Advanced R Package Development

DFO - February 2026

Welcome!

Instructors:

• Andy Teucher
  • andyteucher.ca
  • GitHub: ateucher
• Sam Albers
  • samalbers.science
  • GitHub: boshek

Welcome!

This is a three-day course for people who want to build R packages that are robust, maintainable, and easy for others to use.

Code of Conduct:

• Treat everyone with respect
• Everyone should feel welcome
• Full text: https://andyteucher.ca/dfo-advanced-r-pkgs-2026/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.html

Cameras. Remind everyone about the code of conduct briefly - it’s about creating a safe learning environment.

Sticky Notes (online)

I’m stuck ✋

Use the Zoom Raise Hand reaction

I’m good 👍

Use the Thumbs Up reaction

We’ll try to help everyone keep up. Questions in the chat or raise hand. Big issues can use a breakout room with the other instructor. Try to keep discussions in the main room.

Discussions / Q & A

• GitHub Discussions: https://github.com/ateucher/dfo-advanced-r-pkgs-2026/discussions

Open the welcome discussion and introduce yourself:

• Office/department, city/town
• Why you’re here
• Something you’ve built or are trying to build

Paste link in chat. Open GitHub discussions, ask people to introduce themselves. Share screen doing it.

Resources

• Workshop website: https://andyteucher.ca/dfo-advanced-r-pkgs-2026/
• Setup instructions: https://andyteucher.ca/dfo-advanced-r-pkgs-2026/setup.html
• Cheatsheet: https://rstudio.github.io/cheatsheets/html/package-development.html

Remind people about setup - which they should have done before today.

Check your setup

Run these two commands and make sure they succeed before we begin:

devtools::has_devel()

Look for Your system is ready to build packages!

usethis::git_sitrep()

Look for Personal access token for 'https://github.com': '<discovered>'

Give people 2-3 minutes to run these. has_devel() should print “Your system is ready to build packages!”. For git_sitrep(), the key thing to check is that the PAT shows as discovered and their name/email are correct. If anyone is stuck, now is the time to sort it out before we get into content.

Day 1

Schedule

Time	Session
8:00 - 8:20	Introduction
8:20 - 9:20	Package Development Fundamentals
9:20 - 9:35	Break
9:35 - 10:55	Git/GitHub for Collaborative Development
10:55 - 11:10	Break
11:10 - 12:30	Testing with testthat - Part 1

Day 2

Schedule

Time	Session
8:00 - 9:20	Function Design Best Practices
9:20 - 9:35	Break
9:35 - 10:55	Testing with testthat - Part 2
10:55 - 11:10	Break
11:10 - 11:30	Advanced Documentation
11:30 - 12:30	Debugging Techniques

Day 3

Schedule

Time	Session
8:00 - 9:20	Object-Oriented Programming
9:20 - 9:35	Break
9:35 - 10:35	Data Packages
10:35 - 10:55	Releasing Your R Package
10:55 - 11:10	Break
11:10 - 12:30	BYOP + Open Topics

BYOP + Open Topics

Open Q&A

• Specific challenges you’ve encountered during the workshop
• Applying workshop concepts to your own package

Bring Your Own Package

• Dedicated time to work on your package
• Instructors available for individual consultation

Let’s go!