James Balamuta
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coatless.bsky.social
James Balamuta
@coatless.bsky.social
1.1K followers 16 following 340 posts
omnipresent explorer of the unknown, fashionably caffeinated informatics phd, amorous cavalier. design, build, analyze. #rstats on #macos + #webr and #python with #pyodide
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coatless.bsky.social
webRios v1.1 is in the queue. Soon. #rstats #webR #iOS #AppUpdate
App Store Connect screenshot showing the webRios app with version 1.1.0 in "Waiting for Review" status.
February 9, 2026 at 9:47 PM
coatless.bsky.social
"import this" hits different when you're running it from your phone.

notebook mode. coming soon.

#python #jupyter #pyodide #wasm
Screenshot of a Pyodide enabled Python Notebook mode on an iPhone App. A code cell with 'import this' sits above a Markdown cell currently being edited with the text 'Hello!' typed in. The Markdown cell is selected with a blue border and shows reorder, add, and delete controls. Below the cells is an 'Add Cell' button. he toolbar at top shows Run All, Code, Markdown, and Clear Outputs buttons. A bottom tab bar displays Console, Editor, Plots, and More options. Screenshot of Pyodide enabled Python Notebook mode on an iPhone App. A code cell containing 'import this' has been executed, showing the output 'The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters' followed by its aphorisms: 'Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is better than complex.'
February 9, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by James Balamuta
stephenturner.us
They say the key to fighting addition is to find a replacement. NA beer over regular beer. A coffee instead of smokes.

So stop doomscrolling the "For You" feed here and start writing and running #Rstats code on your phone apps.apple.com/us/app/webri....

Cool work @coatless.bsky.social 🎩
January 27, 2026 at 2:17 PM
coatless.bsky.social
webRios is live. #rstats on your iPhone and iPad.

I showed native R compilation on #iOS last week. Shipping it is another story (thanks, GPL). This version uses #webR 's #WebAssembly build instead. Different tradeoffs, but this one clears App Review.

apps.apple.com/us/app/webri...
Promotional image for webRios showing the app icon and an iPhone displaying the R console. The console shows example R commands with syntax highlighting: basic arithmetic (1 + 1), a print statement saying 'Hello from iOS!', a warning message in orange reading 'Uh-oh, I'm in the Apple-verse?', an error message in red with the HAL 9000 quote 'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.', and a plot command.
January 27, 2026 at 2:42 AM
coatless.bsky.social
So, #rstats does work natively on #iOS with plots and all.

Genuine question though: has the GPL vs App Store situation ever been resolved or are we stuck in "cool demo forever" territory?
January 17, 2026 at 8:40 AM
coatless.bsky.social
Just had a frustrating experience with @Airbnb that I think other travelers should know about. It's about third-party ID verification requirements that aren't clearly disclosed during booking. Thread: #Airbnb #TravelTips
January 17, 2026 at 6:59 AM
coatless.bsky.social
{surreal} 0.0.2: now featuring the "oh that would be convenient" update

1. Load images directly with surreal_image()
2. Explore everything in a Shiny app with surreal_app()

Sometimes the sequel has better quality-of-life features.

#rstats #rshiny #dataviz
The Surreal Shiny app in dark mode displaying a Jack-o-Lantern demo. The source panel shows a pumpkin shape rendered as a scatter plot, while the residuals panel reveals the same jack-o-lantern face with triangular eyes and jagged mouth, reconstructed from 5,395 points. Screenshot of the Surreal Shiny app with "Custom Text" selected as the source. The left panel shows "Hello R World!" as plain text, while the right panel displays the same text reconstructed from 3,328 regression residual points. Screenshot of the Surreal Shiny app showing a side-by-side comparison. On the left, the orange Reddit logo with Snoo mascot. On the right, a scatter plot of 8,160 points that perfectly recreates the Reddit logo through regression residuals. Hexagonal logo for the surreal R package. Dark blue background with "SURREAL" in white block letters at the bottom, where some letters have an outlined style. Above the text, white and light blue circles of varying sizes scatter upward, dense near the bottom and sparse at the top, evoking a residual plot rising from the package name.
January 11, 2026 at 6:58 AM
coatless.bsky.social
{webrarian} walked so {pyrarian} could... also walk? Ported #webr 's 4-panel editor to Pyodide. Already loading pandas and plotting with matplotlib in the browser. The librarians are going multilingual.

#pyodide #python #wasm
January 1, 2026 at 7:00 AM
coatless.bsky.social
{toggle} does one thing: adds a button to hide code output in #quarto docs.

Took two versions to do that one thing well. Now it works everywhere... tabsets, callouts, nested containers, you name it.

📚 quarto.thecoatlessprofessor.com/toggle/
🐙 github.com/coatless-qua...
Screenshot of the Toggle extension documentation website showing the Quick Start page. The left sidebar displays the Toggle logo and navigation menu with sections for Get Started, Features, Demos, and Reference. The main content shows an interactive toggle button demo, explains the ▼ (visible) and ▶ (hidden) chevron indicators, and includes R code examples with a visible "Output" toggle button on the code block. The page demonstrates how the toggle button appears when hovering over code cells. Toggle extension logo: A blue hexagonal badge featuring a stylized code block with a toggle button in the upper right corner, and a line chart output below it. The word "toggle" appears at the bottom in white lowercase text.
December 29, 2025 at 6:48 AM
coatless.bsky.social
{livelink} walked so {webrarian} could run. Mini browser-based #rstats environments powered by #webR and its 4-panel editor. YAML config, build, preview. Done.

R package coming soon. #pyodide folks, stay tuned.
December 28, 2025 at 8:33 AM
coatless.bsky.social
Shiny for R: GPL-3 → MIT ✨

Your dashboards are now legally chill. Deploy without consulting three lawyers and a ouija board first.

#rstats #rshiny
Screenshot of a GitHub pull request #4339 titled "chore(license): Change license from GPL-3 to MIT." The PR shows a purple "Merged" badge indicating it was merged by user cpsievert 13 minutes ago, with 5 commits from the branch "migrate-gpl-to-mit-license" into main. The description by contributor karangattu explains the PR closes issue #4208 and updates the Shiny package licensing from GPL-3 to MIT License.
December 17, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by James Balamuta
edgarmerkle.bsky.social
Consider submitting a proposal to the (open access) Psychometrika special issue on Variable Selection for Complex Psychometric Data, with a proposal deadline of Jan 15. Full details:
Call for Papers: Psychometrika Special Issue - Psychometric Society
Variable Selection for Complex Psychometric Data
www.psychometricsociety.org
December 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
coatless.bsky.social
Released a #Quarto extension for collapsible content blocks.

Why? The {details} are inside.

📚 quarto.thecoatlessprofessor.com/details/
💻 github.com/coatless-qua...
Screenshot of the details extension quickstart documentation showing three methods to create collapsible blocks in Quarto: using the summary attribute, using a heading, and using a summary div. Each method shows the code syntax and its rendered output as expandable disclosure widgets. Hexagonal sticker logo for the details Quarto extension. Orange background with a stylized illustration of three accordion-style collapsible content panels in cream and brown, with the word "details" in white text at the bottom.
November 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM
coatless.bsky.social
Turning another year older tomorrow and celebrating by releasing Quarto extensions into the wild. Gift to me, gift to you. And yes, if you've been peeking at my GitHub, you already know what's coming. Act surprised!
November 29, 2025 at 5:09 AM
coatless.bsky.social
{ripper} dissects your #Quarto documents, extracting code blocks by language and leaving executable scripts behind.

Supports #rstats, #python, #julia, and 13 other victims.

For those who never stopped celebrating Halloween.

📚 quarto.thecoatlessprofessor.com/ripper/
💻 github.com/coatless-qua...
Ripper extension hex logo with Halloween-inspired design. Black hexagonal badge featuring a white .qmd document on the left with red blood splatter effect, and multiple file extension labels on the right (.R, .py, .jl, .js, .lua, .sh, .ts, .md) resembling torn paper. The word 'RIPPER' appears in large red distressed lettering at the bottom, with additional blood drip effects throughout. Screenshot demonstrating the ripper Quarto extension workflow. Shows the ripper logo (a dark house silhouette with red text), documentation page for Default Configuration, example R and Python code blocks in the rendered document, and two code editor windows displaying the generated script files (qripper-default-config.R and qripper-default-config.py) with extracted code. A red arrow connects the 'Script files' section to the generated output files.
November 22, 2025 at 10:57 PM
coatless.bsky.social
One does not simply stay away from social media. I return with: R packages, portable R, Shiny/shinylive apps, Electron integrations, Python packages, Quarto extensions, LLMs, and blog posts. The code has been reforged. The roadmap is full.
October 23, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Reposted by James Balamuta
frodsan.bsky.social
Still fascinated with #webR and its potential for teaching stats

Here students can play (even from their phones) and find out themselves how the p-value depends on sample size

pakillo.github.io/LM-GLM-GLMM-... #rstats
A screenshot of a statistics tutorial made with R, quarto and webR
October 22, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Reposted by James Balamuta
mickael.canouil.fr
@coatless.bsky.social also did that few months ago using another approach based on JavaScript.

"Pick your poison" 🙃

github.com/coatless-qua...
GitHub - coatless-quarto/toggle: Toggle Code Output in Quarto Code Cells
Toggle Code Output in Quarto Code Cells. Contribute to coatless-quarto/toggle development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
October 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by James Balamuta
ivelasq3.bsky.social
Quarto has a way to collapse code, but what if you want to collapse code OUTPUT?

The amazing @mickael.canouil.fr created an extension that does just that!!!

Check it out! github.com/mcanouil/qua...
October 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
coatless.bsky.social
Nothing makes you feel vintage like your license getting moved to the retirement home directory. GNU put GPL 2.0 in /old-licenses/ causing #rstats packages to throw URL warnings. Somewhere a CRAN maintainer is rubbing their hands together, ready to trigger 847 email requests...
Screenshot of a code diff showing line 10 being updated. The removed line (red) shows a GPL 2.0 license URL pointing to gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html, while the added line (green) shows the same URL updated to point to gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html, indicating the license documentation has been moved to an 'old-licenses' directory.
September 26, 2025 at 6:12 PM
coatless.bsky.social
Flying to Istanbul to meet my SO's family felt like nervous excitement. Flying to California felt like possibility. Flying back home for a funeral feels like gravity remembering how to work. Now Illinois feels like living in a house where all the furniture is made of memories.
September 19, 2025 at 12:17 AM
coatless.bsky.social
macOS 26 Tahoe + R 4.5.1: Keeps #rstats moving along on #macOS. Upgrade confidently, just remember to update Xcode CLI afterwards if using stan & compiled code.
A screenshot showing R 4.5.1 working under RStudio 2025.9.0.387 on macOS Tahoe (26.0.0) with a call to compiled code requiring gfortran through RcppArmadillo. A screenshot showing R 4.5.1 working under Positron 2025.9.0 (Universal) on macOS Tahoe (26.0.0) with a call to compiled code requiring gfortran through RcppArmadillo.
September 16, 2025 at 12:39 AM
coatless.bsky.social
R that travels light on #Linux: Portable R AppImages.

Now working everywhere: your Ubuntu, friend's Fedora, cousin's Arch setup (btw)

No sudo, no tears, just base R science ✨

(package support coming soon!)

#RStats #AppImage #DataScience
Terminal session showing the download and execution of an R AppImage from GitHub releases. The commands show wget downloading the ARM64 AppImage built on Ubuntu 24.04, making it executable with chmod +x, and then launching it to run R statistical analysis including a linear regression model with income vs age data, demonstrating the workflow from GitHub release to running statistical computations. VS Code showing the successful completion of an R AppImage build process. The terminal displays the build summary indicating a 76MB minimal R 4.5.1 AppImage for ARM64 architecture with package installation disabled (immutable). The output shows usage examples and confirms the build completed successfully, with R actually running at the bottom showing the standard R startup message and executing system environment commands, demonstrating the fully functional portable R installation. VS Code terminal showing R 4.5.1 running from an AppImage on ARM64 architecture. The file explorer shows the typical AppImage directory structure with usr/bin, usr/lib, and usr/share folders, demonstrating the self-contained portable nature of the R installation.
September 15, 2025 at 6:37 PM
coatless.bsky.social
RcppEnsmallen 0.2.22.1.2 on CRAN: Upstream Armadillo Changes

blog.thecoatlessprofessor.com/software-rel...

#rstats #rcpp #rcppensmallen #ensmallen
RcppEnsmallen v0.2.22.1.2 Released - Upstream Armadillo Changes – TheCoatlessProfessor
blog.thecoatlessprofessor.com
September 11, 2025 at 3:55 AM
coatless.bsky.social
Linux support 🐧

Same #rshiny → desktop workflow on #Fedora 42 aarch64:

shinyelectron::export() → #rshinylive → #AppImage → portable #Linux app

Plot twist: no more "go buy yourself a real computer" moments - you get zero #rstats dependencies too! The condescending Unix users have won this round.
September 10, 2025 at 5:49 AM