On 26/04/2021 9:20 a.m., Ott Toomet wrote:
I think part of the problem is that the corresponding section in
"Writing R extensions" is not very clear for newcomers. I admit I have
read it several times as I have been confused about the difference
between suggest, imports and depends, and so combed section 1.1.3
repeatedly. But from this email thread I realize that I have overlooked
some of the basics.
I would like to have an authoritative document (preferably WRE) that
provides some sort of clear distinction between these concepts,
including a few examples. In particular, the fact that one should wrap
the suggested packages in "requireNamespace" has escaped me. I guess it
is not just me as a large chunk of package authors are applied
researchers and not professional software developers.
Not sure if one should rewrite the docs here, or maybe alternatively
create some sort of simplified version of the document.
There are tons of simplified versions of the document (in blogs, books,
mailing list postings, etc.), but many of them also contain errors or
make up different versions of the advice, so a rewrite or simplified
version that had the support of R Core would be valuable.
Unfortunately, even if someone else wrote it, it would take a lot of R
Core work to check it. And if it was a separate simplified version,
there'd be likely divergence over time from the full technical version.
"R CMD check" raising issues which beginners can ask about seems like a
reasonable solution to this problem, as long as there are people willing
to help them. It offloads the writing work to the people who are giving
the responses. It's still hard for beginners to choose between
conflicting versions of the advice, but that will always be true, even
if one version is "endorsed by R Core".
Duncan Murdoch
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