On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Fellows, Ian <ifell...@ucsd.edu> wrote: > 6. Regarding package dependancies, I was thinking about also counting the > number of top level downloads, as approximated > by the number of downloads where a reverse dependancy was not downloaded in > the next 5 min by the same IP.
Top level downloads discriminates against infrastructure packages, i.e. packages that are not necessarily directly used by users or even downloaded directly by users. It can make it seem as if a package that is widely used, but not directly by users, is barely used at all so total downloads seems a better metric of popularity than top level downloads. I can't find it just now but remember reading a post on another list, or maybe it was his blog, by the author of certain software (not related to R) that was fundamental to Ruby on Rails but as infrastructure would not be directly observed by the user yet Ruby on Rails got all the credit and his key contribution got almost none despite the fact that Ruby on Rails likely would have never achieved its current high level of popularity without his contribution. ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
