R is a language that is typically used for data analysis and visualization and statistical computing, however that doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun.
Two super simple yet code-enhancing (in my personal opinion) packages
that I have found are beepr and praise. Both
are named in a way that is self-explanatory to what they do, but I will
go through them and introduce the nuances to each.
beeprbeepr contains two functions that can be triggered to produce a noise.
beep() will trigger when the line of code is run, and
can be used for a variety of reasons.
Most notably, if you are running a chunk that requires a significant
amount of time to process, beep() can be used to let you
know once it has finished. It is a nice quality-of-life function that
allows you to work on other things, or even walk away from your computer
while the code is processing, without worrying about wasting time not
knowing when your chunk has finished running.
The second function, beep_on_error() is used in much the
same way, but will only trigger if an error is thrown in the desired
expression. While beep() can accept up to two arguments,
with both (technically) being optional, beep_on_error()
takes on those two arguments, expr and sound,
where only sound is optional.
praisepraise is a package that, while not necessarily needed for coding, can help when a project is particularly frustrating.
praise() is another simple function, this time one that
will provide a random message of encouragement. I find this one
especially useful when I am struggling to work out a coding problem;
encouragement helps motivate, so throwing the occasional
praise() into my code while I’m working helps me continue
and work through the issues, rather than being tempted to give up.
beeprOne of the arguments that beep() accepts is to change
the sound that is played. With 11 different included sounds there are so
many to choose from!
"ping""coin""fanfare""complete""treasure""ready""shotgun""mario""wilhelm""facebook""sword"Each number above corresponds to the sound listed, so
beep(3) will play the built-in fanfare (which happens to be
the LoZ fanfare.
You can also have a random sound played by using a sound
argument that does not match the above.
My personal favorite aspect though is of course the customization! You can use any valid path to a .wav file or a valid http url to play your own custom sounds. This opens a whole new array of madness, allowing music, video game sounds, or even recordings you have created; so long as the path is valid, the opportunities are endless!
praiseDespite being a simple function, praise supports
different “parts of speech”, allowing for message customization:
"adjective" "adverb"
"adverb_manner" "created"
"creating" "exclamation"
"rpackage"
## [1] "Mmm! Check out this made R package!"praise("I love ${creating} praise templates, they are so ${ADVERB} and ${Adverb_manner} ${adjective}! ${EXCLAMATION}!!")## [1] "I love organizing praise templates, they are so RAPIDLY and Kindly superior! AWW!!"You will notice that the capitalization that you use in the code is transferred to the output as well, allowing you to capitalize the first letter of the random word, capitalize the entire word, or leave it in all lowercase.
While it might not be as exciting as the sounds in
beepr…
## [1] "I find praise to be just as polished! GEE!!"