RKWard 0.8.2

Wednesday, 1 October 2025

A new release, RKWard 0.8.2, is available for download, today. The new release brings some powerful additions which may, however, not be immediately visibile at first glance. The first of these is the much improved "R Console" preview mode: In an R script window, bring up the "Preview" menu and select "R Console". Importantly, besides additional options, the preview mode can now also keep track of changes you make to on-screen graphics. This allows you to create a full record of your interactive session, on the fly.

Another new feature for power users is the Quick Code Naviation Mode for R scripts, which allows to navigate R code based on it syntactic structur, very quickly, i.e. you can move to, or select the next, or previous statement, inner or outer statements, etc. In a script editor window, activate the mode from the toolbar (or hit Meta+N), and click on the small help-link for a comprehensive list of options, and shortcuts.

Last but not least, the separate repository of plugin packages for RKWard has received several interesting addtions, recently. See Settings->Manage R packages->Install to browse the list.

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

The changes in detail:

  • New features and improvements
    • Adeed: Allow to show kate plugin provided code completion lists (e.g. snippets or project plugin)
    • Changed: R backend now uses UTF-8 mode on Windows
    • Added: options(error) may now be set freely (no longer needs to be .rk.do.error for correct behavior)
    • Added: Enhanced "R Console" preview mode, including produced plots
    • Added: New mechanism RK.addHook() to monitor RK() devices for modifications
    • Added: Actions to navigate R code based on its structure & Quick Code Navigation Mode
    • Added: Plugins: Enhance addChangeCommand() to allow writing more readable GUI logic code
    • Added: Plugins: Simplify running R commands inside GUI logic code
    • Internal: Code cleanups
    • Internal: Remove dependency on Qt5-compatibility library
  • Bug fixes
    • Fixed: Package installation dialog now works with options(pkgType="both"), and this is now the default on Windows and Mac
    • Fixed: Code completion (importantly filename completion) failed to trigger inside quotes
    • Fixed: Code completion hints would sometimes be misplaced to top-left cursor position
    • Fixed: Call hint did not show active function along with arguments
    • Fixed: Attached windows would not always be placed in the most recently active pane (in a split view)
    • Fixed: Crash when switching from dialog to wizard interface in plugins providing a preview
    • Fixed: Crash using context menu while data editor is visible, under certain conditions
    • Fixed: Crash on script errors in plugins
    • Fixed: Printing of captured R messages/warnings in plugins was broken