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R Tools for Visual Studio, the open-source extenstion to Visual Studio that provides an IDE for the R language, has been upgraded to include several new features. 

The latest update, RTVS 0.3, now includes:

• An R package manager, allowing you to review, install, and uninstall packages using a convenient user interface.
• The Variable Explorer now allows you to open data-frames for viewing in an Excel workbook.
• New toolbar buttons to run selected code, source the current script, import data from a URL or file, and start/stop a Shiny app.
• New shortcut keys to open various IDE windows.
• The R script editor now provides pop-up Intellisense help for functions defined in the same file.
• You can now jump to the definition of a function defined in the same file by pressing F12, or “peek” at its definition without moving by pressing ALT-F12.
• Auto-formatting function calls now better align multi-line parameter sequences.
• You can insert an Roxygen documentation block by typing ### at the start of a line.
• You can now type “= TAB” to insert the assignment operator <- or "> TAB" to insert the pipe operator %>%.
• You can also create user-defined "Code Snippets" to insert code of your choice. These can be handy to remember common idioms, or the parameters to user-defined functions.

•  When debugging, you can now inspect R objects by clicking on their tooltip in the script:

To download the updated RTVS 0.3, visit the R Tools for Visual Studio page and click "Download R Tools for VS". (If you're new to RTVS, you'll also need to install the free Visual Studio Community and R or Microsoft R Open.) For more information on the new feature follow the link below or check out the RTVS Github repository.

RTVS: What’s new in R Tools for Visual Studio 0.3 (May, 2016 release) 

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