Charles,
On 3 October 2019 at 10:10, Driver, Charles wrote:
| I have a function that outputs / compiles some latex. To do this I use
Sys.which('pdflatex') and if nothing is found, prompt the user whether to
install tinytex package. So, normally I understand the use of 'Suggests' in the
package description to be for when there are only certain functions / tests
that require the package. In this case, the package requirement is also
conditional on other software (ie a tex distribution) not being found,
otherwise it is unnecessary. There are no tests or examples that depend on the
package. Should tinytex be in the 'Suggests' list?
A few suggestions:
- IIRC CRAN Policy asks you to not have interactive prompts, and clearly
prohibits messing with the system. So no to the prompt to install.
- CRAN and R have a perfectly working dependency system [1] so just use
'Suggests: tinytex' and _then please condition your code on whether it is
present_. [2]
- Maybe add line breaks to your post? ;-)
Dirk
[1] I continue to argue, as recently as yesterday in private mail with a
junior dev, that people misuse / misunderstand Depends and Suggests.
[2] Because if you don't your Suggests: really is a Depends:.
--
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | e...@debian.org
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