Including R code from another package...

If the package is on CRAN then the license should be a free one that would
let you copy whatever you want from it.

However it would be most polite to
contact the original author first.  I know that I have given permission for
a couple of my functions to be included in other packages where it would
clearly be overkill for the other package to depend on my package for just
the one function.  Since the authors of those packages asked me first I
make sure to send them any updates that I make to those functions so that
they can keep the copy in their package current with mine if they want to.

If you do not receive a reply from the author of the original function then
check the license, you can probably still include the function and
documentation in your package, just be sure to give proper credit and make
sure that your license is compatible.

On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 1:27 PM, Jonathan Greenberg <jgrn at illinois.edu>wrote:

R-developers:

I had a quick question for the group -- let's say a package I am
developing depends on a single, small function from a large
CRAN-listed package.  I can, of course, set a dependency within my own
package, but are there means by which I can include the R script + man
file DIRECTLY in my package (of course attributing the code to the
original programmer).  Does it require me asking the package manager
directly?  If not, what is the proper way to cite that a given script
was coded by someone else?  Cheers!

--j

--
Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
Assistant Professor
Global Environmental Analysis and Remote Sensing (GEARS) Laboratory
Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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