'CanMakeUseOf' field
Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> writes:
On 8/29/2006 11:58 AM, Seth Falcon wrote:
I think there is an important distinction between a dependency needed for the package to function and a dependency needed to demonstrate said functionality via an example or vignette. The former is what Depends is about, the latter is something else (Suggests).
Yes, that's a good point, especially with vignettes. Only the package author needs to be able to run them.
Yes, but just to keep things clear: the value of vignettes is that users can follow along. So the ability to programatically identify the extra required packages is valuable.
But maybe examples should be considered broken if they don't work. Users should be able to expect example(foo) not to generate an error. Package authors should wrap optional examples in code like if (require(...)).
I agree. As with vignettes, there is value in users being able to follow along and it would be nice to have a programatic way to identify extra package needed for fancy/involved/optional examples. Best, + seth