iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Coming to posit::conf(2026) in person or virtually? Come hear my talk on Quarto Notebooks and you will learn the meaning of these MYSTERIOUS SHAPES.

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My favorite little feature from the Positron 2026.08 release: we now check your R scripts (and Python scripts, Quarto files, etc.) to see if they refer to any packages/modules that are needed to run the script but aren't installed. If they do, you'll get a little notification and an install button!

A screenshot of the Positron editor showing an R script that loads libraries, and a notification showing that a library needs to be installed.

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

A couple of days ago someone said "bear with me" and I had a great idea for a reality TV show called Bear With Me about a guy with a literal bear as a pet In every episode the guy goes to a different place with the bear and acts nonchalant about it while everyone else loses their minds

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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 08/07/2026

Latest version of Positron can open xlsx files in the data viewer(!) and it has a dropdown menu now for previewing different formats of #QuartoPub documents And—most importantly, but also from a few weeks ago, so less new—the plots panel can pick up dimensions from chunk options!!!! #rstats

An excel file of R's penguins data loaded into the data viewer in Positron

A screenshot of an image set to be 5x3 in the Quarto chunk options, automatically displaying as 5x3 in the plot panel

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

When we started working on Positron, we began by asking "what did we always want to do in RStudio, but couldn't"? Years of community upvotes on RStudio's issue tracker helped us form that wishlist. Here's how some big ideas made their way to Positron: opensource.posit.co/blog/2026-06...

opensource.posit.co

RStudio's Top Feature Requests ... In Positron

Many of the most upvoted RStudio feature requests are already implemented in Positron, and we explore ten of them.

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Simon P. Couch @simonpcouch.com · 05/03/2026

Today we're releasing AI for RStudio. It's really, really good—I'd encourage you to point it at the messiest data sources you have and see what it can do. www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-03...

A screenshot of an RStudio window. On the left-hand side is a new pain called Posit Assistant. The Posit Assistant had recently run code making a lat-lon plot of Washington state, colored by whether the point had been marked as forested or not.

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Got the new Windows 11 update, and I have to say it's pretty handy to know what I'm going to download tomorrow

A screenshot of Windows Explorer showing the Downloads folder with two files categorized beneath "Tomorrow"

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

My keynote about data science tools at posit::conf is now online! I originally meant it to be a talk about Positron, but as I was writing it, it took a left turn through the history of RStudio and into the philosophy of tool design & how to build stuff for people. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGre...

youtube.com

10 Years of Data Science Tools...and What Happens Next (Jonathan McPherson) | posit::conf(2025)

YouTube video by Posit PBC

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Libby Heeren @libbyheeren.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Is #Positron going to replace #RStudio? 😱 (This is the worry I keep hearing lately 👀) Posit Software Architect @jmcphers.bsky.social says, "there are certainly no plans to get rid of RStudio." Watch the full #DSHangout video with Jonathan here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sROVZ83FNg #rstats #databs

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Posit @posit.co · 01/07/2025

Ever wonder how the #tidyverse came to be? 🤔 #TheTestSet's first episode features @hadley.nz on his accidental empire of #RStats packages, bear encounters, and more! Stream it at thetestset.co, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. #DataAnalytics #PodcastLaunch

Hadley Wickham in a white t-shirt and jeans sits on a light-colored couch across from Michael Chow, wearing a dark green shirt and pants, who is seated on an orange pouf. Between them is a white coffee table with books. In the background, there's a dark bar with shelves displaying numerous bottles, a wood-paneled wall, and a black, modern fireplace. Text overlay reads "Hadley Wickham CHIEF SCIENTIST, POSIT".

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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 04/06/2025

Positron now supports a chat panel with Claude and it's pretty neat

Positron with a chat panel open with a question about fixing a ggplot plot

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Libby Heeren @libbyheeren.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

TOMORROW IS A BIG #DSHANGOUT! We have 2 featured leaders, & they're both keynote speakers at #positconf2025 😍 Thurs May 29 @ 12pm ET meet: 👋🏼 Kieran Healy, professor of sociology at Duke 👋🏼 Jonathan McPherson, software architect at Posit 📆 Add to your calendar @ pos.it/dsh #databs #rstats #python

Side-by-side headshots of two men. On the left, a man with short, dark hair and a slightly raised eyebrow, wearing a black shirt, is posed against a light gray background. On the right, a man with short, light brown hair and glasses, smiling and wearing a navy blue shirt, is posed against a warm brown background.

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Posit @posit.co · 20/03/2025

We're delighted to announce Jonathan McPherson – software architect at Posit – as keynote speaker at posit::conf(2025)! If you're curious about how thoughtful design principles can improve the data science tools you use, you won't want to miss this! Join us Sep 16-18 in Atlanta. pos.it/conf

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Davis Vaughan @davisvaughan.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

@lionelhenry.bsky.social and I are so excited to finally announce Air - an extremely fast R code formatter! 🎉 With Air, you'll never need to worry about styling your #rstats code ever again. All you need to do is save, and Air takes care of the rest. www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/02...

tidyverse.org

Air, an extremely fast R formatter

We are thrilled to announce Air, a new R formatter.

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

Talks from posit::conf 2024 are all online! Here's what I've been working on for the last couple of years. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uRc...

youtube.com

Introducing Positron, a new data science IDE - posit conf 2024

YouTube video by Posit PBC

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 31/05/2024

5 year old: What's happening, big guy? Me: Don't call me "big guy." It's kinda weird. 5 year old: You'll get used to it, big guy.

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 15/05/2024

12 year old: *shows me an elaborate PowerPoint presentation he made for a game show called "The Rice is Right", in which contestants must watch a short, close-up video clip of a granular substance and guess whether it is rice* Me: 12 year old: This idea came to me in a dream

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 21/02/2024

Buck up, baby blowfish. Just puff up bigger than your sadness and scare it right off. That's the only way to live in the awful old ocean. -- Cathrynne M. Valente, Radiance

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 12/02/2024

While I identify as a Christian, I think the #HeGetsUs #SuperBowl ads were awful. I don't think Jesus needs or wants our slick marketing campaigns. It cheapens the Man of Sorrows to put him on billboards and bumper stickers. He isn't a product.

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Neil Gaiman @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com · 01/02/2024

2 hours left on the Terry Pratchett humble bundle. All the ebooks for the cost of one hardback. You may want this...

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 16/01/2024

Dear Manufacturers of Children's Drinkware and Manufacturers of Garbage Disposals, One of you needs to change the diameter of your product. I don't care who. Sincerely, Every Parent in the World

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Jonathan @jmcphers.bsky.social · 10/01/2024

If you're working on software meant to last a long time, use long, unique names for all non-local identifiers (functions, classes, etc.). Future You is gonna need to find references, and Future You is only going to be able to use "find string".

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