Andy Liaw wrote:
From: Prof Brian Ripley
/
/>/ On Thu, 13 Apr 2006, Peter Ruckdeschel wrote: />/ />/ > Hi R-devels, />/ > />/ > in "Writing R extensions" as well as in the help />/ > to .onAttach(), you mention that one could />/ > use this function to issue a start-up message/banner />/ > for the package. />/ > />/ > My little wish for Easter: />/ > />/ > a 'quietly'-type argument for .onAttach() / .First.lib() which is />/ > passed through by functions />/ > require() and library() respectively, />/ > and by means of which one could optionally />/ > suppress this start-up message/banner . />/ > />/ > Is this hard to do? />/ />/ I believe so (and think we have been here before). /
sorry, but I did not find anything on it --- probably I searched for the wrong keywords.
/> The //documented call //sequence is />/ />/ .onLoad(libname, pkgname) />/ .onAttach(libname, pkgname) />/ />/ the same as .First.lib. There is no way to add an argument />/ here, as many //existing packages do not support it. /
Couldn't a reasonable default value (probably FALSE ) catch this?
/> Beyond that, how would / /you pass the />/ argument in? Namespaces and packages are often />/ loaded/attached implicitly //as a result of loading other packages. /
oK this is an issue --- no idea for this.
/ I did think you could make use of an option to decide whether
/>/ to the print //the message or not, /
This is probably the cleanest solution.
/> but I have always assumed that those who />/ did want a //banner probably did not want it suppressed. / That certainly is the case with randomForest, speaking for myself here. The banner I put in contains the version number of the package and a reminder to see what's been changed/fixed. I have not seen a compelling reason why suppressing such information is necessary (as opposed to "desirable"). I believe reporting version number upon startup is a Good Thing, as all too often people ask questions or report problems about packages without mentioning the version of the packages they used. I see this as a way of reminding the users.
I completely agree as to package version information
and pointers to NEWS / more information on the package.
My wish is motivated by something else --- call it
/"scalable start-up message"/
In a discussion with Martin Maechler, he proposed to alert/warn
the user in some prominent place about the interpretation of
arithmetics operating on distributions in our package "distr".
I have been thinking about this "prominent place" for some time
and found that an .onAttach() message might be the right place.
A user, however, who is already used to this interpretation, will soon
find this (extended) start-up message annoying and will want to
suppress it.
I could do this with a "hand-made" option but thought this might
be of more general interest.
Thank you for your attention,
Peter