Blog – Nic Crane

Exploring AI-Powered Shiny App Development with Cline and Positron

R

AI

As a fun bit of prep for Appsilon’s upcoming AI-Powered Shiny Hackathon on March 22, 2025, I decided to do a practice run using Cline, an AI coding assistant. My goal was to…

Iterating on an app to create social media posts generating package using {shiny} and {ellmer}

R

AI

I recently posted about a repo I created containing a Shiny app which allows users to generate social media posts to promote blog posts, using {shiny} and {ellmer}.

Generating social media posts to promote blog posts with {shiny} and {ellmer}

R

AI

Writing blog posts is fun, but the next step, getting people to actually read them, can be trickier. I wanted to promote a recent blog post I co-authored for R-Ladies, but…

Recurse Center Return Statement

R

I spent 3 months earlier this year at Recurse Center in New York. Here’s a summary of the highlights of my time there!

Monitoring R Package Updates with Github Actions

R

GitHub Actions

As maintainer of the Arrow R package, there are a few packages I want to keep up to date with, so I can make sure that our bindings continue to be compatible with the latest…

Explaining the C bits at the start of ‘Deep R Programming Ch14: Interfacing compiled code’

R

C

One of my goals for next year is to get a deeper understanding of R’s C API. I’m making a start on this by reading Chapter 14 of Deep R Programming by Marek Gagolewski…

Reflections on 2023

R

Here’s a summary of my highlights of 2023!

Debugging

R

As a package maintainer, I’m constantly disappointed when folks mention Arrow bugs they’re aware of but haven’t reported. Not disappointed with the individual in question…

Three Goats in a Raincoat

R

I am not a fan of the term “imposter syndrome.” It’s a lazy way of ignoring the complex and interconnected, often structural reasons that contribute to many people’s…

R package documentation - what makes a good example?

R

Python

I’m currently working on adding to the documentation of the arrow R package, and I’ve started thinking about the qualities of good examples. Specifically, I’m referring to…