'CanMakeUseOf' field [was ".. Add 'fields' argument ..]
Duncan Murdoch wrote:
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.
Well, from "Writing R Extensions" The optional Suggests field uses the same syntax as Depends and lists packages that are not necessarily needed. This includes packages used only in examples or vignettes So case 1 is handled by the combination of Depends and Suggests, and we need something to handle case 2. The related question is whether the CRAN checks should try to check 2, or perhaps there needs to be 2a and 2b. There are cababilities (and data) that CRAN may not have, so it would be nice distinguish things that should be checked on CRAN from things that should not be. Paul
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
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