[R-pkg-devel] How and where do I document sysdata.rda

One relatively simple mechanism would be to export a function that
simply returns the internal lookup data, and to then document that
function.
Dear Charles

I agree and in fact that was in the back of my mind when I started this.
I felt I should document it even though the chances of anyone wanting to
access it still less edit it were almost indistinguishable from zero. I
am reluctant to use a suggestion like yours as then I will have
documentation created in diferent ways and that raises the possibility
that they may interact

I have had a number of useful hints in the answers to my original
question and I think I see a way forward. I will report back when I have
digested them.

Michael

On 20/03/2025 23:50, Charles Plessy wrote:
Le Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 12:56:49PM -0400, Kevin R. Coombes a ?crit :
If it is *only *in sysdata.Rda, then it is accessible to your package
code but is not available to users. (They can't, for example, use the
"data" function to load it themselves.) So, there is no reason to
document it.
Hello Kevin and Michael,

Users who care about software provenance, security and software freedom would
love to see it documented, because binary objects are hard to audit when there
is no description of what they are expected to contain.

Redistributors who give guarantees to their users about software freedom, like
Debian, also want to see that these objects are easy to modify in case of need
(that is: the developer does not keep some secret receipes about how the object
is made to keep an advantage against forks and other forms of competition), and
to be able to check by themselves that they were not built from data that is
not placed under too restrictive terms.

When I write R packages and when I reeistribute CRAN/Bioconductor pakcages in
Debian, I find that the way documented in the R Packages book (./data-raw/,
usethis::use_data(), etc.) fits my needs very well.

Have a nice day,

Charles

--
Charles Plessy                         Nagahama, Yomitan, Okinawa, Japan
Debian Med packaging team         http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med
Tooting from home                  https://framapiaf.org/@charles_plessy
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Michael Dewey

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[R-pkg-devel] How and where do I document sysdata.rda

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