[R-pkg-devel] Changes in function call with respect to the current published version

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Dear Jose,

Assuming that you can fix the bugs in the original function, one
approach would be to make myfun() generic, say myfun <- function(y, ...)
UseMethod("myfun"), with the (fixed) original myfun() as the default
method and a new function method, which would probably set up a call to

the default method. Then existing code wouldn't break and users would
have the option of using a formula.

I hope this helps,
 ?John
-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://www.john-fox.ca/
-- 

On 2024-12-17 4:00 p.m., Jose Barrera-G?mez wrote:

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Dear List,

I have a package that works in the context of regression models. The main
function has arguments (y, x, z, data, ...), where y is the response
variable, x is the explanatory variable and z can be other covariates.

Due to some bugs, I am interested in changing the call from (y, x, z, 
data,
...) to (formula, data, ...).

For instance, current usage is

myfun(y = birthweight, x = cotinine, z = age, data = mydata, ...)

and new usage would be

myfun(formula = birthweight ~ cotinine + age, data = mydata, ...)

This change would have no impact on the usage for the rest of the 
package.

My concern is that users updating the package won't be able to reproduce
old analyses. I.e. they would need to update the calls to myfun (but
nothing else related to the usage of other functions or methods).

I think the new usage would result in some advantages and bugs fixing and
only the disadvantage I mentioned just above.

I would appreciate advice on:

1) There could be other disadvantages for users of previous versions 
that I
don't see?

2) What would be the best location(s) in the documentation to explain in
detail this change?

Thanks in advance,

Jose Barrera
Statistician, Associate Lecturer

*IS**Global*
Barcelona Institute for Global Health - Campus MAR
Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) (Room Hypatia)

Doctor Aiguader, 88
08003 Barcelona, Spain
Tel. +34 93 2147383
jose.barrera at isglobal.org
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/josebarrera>
Personal website: sites.google.com/view/josebarrera
www.isglobal.org

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