We recently released BERT version 2. Among other things, almost all the code was rewritten, the structure is different, and we use different libraries. Here are some key new features:
Julia!
We now support the Julia language in addition to R. See this page for more on using Julia with BERT.
R Debugger
BERT now supports R’s debugger and browser facilities. You can even debug a function called in your Excel spreadsheet!
Connecting 64-bit R to 32-bit Excel
A lot of people still run 32-bit Excel. BERT 2 can now connect 32-bit Excel to 64-bit R, so you won’t run into any 32-bit R limitations. (This is because R now runs out-of-process).
Separate R and Excel Processes
Another benefit of moving R out of process is that it’s now possible to kill R without killing Excel, potentially saving data if you have a runaway or stuck R process.
Fancy Console Updates
Thanks to xtermjs, the BERT console now is a fully compliant VT100 terminal; so R console stuff (like text-based progress bars) all works as expected.
If you are upgrading from an older BERT installation, there are a couple of things to know. BERT 2 should be fully backwards-compatible, but there may still be some things missing (please let us know if you find any).
Mixing Versions
We don’t recommend running both old and new versions at the same time (also they won’t work properly). It is possible to disable the old version if you just want to test the new version.
The new BERT installer will disable the old version, but not delete it. You may need to move some files into the new directories (see the next section). When you’re OK with the switch, please use the windows control panel to uninstall old BERT (it will be version 1.64 or earlier; the new one is 2.x).
You can always re-install an older version from the releases page if necessary.
Directories
Because it’s such a big change, the install and functions directories are different. If you install BERT 2, it won’t pick up your old functions until you move them to the new directory (sorry for the inconvenience, but it seemed safer to do it this way).
By default, the old functions directory was Documents/BERT. The new folder is Documents/BERT2.
Console Configuration
Because there’s a new console, any configuration changes you made to the console won’t carry over. Sorry about that. The new console should be pretty easy to configure; open Preferences from the View menu.
License
We changed the license from GPL 2 to GPL 3 (although R is still licensed under GPL 2). We can provide alternate license options if your organization can’t use GPL code.