`jgd` as an alternative graphics device

[grantmcdermott]

Hi folks.

I've been working on a lightweight R graphics device called jgd (link). The core idea is to serialize R plotting operations into JSON and then display them in an external renderer. The underlying R package is mostly written in pure C, has no external dependencies, and plugs directly into R's C API.

More relevant for vscode-R users, however, is that fact that the primary application right now is an embedded plot view in VS Code. The extension itself is pretty small, but has the core "nice UX" features that I want (cycling through plots, automatic resizing, export features, etc.). It also plays well with the main vscode-R extension.

Here's a screen grab:

I'm sharing this background with the vscode-R repo for a couple of reasons:

• I would welcome additional testers (esp. on Windows)
• It provides a lightweight alternative to existing R plotting options in VS Code and plays nicely with vscode-R
• Longer-term, if the community agrees and it survives wider testing, I would be happy to incorporate jgd's functionality into the main R extension code base. At a minimum, it would be nice to add a r.plot.useJgd setting (similar to httpgd). At a maximum, and not to be presumptuous, but perhaps we could fully integrate jgd into the main R extension, since this would enable nice plotting functionality out of the gate.

More details are available at the jgd repo: https://github.com/grantmcdermott/jgd

[grantmcdermott]

Update: jgd is now available on CRAN and has been pretty thoroughly tested (thanks to everyone who provided feedback!) Here's a demo of it in action.

jgd-demo.mp4

Provided that this sounds desirable, I'd love to move forward with tighter integration with the main R VS Code extension. Right now, users still need to download our little jgd VSC extension separately and "manually" enable it as the session backend. One option, which we suggest in the README, is adding the following to your ~/.Rprofile so that it automatically activates for VSC R sessions:

if (interactive() && Sys.getenv("TERM_PROGRAM") == "vscode" && Sys.getenv("POSITRON") != "1") {
  jgd::jgd()
}

Still, it would be nice to enable this as part of the native R VSC experience. I see two high-level options:

1. Add a r.plot.useJgd setting, so that user's can enable jgd by default, once they have installed the reqs.
2. Add jgd (both the R package and VSC extension) as dependencies of the main R VSC extension and languageserver packages. This is obviously a more aggressive integration and I don't mean to sound presumptuous here... I only mention it since our extension directory is pretty lightweight and I would be happy to transfer it if that sounds of interest.

No pressure or obligation. But do let me know if either of those options sounds reasonable. If there's traction, then I'll work on an appropriate PR.

cc @renkun-ken @randy3k

[benz0li]

@grantmcdermott and @eitsupi Thank you for jgd. Great work!

[eitsupi]

1. Add a r.plot.useJgd setting, so that user's can enable jgd by default, once they have installed the reqs.

In my opinion, it would be better to use an Enum selection instead of adding such a setting.

[benz0li]

1. Add a r.plot.useJgd setting, so that user's can enable jgd by default, once they have installed the reqs.

In my opinion, it would be better to use an Enum selection instead of adding such a setting.

Can this setting be added in a way that ensures backward compatibility?

What I mean by backwards compatibility:

1. b-data's/my JupyterLab R docker stack allows mounting the user's home directory for data persistence.

2. The default code-server settings for the R extension are

   {
     "r.bracketedPaste": true,
     "r.plot.useHttpgd": true,
     "r.rterm.linux": "/usr/local/bin/radian",
     "r.rterm.option": [
       "--no-save",
       "--no-restore"
     ],
     "r.workspaceViewer.showObjectSize": true,
   }

   and stored (persisted) at ~/.local/share/code-server/User/settings.json.

3. The R extension is installed at system level (@builtin, at /opt/code-server/lib/vscode/extensions).

4. A home directory created with a newer version [of b-data's/my images] can also be mounted with an older version.

This leads to the following situation:

• If there is a new setting: Mounting with an older version will automatically add "r.plot.useHttpgd": true.
  ℹ️ https://github.com/b-data/jupyterlab-r-docker-stack/blob/f2546039d831856a8346972776023a7bc8bc395d/base/scripts/usr/local/bin/before-notebook.d/30-code-server.sh#L16-L23
  • IMHO a new setting will be ignored by the older version of the R extension.
• The setting persists and will be still there when the home directory is mounted with a newer version [of b-data's/my images].
  • Will setting "r.plot.useHttpgd": true continue to exist and remain untouched by an upcoming version of the R extension?

---

P.S.: How I handle it for the now deprecated radian and setting "r.rterm.linux": "/usr/local/bin/radian": I install arf now and set up /usr/local/bin/radian with the following content:

#!/bin/bash

echo "radian is deprecated. Starting arf instead..."
echo
exec /usr/local/bin/arf "${@}"

👉 Users can leave setting "r.rterm.linux": "/usr/local/bin/radian" untouched.

[renkun-ken]

Thanks for the nice work, @grantmcdermott. Recently, some nice works (of course including jgd) have been under active development which I believe would be promising for the vscode-R experiences:

• vscode-R 3.0.0-rc
• https://github.com/eitsupi/arf
• https://github.com/grantmcdermott/jgd

Looks like more integration needs to be done on the vscode-R side to make it just work out of the box.

[benz0li]

b-data's/my JupyterLab R docker stack is also used on HPC Slurm clusters (accessible via Open OnDemand, started using Apptainer¹).
ℹ️ In such a setup, the same home directory is used by default for every Slurm job of the user.

Current images in use:

• [CUDA 13] R 4.6 + Python 3.14
  • coder-server v4.118.0 (aka Code - OSS v1.118.0)
  • R extension v2.8.8
• [CUDA 13.2] R 4.5.3 + Python 3.13.11
  • coder-server v4.117.0 (aka Code - OSS v1.117.0)
  • R extension v2.8.8
• [CUDA 12.8] R 4.4.3 + Python 3.12.10
  • coder-server v4.99.2 (aka Code - OSS v1.99.2)
  • R extension v2.8.5
• [CUDA 11.8] R 4.3.3 + Python 3.11.9
  • coder-server v4.23.0 (aka Code - OSS v1.88.0)
  • R extension v2.8.2

When these images were created, all extensions were installed at system level.
👉 This ensures compatibility with the code-server version available in these images.

This also implies that the older versions² of the image/'R extension' rely on setting "r.plot.useHttpgd": true.

As long as

1. I can add "r.plot.useHttpgd: true" to ~/.local/share/code-server/User/settings.json
2. newer versions of the R extension do not touch or delete the "r.plot.useHttpgd" setting³ and
3. a new, separate set of r.plot settings is created for jgd (or more generally: The r.plot.backend)

everything should be fine.

Footnotes

1. Similar to https://github.com/Harvard-ATG/ood-jupyterlab-apptainer ↩

2. Not being rebuilt; fixed CRAN/CTAN date; meant for reproducible research ↩

3. Not being displayed in the UI is 🆗. It just needs to persist in the settings.json. ↩

[grantmcdermott]

Thanks @renkun-ken. I'll take that as implicit approval for tighter integration. I'll think/work on a PR and see what feels most appropriate.

@benz0li Thanks for chiming in. I agree ofc that minimizing breaking changes (or, worse, silent failures) is optimal. But OTOH a major release is the time to do this and, with 3.0.0 around the corner, we can at least strike while the iron is hot.

[renkun-ken]

@grantmcdermott I'm using jgd in my daily work now. I'll file issues if I find anything that might be improved.

[grantmcdermott]

PR here if anyone would like to review: #1706