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"wizard" for building R-packages...

6 messages · A.J. Rossini, Brian Ripley, Kurt Hornik +1 more

Original
A.J. Rossini
# 
Suppose one wanted to build an R wizard for packaging...

One would need to specify and create:
        package-name/
        package-name/Description
        package-name/INDEX
        package-name/R/
        package-name/man/
        package-name/src/
- script-up the Description
- provide a script for regenerating INDEX by calling out to the shell
- provide a dummy/sample package-name/R/zzz.R file with a .First.lib()
- ??

thoughts?  (Sometimes, spending serious time with JDE suggests definite
improvements...)

best,
-tony
A.J. Rossini
# 
AJR> - provide a script for
    AJR> regenerating INDEX by calling out to the shell

I meant by this, an Emacs function, i.e. 
        M-x ess-regen-INDEX
which runs the appropriate R CMD script.
Brian Ripley
#
On 17 Oct 2000, A.J. Rossini wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
I'm a bit lost: you of all people don't really want a Windows wizard do
you?

Given how much R CMD check and R CMD build will do for you, about all I
can see that one could usefully add is a template for DESCRIPTION (and
it is all u/case).  Well, one could get prompt() to generate templates
for allthe undocumented R objects, but then people would forget to
complete them....

Just how much time do people spend packaging new packages anyway?
I probably have as many on CRAN as anyone else, and I do this rarely.
Checking them is another matter!

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      A.J. Rossini
    

    

      
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PBR> I'm a bit lost: you of all people don't really want a Windows
    PBR> wizard do you?

No, an Emacs wizard.

    PBR> Just how much time do people spend packaging new packages
    PBR> anyway?  I probably have as many on CRAN as anyone else, and
    PBR> I do this rarely.  Checking them is another matter!

My thoughts were based on the recent thread re: local functions in a
package, and making that easier (as well as documented).

R will do a good bit, and the question is how much more would be
needed in support so that 
        M-x R-package-wizard
creates a filled out package framework (without the autocoding, of
course). 

best,
-tony

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Kurt Hornik
    

    

      
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PBR> I'm a bit lost: you of all people don't really want a Windows
PBR> wizard do you?

            

      
      
      
    

        
PBR> Just how much time do people spend packaging new packages
PBR> anyway?  I probably have as many on CRAN as anyone else, and
PBR> I do this rarely.  Checking them is another matter!

            

      
      
      
    

        
I think it would be nice to have a function for creating a DESCRIPTION
file, marking which fields are required and which ones are optional
(e.g., like AUCTeX bibtex mode).

Directory stubs are perhaps not that much needed.  Peter once suggested
to make the corresponding documentation in R-exts more hands-on, so that
one gets a simple worked-out packaging example, and I think we want to
do this (eventually).

The package wizard might also offer to generate files like TITLE, INDEX
and data/00Index automatically, but this is done by R CMD check/build
anyway.

-k
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      Duncan Murdoch
    

    

      
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For people like me who mainly use Windows, the package documentation
is rather intimidating.  It's not clear which parts of it work and
which don't, or what tools beyond base R I need to build a package
entirely within Windows (or if that is even possible).

A wizard would be helpful, but it's a lot of work for relatively few
people to use.  An easier solution would be a short document listing
all the steps necessary to build a package in Windows, including at
least pointers to the document of all the tools that should be
installed first.

This should probably contain two sections:  building a package that's
intended to be portable to other systems, and building one that's
going to be packaged in a .zip file for Windows-only use.

If someone wants to volunteer to answer questions when I get stuck,
I'll volunteer to produce the document.

Duncan Murdoch
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