'CanMakeUseOf' field [was ".. Add 'fields' argument ..]
On 8/29/2006 10:12 AM, Martin Maechler wrote:
"PaulG" == Paul Gilbert <pgilbert at bank-banque-canada.ca>
on Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:55:09 -0400 writes:
PaulG> Martin Maechler wrote:
>> ...
>>
>> The idea was a field related to but weaker than 'Suggests' :
>> Something like
>> 'canMakeUseOf: <pkg1> [, <pkg2>, ... ]
>> which is *not* used in any QA/QC checking, but is purely
>> informative: If <pkg1> is require()able, then some examples may
>> look nicer, a function may provide another feature, etc, etc.
>> Alternatives to 'canMakeUseOf' would have been
>> 'isHappilyCoworkingWith' ....
>>
>> What do you (R-devel listeners) think about the idea?
PaulG> I still like this idea. I prefer 'canMakeUseOf' to
PaulG> 'isHappilyCoworkingWith' mainly because it seems less ambiguous.
Thanks, Paul.
As you may have guessed I should have put a " :-) " beside the
'isHappily...' .
Of course, even 'CanMakeUseOf' {we should capitalize the first letter}
is rather too long, but before finding the proper term, we should
agree on usefulness of such a new field.
Apart from the use of package authors {some could note that
other packages make use of theirs, without already depending on
or suggesting them}, it's one of those fields that should help
in the future to explore (e.g. cluster or neighborhood-graph)
the growing high-dimensional space of R packages.
I think we need an option to R CMD check rather than a new field in the DESCRIPTION. Currently a package could be mentioned for any of these reasons: 1. To make functions, examples or vignettes work 2. To allow optional functionality in functions, examples or vignettes. 3. Because it contains complementary functions. I don't think we really need to worry about 3: it should be contained in 1 or 2, if reasonably complete examples are given. Case 1 is handled by Depends. An author should check case 2 both with and without the suggested package. A user might be satisfied with a simple check "as things currently stand", or might want a stringent check like the author wants. The author can't know that, because it will depend on the user. So I don't think this is something that should be changed in DESCRIPTION. There should be an option to R CMD check to include or exclude packages mentioned in the Suggests entry. (I'd suggest a 3 level option: check as though they are not available, check as currently installed, require that they be available.) Duncan Murdoch