Course Schedule

Advanced R Package Development Workshop

February 2026

Duration: 3 consecutive half-days Time: 8:00 AM - 12:30 PM daily Format: Three 80-minute sessions per day with 15-minute breaks

Day 1: Foundations and Core Skills

Theme: Review fundamentals and establish good practices

08:00 - 08:20 | Introduction (20 min) (Sam)

  • Schedule review
  • Course format

08:20 - 09:20 | Review of Package Development Fundamentals (60 min) (Sam)

  • Package structure and state
  • Package creation workflow and metadata
  • Write our first function
  • Quick review of documentation basics

09:20 - 09:35 | Break (15 min)

09:35 - 10:55 | Git/GitHub for Collaborative Development (80 min) (Andy)

  • Git workflow review + continuous integration
  • GitHub setup
  • Additional package review
  • Setting up air in RStudio
  • Pull Request workflows for collaboration
    • Using pr_* helpers

10:55 - 11:10 | Break (15 min)

11:10 - 12:30 | Testing with testthat - Part 1 (80 min) (Andy)

  • Test review, setup test infrastructure
  • Fixture generators and test helpers.R, setup.R
  • Testing different function types
  • Snapshot testing introduction

Day 2: Advanced Testing and Debugging

Theme: Building robust, reliable packages

08:00 - 09:20 | Function Design Best Practices (80 min) (Sam)

  • Function naming conventions
  • Default arguments and the ellipsis (…)
  • Pure functions vs side-effects
  • Function composition and helper functions
  • Function length and complexity principles
  • Write more functions

09:20 - 09:35 | Break (15 min)

09:35 - 10:55 | Testing with testthat - Part 2 (80 min) (Andy)

  • Snapshot testing
  • Writing “clean” tests that also clean up after themselves (keeping things local)
  • Testing with external dependencies/data
  • Test coverage (with covr)

10:55 - 11:10 | Break (15 min)

11:10 - 11:30 | Advanced documentation (20 min) (Andy)

  • roxygen2 review
  • Special roxygen tags to avoid duplication
  • Markdown formatting and cross-referencing

11:30 - 12:30 | Debugging Techniques (60 min) (Sam)

  • Debugging strategies in R
  • Using browser(), debug(), and debugonce()
  • Debugging in different environments
  • Common debugging scenarios in packages

Day 3: Advanced Topics and Application

Theme: OOP, data packages, and real-world application

08:00 - 09:20 | Object-Oriented Programming in R (80 min) (Andy)

  • Overview of OOP systems in general and in R (S3, S4, R6)
  • More details on S3
  • When to use OOP in packages
  • Creating classes and methods
    • plot
    • summary
    • print
    • make your own generics
  • Documenting S3 methods

09:20 - 09:35 | Break (15 min)

09:35 - 10:35 | Data Packages (60 min) (Sam)

  • Types of package data: exported, internal, and API functions
  • Static exported data and documentation
  • Fetching live data with httr2
  • Using internal data to drive function behaviour

10:35 - 10:55 | Releasing Your R Package (20 minutes) (Andy)

  • Licensing your package
  • Package versioning strategies
  • Releasing your package (CRAN, GitHub, internal repos)

10:55 - 11:10 | Break (15 min)

11:10 - 12:30 | BYOP (Bring Your Own Package) + Open Topics (80 min)

  • Reviews any topics covered in relation to their own packages
  • Open Q&A on specific challenges encountered during workshop (15-20 min)
  • Dedicated time for participants to work on their own packages with instructor support (35-45 min)
  • Instructors available for individual consultation

Workshop Notes

Total Teaching Time: 9 sessions × 80 minutes = 12 hours

Learning Approach: - Each session includes practical exercises, not just lecture - Topics build progressively from fundamentals to advanced concepts - Final day allows for integration and application of learned concepts - Schedule allows flexibility based on pace and participant interests