, this list will provide a better forum for discussing usage questions, but also for providing suggestions and feedback.

If you’d like to keep informed on all development details (and perhaps provide insights and contributions on that), you may want to subscribe to our “old” development mailing list. If you’re mostly interested in questions of daily use, the new users’ mailing list is the best choice. Or subscribe to both, if you don’t want to miss a thing.

RKWard 0.4.6 is out

February 15 2007 - User:Tfry

Version 0.4.6 of RKWard is available for download.

Most prominently, this release features many new plugins, making more of the power of R available via graphical dialogs. A big thank you goes to all volunteers who contributed to this release. The full list of changes:

For feedback on the new release, and RKWard in general, contact us on the mailing list.

RKWard 0.4.5 is released

January 21 2007 - User:Tfry

Once again, it’s time to announce a new release of rkward. Version 0.4.5 is available for download.

Note that a few aspects of the user interface have changed for this release. We hope these changes will make RKWard’s user interface easier to learn and use, but existing users will have to adapt to the following UI changes:

Further changes in RKWard 0.4.5:

Got feedback about the new release or RKWard in general? Please contact us on the mailing list.

Archived news 2006

RKWard 0.4.2 released

December 04 2006 - User:Tfry

A new release of RKWard is available for download, today. The new version has seen many small changes all over the place. Among the more noteable additions are some new and improved plugins, new and updated translations, and also R X11 device windows are now integrated into the rkward GUI with some added functionality.

The list of changes in 0.4.2:

Obligatory Douglas Adams reference for this version number: RKWard won’t give you the answer to all questions, yet, but it does compute 6*7 reliably. So try the new release, and send your feedback to the mailing list.

RKWard 0.4.1: bugfixes, and code completion

November 06 2006 - User:Tfry

A new version of RKWard is available for download. Most importantly, a good number of bugs has been fixed, and RKWard gains code completion and function argument hinting features in console and script editor. The complete list of changes:

As usual, we’re interested in your feedback on the mailing list.

RKWard 0.4.0 released

October 17 2006 - User:Tfry

Once again, it’s time to announce a new release of RKWard is available for download. Perhaps most importantly, this release enables you to browse the entire R workspace, including objects in R packages. In future releases this will allow us to implement helpful features such as code completion and argument hinting, so stay tuned for what is still to come.

The list of changes in 0.4.0:

Please give the new release a try, and send your feedback to the mailing list.

Note: The way meta information (most importantly the descriptive variable labels in the data.frame editor) is stored was changed in this release. When loading workspaces created with earlier versions of rkward, this information will not be available (the data is not affected, however). To convert your saved workspaces to the new format, 1) open the workspace in question, 2) run the command “rk.convert.pre040 ()” in the RKWard R console. We’re sorry about the inconvenience.

RKWard 0.3.7 is out

September 17 2006 - User:Tfry

A new release of RKWard is available for download. This release contains mostly small changes all over the place, but also fixes some important issues. The changes in detail:

RKWard always needs user feedback to improve further, so please try out the new release, and tell us what you think on the mailing list.

Bugfix release 0.3.6

April 23 2006 - User:Tfry

Much sooner than expected, a new release of RKWard has been made available for download. Most importantly, contrary to our expectations of one week ago, RKWard 0.3.5 will not work with the upcoming R 2.3.0, so a new release was needed quickly.

Despite the limited time, a number of further bug-fixes and small improvements have made it into the new release. Here’s a mostly complete list of changes:

As usual, we’d be interested to read your feedback on the mailing list.

Important Note: RKWard 0.3.6 can be compiled (and of course run) with R 2.1.x, R 2.2.x and the upcoming R 2.3.x. However, when upgrading from R 2.2.x to R 2.3.x, you will have to re-compile and re-install RKWard. Also, if your distribution currently ships a pre-release version of R, chances are, RKWard will not yet work with that version (but you may want to give it a try). You’ll have either downgrad to 2.2.x temporarily, or upgrade to the final release of R 2.3.0 once available. To be precise, SVN revision 37824 is the first pre 2.3.0-version of R, RKWard 0.3.6 will work with.

Currently a pre-compiled .deb package of RKWard is provided for R 2.2.x releases. A .deb package compiled for R 2.3.0 will be made available as soon as possible.

We’re very sorry about the inconvenience, but unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it.

RKWard 0.3.5 is out

April 16 2006 - User:Tfry

Finally a new release of rkward is available for download. The focus of this new release has been on reworking the code responsible for dealing with plugins, and on fixing many small bugs. However, also a number of new features/improvements have been done since the last release. Most noteably, there are new plugins for Histograms and Boxplots, and for many distribution functions. A mostly complete list of changes:

Please give the new release a try, and send your feedback to the mailing list.

Important Note: If you see the message “Error: C stack usage is too close to the limit” on the console, this is due to a small but grave bug in R. This bug is present only in a few pre-release packages of R 2.3.0, but some of those are floating right now. If you encounter this bug, you will have to either downgrade your version of R, or wait until fixed packages are available for your distribution. If in doubt what to do, ask us for advice on the mailing list.

Archived news 2005

RKWard 0.3.4 released

November 2005 - User:Tfry

A new version of RKWard is now available for download. Changes include:

Please check out the new release, and tell us what you think on the mailing list.

Note: If you have previously been running version 0.3.3 of RKWard, you may have a bad saved setting for the location of .pluginmap-files. In this case RKWard will complain about missing plugins on startup. In order to fix this, go to Settings->Configure RKWard->Plugins and remove all entries for .pluginmap-files. After that, quit, and restart RKWard. The correct location of the standard plugins should then be autodetected.

Bug in RKWard 0.3.3

October 12 2005 - User:Tfry

One fairly important bug went unnoticed, when preparing the 0.3.3 release. An important file did not get installed, and this will lead to RKWard being unable to find its plugins. Fortunately, this can be worked around by simply installing one additional file.

Download this file. It needs to be installed to $prefix$/share/apps/rkward/standard_plugins.pluginmap, where $prefix$ is the directory you specified as –prefix when running ./configure. So, for example, for debian, it has to be installed to /usr/share/apps/rkward/standard_plugins.pluginmap

Sorry about the inconvenience.

RKWard 0.3.3 is released

October 10 2005 - User:Tfry

Together with the new website, a new version of rkward is now available. Changes in the new release can be grouped roughly in these categories:

For a complete list of changes, please see the changelog in the download section. Please give the new release a try. We welcome all feedback to the mailing list.

New website for RKWard

October 10 2005 - User:Tfry

Unless you’re here for the first time, you’ll have already noted: Finally the old RKWard website has been replaced with a new, pretty, and flexible website. A very big thank you goes to Yves Jacolin, the one who worked hard to create it!

The new website is divided into three main sections, you can navigate between using the links on the top of each page. The User section contains usage information on RKWard, screenshots, and FAQ. Developers will find additional information in the Development section. Finally, a new Wiki is available, where users can help us create new documentation on RKWard, but also discuss translation, and development issues.

Also, you will note that the new website is designed to be multi-lingual. So far, little has actually been translated, but we will work hard on providing the most important information in several languages (work has started on a French translation). If you can help with this, please contact us on the mailing list. Old news items - tfry

With the new website layout, we switched to our own news system. This new system allows us to post news in a number of different categories, and filter them according to those categories - such as news of interest to users vs. news for developers. Also, news can now be translated. Older news items, posted prior to the switch, are still available from the sourceforge archive.