The common answer to "why do you fork instead of building an extension" is "these are not possible with VS Code extensions". Is this true? Or is it easier to monetize when it is a fork?
jmcphers · 50m ago
It is true. Some things you can't build in extensions for VS Code are:
- core services (Positron's core language system is an API, and R and Python are extensions)
- native panes (you can contribute webview panes but they're slow!)
- toolbars for other panels, or global toolbars
- modal dialogs or any UI other than notifications and quick-pick lists
- custom layouts
At a higher level, Positron is a platform that contains data science tools for _other_ extensions to use, and doesn't make sense as an extension itself. The R and Python extensions are the first two we built, but the platform is extensible to other languages.
gclawes · 46m ago
What's different between Postiron's core language system and language systems like LSP and DAP?
jmcphers · 40m ago
It's a higher-level construct. LSP and DAP are both used by Positron! But they're a pretty small subset of everything you actually want to do with a language. For example:
- discover all the interpreters on the system for the language (e.g. 'find me all the Pythons')
- start an interpreter session for the language
- run a fragment of code in the language and return the result
- get all the variables in the current interpreter session for the language
- view data defined in a particular variable
etc.
We generally try not to invent new protocols; in addition to LSP and DAP, we use Jupyter messages and kernels for most of the above. Positron only has custom protocols/APIs for the bits that are outside the purview of existing protocols.
LMKIIW · 1h ago
I've been using for over 4 months and I think it's great - both Python and R. Plenty of DS features that make VS Code feel more competent as data exploration tool.
cd4plus · 11m ago
It's really a shame posit quadrupled the cost of rstudio server/workbench because these tools are really nice in an academic hpc environment
dvt · 22m ago
I have a feeling that hardcore data scientists will continue to use RStudio because of the huge ecosystem there, while data engineers will continue to use VSCode which is, at least for me, good enough with a few extensions that let me run notebooks and data visualizations when I need to do data work. In other words, I'm not sure if there's a niche here.
datadrivenangel · 2h ago
Basically R studio/Spyder + Cursor built on the Code - OSS behind VSCode.
Potentially very exciting. The early builds a year or two ago that I tried were too buggy to replace R Studio, but a tight integration of good data tools, a good IDE, and modern AI coding assistants is going to be very powerful if posit nails this.
panbd · 2h ago
Behold, a free-as-in-beer, source-available program that brands itself as "free and open source".
This moving the goal posts of open-source to exclude anyone making money off of it is annoying. I can get the project for FREE and I can see the source code and make changes to it. How is it not open source? Because I can't also turn around and sell it?
adw · 44m ago
Nonfree license. You may or may not like the Elastic license but it's definitely not OSD.
gnulinux · 38m ago
There is no moving goal post. The license isn't an open source license, which by definition means the code is not open source. When you have access to source code of a program, but don't necessarily have the legal rights to distribute original and/or modified programs, it's called "source available".
tjburch · 25m ago
This has been in beta for over a year, and unfortunately R users mostly seem to hold onto RStudio with a religious conviction so I haven’t really seen much adoption among the target demographic in my circles.
moelf · 22m ago
This is Jupyter but without Julia :(
(reference: Ju in Jupyter is Julia)
greenflag · 1h ago
For R+RStudio users, any opinions on the switch? Assistant seems to be the big departure, trying to work out if worth losing keyboard shortcut muscle memory for
jmcphers · 56m ago
Positron has a setting that restores (most) RStudio keybindings, so your muscle memory should (mostly) transfer:
Not exactly new, but I do think it has promise as a MATLAB replacement for Python. Spyder already does quite a good job at that though.
dmicah · 1h ago
I think PyCharm does a pretty good job as being a MATLAB-like IDE replacement for Python.
a-dub · 1h ago
i wish they had a more exhaustive list of all the features they offer beyond vscode or cursor, otherwise it's hard to evaluate what exactly it brings to the table.
autoit · 1h ago
Yep, ill give it a try, but i dont see myself switching away from VSCode.
xnx · 1h ago
Being able to install Gemini Code Assist is a big plus over RStudio.
shellfishgene · 47m ago
I was wondering for a while already why Posit had seemingly dropped the ball on AI support in RStudio...
fluorinerocket · 1h ago
I'll stick with spyder
piskov · 2h ago
Meh. Another vscode reskin. And calling it IDE is a bit presumptuous.
- core services (Positron's core language system is an API, and R and Python are extensions) - native panes (you can contribute webview panes but they're slow!) - toolbars for other panels, or global toolbars - modal dialogs or any UI other than notifications and quick-pick lists - custom layouts
At a higher level, Positron is a platform that contains data science tools for _other_ extensions to use, and doesn't make sense as an extension itself. The R and Python extensions are the first two we built, but the platform is extensible to other languages.
- discover all the interpreters on the system for the language (e.g. 'find me all the Pythons')
- start an interpreter session for the language
- run a fragment of code in the language and return the result
- get all the variables in the current interpreter session for the language
- view data defined in a particular variable
etc.
We generally try not to invent new protocols; in addition to LSP and DAP, we use Jupyter messages and kernels for most of the above. Positron only has custom protocols/APIs for the bits that are outside the purview of existing protocols.
Potentially very exciting. The early builds a year or two ago that I tried were too buggy to replace R Studio, but a tight integration of good data tools, a good IDE, and modern AI coding assistants is going to be very powerful if posit nails this.
These guys' PR is trying too hard.
The source code looks very open.
This moving the goal posts of open-source to exclude anyone making money off of it is annoying. I can get the project for FREE and I can see the source code and make changes to it. How is it not open source? Because I can't also turn around and sell it?
(reference: Ju in Jupyter is Julia)
https://positron.posit.co/migrate-rstudio-keybindings.html
Dataspell is IDE.