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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

termr 1.0.1

CRAN release: 2026-10-21

First CRAN release, published on CRAN on 2026-10-21. The initial 1.0.0 submission was not released on CRAN.

  • Revise DESCRIPTION wording to resolve incoming spell-check notes.
  • Bound expensive deterministic stress/property workloads on CRAN to reduce check time; NOT_CRAN=true retains the full seed and iteration counts.

termr 1.0.0

First stable release, prepared as the first CRAN submission. This section summarizes the pre-1.0 work. Stability classifications are defined in API stability.

The release candidate tag v1.0.0-rc1 points to 1846527d3968cdd12fa9900bbe80a9f2a89a1a3e, whose DESCRIPTION retains Version: 0.9.0.9000. Changes since that tag are limited to documentation, release metadata and the following:

Highlights

  • Compose modern reactive terminal applications around R data workflows, with widgets, layouts, events, themes and deterministic headless testing.
  • Inspect data through virtualized tables, lazy sources, SQL editing and database browsing, with optional DBI/RSQLite integrations.
  • Render incremental terminal frames or export static text, Markdown, HTML, SVG and JSON for reports. Advanced subsystems remain experimental.

Data workflows

  • Lazy table_source() pages feed DataTable’s bounded viewport cache. SQLite tables and views support delegated sorting/filtering; read-only db_query_source() adds bounded query-result paging and driver callbacks.
  • sql_editor() keeps materialized query results by default; lazy mode is opt-in. db_explorer() uses lazy SQLite previews and query results, portable metadata and an in-memory history. Database calls are synchronous.
  • Added status_bar(), property_grid(), record_view(), data_profile(), and json_view() for reactive status, record inspection, vector profiling, and paged R-object trees. record_view() reuses the property-grid renderer; json_view() reuses lazy TreeView nodes.
  • Added the data-workbench composition example. These workflow widgets add no mandatory runtime dependency; optional JSON text parsing uses jsonlite from Suggests.

Terminal and rendering

  • Rectangular dirty regions and paint-only invalidation avoid unnecessary layout and full-screen painting. Grapheme-aware rendering preserves wide characters, emoji and combining sequences.
  • Windows mouse DWORDs use exact unsigned representations and arithmetic wheel-delta extraction, including negative wheel values.
  • Documented the existing interactive SSH/PTY architecture, clipboard boundary, multiplexer limitations, and manual SSH smoke checklist in docs/ssh.md.
  • Capability detection now leaves synchronized output off for generic xterm and multiplexer TERM values, treats vt100 as monochrome, and avoids enabling SGR mouse or bracketed paste for legacy Linux/VT100 terminals.

Reactivity and background work

  • Signals, lazy computed values and watchers connect application state to reactive widget values; batching groups updates and disposal ends bindings.
  • Background R workers and shell-free subprocesses stream output and progress, with timeouts, cancellation, process-tree cleanup and bootstrap diagnostics.
  • Worker functions now capture only referenced lexical bindings by value. Unrelated enclosing state no longer produces giant payloads for trivial jobs. Simple scalar captures and nested/recursive helpers are preserved; active bindings and dynamic lexical lookup are rejected before spawn. Explicit large values and args still serialize. The regression passed on Linux, macOS and Windows.

Testing and portability

  • Full CI 37758703750 passed on the RC1 source: Ubuntu release, oldrel-1, R 4.1 and devel; macOS/Windows release; SQL integration; Linux/macOS PTY; Windows input. All six R CMD check jobs reported 0 errors, 0 warnings and 0 notes.
  • For RC1, Windows real interactive console and Linux through real ssh -t smoke were manually reported PASS. macOS real terminal, tmux, screen and RStudio Terminal remain NOT RUN. PTY CI is separate from manual console validation.

Static export

  • Added terminal-independent text, Markdown, styled HTML and SVG rendering from the virtual screen buffer, plus deterministic screen and widget-tree snapshots.
  • Added optional JSON serialization (jsonlite), explicit knitr/Quarto output (knitr), and a single write_rendered() convenience function.
  • Widget-tree snapshots omit arbitrary state and field values. Static exports are snapshots; they do not run timers, workers, or an app event loop.

API changes before 1.0

  • snapshot_json() is now screen_snapshot_json() and inspect_json() is now widget_snapshot_json(), matching screen_snapshot() and widget_snapshot(). Both were new in 0.9; there are no aliases. widget_snapshot() gains a root schema_version (1).
  • db_table_source(own_connection = ) is now owned =, as in db_connection(owned = ).
  • register_layout() gains replace = FALSE; pass TRUE to replace a registration on purpose, e.g. when a package registering in .onLoad() is reloaded.
  • datatable.source_error is posted once per failure rather than once per failed page, and carries the root error message; source_stats() gains fetch_errors. db_explorer() therefore shows one notification for one broken connection.

Fixes from the 1.0 readiness audit

  • Terminal input validates UTF-8 bytes before locale conversion and retains incomplete characters across reads, including on R 4.1.

  • Workers inherit the parent’s library search paths while keeping R_TESTS disabled. Process exit drains output without an unbounded EOF wait, cleans up descendants immediately, and reports process diagnostics on unexpected exit or a Pilot timeout.

  • The db_explorer() documentation example now stops its app and closes the owned SQLite connection.

  • db_table_source() works with current RSQLite (3.53 / DBI 1.3), which rejects an empty parameter list; previously every unfiltered SQLite source, and therefore the db_explorer() preview, failed at creation. It now also accepts a db_connection() wrapper.

  • data_table() with a table source fetches one page per source call for all columns instead of one call per painted column.

  • Moving a mounted widget with mount() keeps its bind_reactive() bindings, widget timers and owned workers; only remove() ends them.

  • widget$on() also accepts the argument order of on() / app$on(): widget$on(type, selector, handler).

  • Password inputs no longer reveal their value through print(), the event log, the debug overlay or inspect_widget(), and never copy it to a clipboard.

  • Text and cells drop C1 control characters (U+0080-U+009F) as well as C0 controls, so untrusted text cannot emit 8-bit CSI/OSC sequences.

  • The key parser replaces bytes that are not UTF-8 instead of failing, and drops over-long escape sequences instead of buffering them without bound.

  • batch() and watch() restore the reactive graph after an interrupt; an interrupted handler previously left every watcher deferred.

  • render_html(trim = TRUE) trims only the end of each row (inner spaces were removed, shifting columns); SVG output preserves runs of spaces.

  • Large trees no longer trigger the “too many events in one tick” warning at start-up; the guard counts events added during a tick.

  • db_explorer(): the object filter is case-insensitive as documented, and expanding a group after the connection closed no longer errors.

termr 0.7.0 (development)

Database workflows

  • Added db_explorer() with lazy DBI metadata browsing, SQLite table/view browsing and lazy table previews, integrated SQL execution and result tables, details, status, and in-memory query history.
  • Added db_metadata() as a small portable metadata interface. DBI and RSQLite remain optional dependencies; SQL query results are materialized and generic DBI query execution is synchronous.

Large data sources

  • Added the experimental table_source() protocol and lazy SQLite table source, with viewport-driven pages, delegated sorting/filtering, bounded caching and source lifecycle methods.

SQL workflows

  • Added sql_highlighter() and the sql_editor() text-area subclass with selection-aware synchronous query or execute mode and SQL result events.
  • Added the optional DBI-backed db_connection() wrapper and the sql-workspace example. DBI and RSQLite are suggested dependencies only.
  • Database results are currently materialized in memory; async query execution and schema browsing are not included.

termr 0.3.0

The package was renamed from retui to termr during 0.3 development (no compatibility aliases; options are termr.*, variables TERMR_*).

Rendering and performance

  • Incremental repaints are now rectangles (changed widgets, plus the old and new region of widgets that moved) instead of whole row bands, merged and widened so wide graphemes are never cut. app$last_paint reports repainted cells, rectangles and ANSI bytes.
  • Paint-only changes (cursor moves, scrolling in tables and lists, colour changes, progress, spinner frames, focus/hover without size differences) skip the layout pass (invalidate_paint(), paint_states).
  • Scroll views lay out only the children in view.
  • New benchmark suite (tools/bench/bench.R, compare.R) measuring batches of ticks and the repainted area; see docs/performance.md.

Widgets

Data

  • data_table() 2.0: resizable (mouse and keyboard), hideable and frozen columns, multi-column sort with markers, header_sort, search (Ctrl+F), goto_row(), auto_size_column() that never scans huge tables, and experimental cell editing on the table’s own copy (editable, on_edit, datatable.cell_changed). Numeric column headers are now right-aligned.
  • Reactive graph: signal(), computed(), watch(), batch(), peek(), untracked(), dispose().

Terminal and input

  • Terminal capability model (terminal_capabilities()).
  • Bracketed paste (PasteEvent, on_paste()), system clipboard writes via OSC 52 (app$clipboard_write(), write-only).
  • Mouse drag events (drag.start/move/end) and capture (widget$capture_mouse()).
  • Workers: separate progress channel, streamed on_stdout / on_stderr, timeout, interrupt-then-kill cancellation, shell-free run_process(). The worker progress function is now termr_progress().
  • Key parser tested against arbitrary input fragmentation; PTY harness covers keys, UTF-8, mouse, paste, resize, timers and SIGINT.

Accessibility

  • "high-contrast" theme; monochrome rendering for NO_COLOR (reverse video, bold/underline, heavier focus border) so state never depends on colour alone.
  • Reduced motion (app(reduce_motion = ), options(termr.reduce_motion), TERMR_REDUCE_MOTION).

Testing

  • test_app(color_mode = ); pilot methods paste(), drag(), focus(), find(), wait_for(), run_worker(), system_clipboard().
  • Randomised tests: incremental vs full rendering on rich UIs, extreme resizes, focus validity under random tree changes, input fragmentation.

Examples and docs

  • New examples: data-explorer, task-runner, terminal-dashboard, editor, accessibility-demo. New guides: text area, reactivity, workers, terminal and accessibility, performance.

Breaking changes

  • Package renamed to termr; retui_progress() is termr_progress().
  • datatable Enter on an editable table edits instead of sending datatable.row_activated; filter() keeps an active sort.
  • Ctrl+F, Ctrl+G, F1, F3 and Alt+Left/Right are bound in tables; F1 is bound in every app.
  • Worker stdout is no longer used for progress (it is delivered to on_stdout).

termr 0.2.0

A large expansion from the 0.1.0 MVP towards a complete TUI framework, with a focus on data-oriented applications.

Data

Widgets

Layout and rendering

  • grid_layout() with fixed/auto/fr/percent tracks, gaps and spans.
  • Grapheme clusters (UAX #29, via PCRE2 in base R): emoji ZWJ sequences, flags, skin tones and combining marks are single characters everywhere.
  • Dirty-region repaints: when the layout is unchanged only the rows of changed widgets are repainted (a randomised test checks they always equal a full repaint). Layout caches are now invalidated per widget chain. A label update in a 341-widget tree went from 200 ms to 30 ms per tick.

Application

  • Screen stack: app$push_screen(), pop_screen(), switch_screen() with focus restore and screen.show / screen.hide events.
  • Modal screens and dialogs: modal(), confirm_dialog(), alert_dialog().
  • Notifications: app$notify().
  • Command palette (Ctrl+P) with app$add_command().
  • Mouse support: clicks, wheel, hover (:hover), focus on click, and pilot$click() / hover() / scroll() for tests.
  • Background workers in separate R processes: app$run_worker(), run_worker(), termr_progress(), worker.* events.
  • Animations: animate() / widget$animate() with easings.
  • Developer tools: inspect_widget(), app$log_events(), F12 debug overlay (app(debug = TRUE)).

Styling

  • RTCSS stylesheets: stylesheet(), stylesheet_file(), app(stylesheet = ) with specificity, source order and pseudo classes (:focus, :hover, :disabled, :pressed, :invalid). Errors report line, column and property.
  • Themes: termr_theme() and app(theme = ) with default, dark and light; colours can refer to the theme ("$primary").
  • style(hover = ), grid properties, options(termr.ascii = TRUE).

Changes

  • Ctrl+A in inputs now selects all (Home still moves to the start).
  • on() selectors match the target of key and mouse events.
  • Read-only fields give a clear error when assigned.
  • Widget ids must be unique within a screen.
  • The Windows input helper reads console records (keys and mouse); a bug that prevented enabling ANSI processing in legacy consoles is fixed.

Infrastructure

  • GitHub Actions: R CMD check on Linux (release, oldrel, devel), macOS and Windows, plus a Unix pseudo-terminal integration harness (tools/pty/pty-check.py).
  • tools/bench/bench.R rendering benchmarks.

termr 0.1.0