Contributing to RDesk

Thank you for your interest in RDesk!

Branch Strategy

• main: Stable, CRAN-tagged releases ONLY. Direct pushes to this branch are prohibited.
• dev: Active development branch. All internal work, features, and fixes happen here first.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository

2. Create a feature branch from dev:

   git checkout dev
   git checkout -b feat/my-new-feature

3. Make your changes with clear, atomic commits.

4. Open a Pull Request targeting dev, not main. PRs to main will only be merged from dev during a release cycle.

Development setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Install Rtools44 from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/
3. Install dependencies: devtools::install_deps()
4. Run checks: devtools::check()

Important: OneDrive / synced folder warning

Do not develop RDesk from a folder synced by OneDrive or similar. The g++ compiler reads stale cached source files from synced folders, producing ghost bugs where code changes have no effect. Always work from a local non-synced directory such as C:/Projects/RDesk. The build system copies source to a temp directory to mitigate this, but working locally is still strongly recommended.

Building the launcher

The C++ launcher is compiled automatically by build_app(). To compile manually for development:

source("R/build.R")
rdesk_build_stub(
  stub_cpp = "inst/stub/stub.cpp",
  out_exe  = "inst/bin/rdesk-launcher.exe",
  app_name = "RDesk"
)

Running the demo app

devtools::load_all()
source("inst/apps/mtcars_dashboard/app.R")

IPC contract

All messages between R and JavaScript use the standard envelope: {id, type, version, payload, timestamp}. See vignettes/ipc-contract.Rmd for the full specification. Never break this contract without bumping the version in zzz.R.

Pull requests

• One feature or fix per PR
• All R code must pass devtools::check() with zero warnings
• C++ changes must compile cleanly with Rtools44 g++
• Update NEWS.md with your change
• Update relevant vignettes if the public API changes