[R-pkg-devel] Question regarding listing base and recommended packages programmatically and efficiently

Dear Tony,

Much will depend on what information you need from the output of
installed.packages()?

Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Statisticus / Statistician

Vlaamse Overheid / Government of Flanders
INSTITUUT VOOR NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK / RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATURE AND
FOREST
Team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / Team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000 Brussel
www.inbo.be

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The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not
ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
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Op do 12 okt 2023 om 14:34 schreef Tony Wilkes <tony_a_wilkes at outlook.com>:

Dear all,

In my R package that I'm developing, I use `installed.packages(priority =
"base")` to programmatically get all core/base R packages (i.e. base,
stats, etc.). And similarly, I use installed.packages(priority =
"recommended")?` to programmatically get the recommended R packages (i.e.
mgcv, lattice, etc.).

However, CRAN has requested to not use `installed.packages()`, as it is
slow. I fully get and agree with that assesment. I used
installed.packages()?` anyway because I could not find a better, fool-proof
alternative.

Nonetheless, I was asked to change this code for optimalisation. So I
would like to ask: how do I programmatically get all base/core R packages
safely and efficiently, but without using `installed.packages()`? And the
same question for recommended R packages. I have of course Googled it, and
looked at R's documentation (though R's documentation is large, so it's
easy to miss something); no solution found. So if any of you has a smart
idea: I'm all ears.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Tony.

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