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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

dafJuliaWrapper 0.1.0

First CRAN release. Renamed from dafr — the dafr name has been freed for a native-R reimplementation in a separate repository. This package is the JuliaCall-based wrapper around DataAxesFormats.jl and has been renamed accordingly.

Migration from dafr

  • library(dafr) becomes library(dafJuliaWrapper).
  • options(dafr.JULIA_HOME = ...) becomes options(dafJuliaWrapper.JULIA_HOME = ...); same for dafr.julia_environment and other dafr.* options.
  • Public API (function names, arguments, return shapes) is unchanged.

New Features

AnnData-like facade

  • as_anndata(daf) returns a DafAnnData R6 object exposing $X, $obs, $var, $layers, $uns, $obs_names, $var_names, $n_obs, $n_vars, and $shape. Read-only and live: accesses go through to the underlying Daf on demand, served by the R-side cache on hits. obs_axis/var_axis auto-detect cell/metacell and gene; x_name is validated at construction.

R-side caching

  • get_vector, get_matrix, and axis_vector now cache results on the R side, keyed by Daf-level version counters so that modifications via set_vector/set_matrix/add_axis invalidate entries automatically.
  • The cache env is stored directly on each Daf object, so there is no global registry and no leak. Two R-level copies of the same Daf list share the cache (reference semantics); two wrappers of the same Julia object get separate caches.
  • empty_cache(daf, clear = ..., keep = ...) now always purges the R-side cache (regardless of selectors) and validates its arguments with match.arg.

Contracts

  • New CreatedOutput expectation type, matching DataAxesFormats.jl v0.2.0. Like GuaranteedOutput, a CreatedOutput item is expected to be produced by the computation and warns if a value is already present; unlike OptionalOutput, which never warns.

Performance

  • Consolidated from_julia_array from 9 sequential Julia↔︎R bridge calls to 4 (5–6 for named arrays). The helper is re-entrant and uses structured Tuple return (no Main-level globals, no string delimiters).
  • _prepare_for_r eagerly materialises dense non-zero-copy types (Bool, String, etc.) in Julia, saving a collect() round-trip on the R side.
  • Version counters are now fetched as strings, preventing UInt32 overflow when converting to R integers. axis_version_counter, vector_version_counter, and matrix_version_counter return character strings; compare with identical() or ==.
  • _prepare_for_r flattens type dispatch to reduce cold-start JIT cost.

CRAN compliance

  • DESCRIPTION: updated Title, Description, URL, BugReports.
  • cran-comments.md documents Julia dependency handling, \dontrun{} examples, vignette eval-off, and the JULIA_AVAILABLE test guard.
  • Vignette chunks are explicitly eval = FALSE, purl = FALSE so R CMD check’s tangle step does not try to initialise Julia.
  • inst/WORDLIST updated for spelling checks.
  • All Julia-dependent tests guarded with skip_if(!JULIA_AVAILABLE).

Safety

  • jl_R_to_julia_type (internal) now validates string inputs against a whitelist regex and rejects anything that isn’t a plausible Julia type name. Prevents arbitrary Julia code execution via the type-conversion path.
  • Daf(jl_obj) rejects non-JuliaObject inputs with a clear error instead of passing them through silently.

Breaking changes vs. dafr

  • Package name. All the options and library() calls above.
  • get_vector / get_matrix return values for zero-copy types are now live views over Julia memory (via jlview / jlview_sparse). Copy explicitly (as.numeric(v), as.matrix(m)) if stability across subsequent Daf modifications is needed.