Full_Name: Byron Ellis Version: 2.4.1 OS: N/A Submission from: (NULL) (75.55.126.10) R_tryEval is implied to be in the public API by 'Embedding R in Other Applications,' but not documented in 'Writing R Extensions.' This would seem to be an oversight given the dependence of many applications including but not limited to the official OS X GUI on this function.
R_tryEval not properly documented in 'Writing R Extensions' (PR#9524)
3 messages · Byron Ellis, Brian Ripley
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007, ellis at stat.harvard.edu wrote:
Full_Name: Byron Ellis Version: 2.4.1 OS: N/A Submission from: (NULL) (75.55.126.10) R_tryEval is implied to be in the public API by 'Embedding R in Other Applications,' but not documented in 'Writing R Extensions.' This would seem to be an oversight given the dependence of many applications including but not limited to the official OS X GUI on this function.
It is not an oversight. R_tryEval is as far as the R sources are concerned just part of the test examples for embedding. I think you may be referring to http://developer.r-project.org/embedded.html That does not list R_tryEval in 'Routines for the Embedded R', so makes no such implication (and in any case dates from 2000, before there was a documented interface).
Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
Considering the lack of embedding documentation until relatively recently, the fact that the function appeared in Rinternals and the Embedding test cases makes it more part of the API that its appearance in any documentation since anyone embedding would have to base their work on those test cases. In any case, my second claim---that the function is used heavily by projects under the official R umbrella as well as outside of it---still stands and should probably serve as sufficient cause to nominate R_tryEval for the public API.
On 2/22/07, Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007, ellis at stat.harvard.edu wrote:
Full_Name: Byron Ellis Version: 2.4.1 OS: N/A Submission from: (NULL) (75.55.126.10) R_tryEval is implied to be in the public API by 'Embedding R in Other Applications,' but not documented in 'Writing R Extensions.' This would seem to be an oversight given the dependence of many applications including but not limited to the official OS X GUI on this function.
It is not an oversight. R_tryEval is as far as the R sources are concerned just part of the test examples for embedding. I think you may be referring to http://developer.r-project.org/embedded.html That does not list R_tryEval in 'Routines for the Embedded R', so makes no such implication (and in any case dates from 2000, before there was a documented interface). -- Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
Byron Ellis (byron.ellis at gmail.com) "Oook" -- The Librarian