[R-pkg-devel] Using ggplot2 within another package

Has there been any thought given to an alternative to globalVariables 
that would flag certain arguments to certain functions as being 
evaluated in a non-standard way.? E.g.,
 ? ? usesNSE(FUN="with.default", ARGUMENTS="expr")
 ? ? usesNSE(FUN="lm", ARGUMENTS=c("weights","subset","offset"))
 ? ? usesNSE(FUN="~") # missing ARGUMENTS means all args are NSE
This information would be stored in the environment that contains FUN.

-Bill

On Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 6:18 AM Martin Maechler 
<maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch <mailto:maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>> wrote:

     >>>>> Ben Bolker
     >>>>>? ? ?on Thu, 22 Apr 2021 17:27:49 -0400 writes:

     ? ? > For some reason that I don't remember, an R core member once
    told me
     ? ? > that they prefer x <- y <- NULL to
    utils::globalVariables(c("x","y")) -

    That could have been me.? Even though I think I still have some
    globalVariables() statements in some of my package sources, I've
    decided that it *harms* really, notably for relatively common
    variable names such
    as "x":? ?It declares them "global"
    { for the purpose of codetools::globalVariables() } everywhere,
    i.e. for all functions in the package namespace and that
    basically kills the reliability of? globalVariables() checking
    for the whole package.


     ? ? > although I have also encountered problems with that strategy
    in edge cases.

    well, when?

     ? ? > Here's an example from StackOverflow from today where for
    some reason
     ? ? > I don't understand, evaluation of function arguments
    interacts with
     ? ? > non-standard/lazy evaluation within a dplyr function such
    that 'foo'
     ? ? > works while 'x$foo' doesn't ... don't know if it's a similar
    case.

     ? ? >
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67218258/getting-error-error-in-usemethodfilter-no-applicable-method-for-filter/67220198#67220198
    <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67218258/getting-error-error-in-usemethodfilter-no-applicable-method-for-filter/67220198#67220198>


    { ceterum censeo ... to use NSE (non-standard-evaluation) for
     ? user convenience and to call this (together with really good
     ? ideas)? "tidy" has been one of the biggest euphemisms in the
    history of
     ? statistical computing ...? but yes, that's just my personal opinon? }

     ? ? > On 4/22/21 5:19 PM, Kevin R. Coombes wrote:
     ? ? >> Thanks.
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> Obviously, long. long ago, (in a galaxy not far enough
    away), Paul's
     ? ? >> suggestion of using "aes_string" was the correct one, since
    "aes" uses
     ? ? >> non-standard evaluation. (And to quote somebody from an R
    fortune
     ? ? >> cookie, "The problem with non-standard evaluation is that it is
     ? ? >> non-standard.") But teh documentation at the end oft he link
    provided by
     ? ? >> Robert explivityl tells you not to do that, since "aes_string is
     ? ? >> deprecated".? And reading more carefully into the manual
    page for
     ? ? >> aes_string, one does indeed find the statement that the
    function is
     ? ? >> "soft deprecated". I'm not sure what that means, other than
    someone on
     ? ? >> the development team doesn't like it.
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> Instead, the vignette says you should
     ? ? >> ?? importFrom("rlang", ".data")
     ? ? >> in your NAMESPACE, and write
     ? ? >> ?? ggplot(myData, aes(x = .data$myX, y = .data$myY))
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> And now my dinosaur question: That looks like using one
    non-standard
     ? ? >> hack to cover up the problems with another non-standard
    hack. Why the
     ? ? >> heck? is that any better for the developer than writing
     ? ? >> ?? ggplot(myData, aes(x = myData$myX, y = myData$myY))
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> or using Dirk Eddelbuettel's suggestion of calling
    utils::globalVariables ??
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> It's time to tell those kids to get off of my lawn.
     ? ? >> ? Kevin
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> On 4/22/2021 4:45 PM, Robert M. Flight wrote:
     ? ? >>> Kevin,
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> This vignette from ggplot2 itself gives the "officially
    recommended"
     ? ? >>> ways to avoid the warnings from R CMD check
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>>
    https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/articles/ggplot2-in-packages.html
    <https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/articles/ggplot2-in-packages.html>
     ? ? >>>
    <https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/articles/ggplot2-in-packages.html
    <https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/articles/ggplot2-in-packages.html>>
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Cheers,
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> -Robert
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 4:39 PM Paul SAVARY
     ? ? >>> <paul.savary at univ-fcomte.fr
    <mailto:paul.savary at univ-fcomte.fr>
    <mailto:paul.savary at univ-fcomte.fr
    <mailto:paul.savary at univ-fcomte.fr>>> wrote:
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Hi Kevin,
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> I was faced to the same problem and I used 'aes_string()'
    instead
     ? ? >>> of 'aes()'. You can then just write the name of the columns
     ? ? >>> containing the data to plot as character strings.
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Example:
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> myPlot <- function(myData, ...) {
     ? ? >>> ? ? # get ready
     ? ? >>> ? ? ggplot(myData, aes_string(x = "myX", y = "myY")) +
     ? ? >>> ? ? ? ?# add my decorations
     ? ? >>> ? ? ? ?theme_bw()
     ? ? >>> }
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> It is probably already the case for your function but you
    need to
     ? ? >>> include #' @import ggplot2 in your function preamble (if I
    am not
     ? ? >>> wrong).
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Kind regards
     ? ? >>> Paul
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> ----- Mail original -----
     ? ? >>> De: "Kevin R. Coombes" <kevin.r.coombes at gmail.com
    <mailto:kevin.r.coombes at gmail.com>
     ? ? >>> <mailto:kevin.r.coombes at gmail.com
    <mailto:kevin.r.coombes at gmail.com>>>
     ? ? >>> ?: "r-package-devel" <r-package-devel at r-project.org
    <mailto:r-package-devel at r-project.org>
     ? ? >>> <mailto:r-package-devel at r-project.org
    <mailto:r-package-devel at r-project.org>>>
     ? ? >>> Envoy?: Jeudi 22 Avril 2021 22:28:55
     ? ? >>> Objet: [R-pkg-devel] Using ggplot2 within another package
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Hi,
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> I'm trying to help clean up an R package for someone else to
     ? ? >>> submit to
     ? ? >>> CRAN. He has used ggplot2 to implement a plotting function
    for the
     ? ? >>> kinds
     ? ? >>> of things that his packages generates. His plotting routine
    basically
     ? ? >>> looks like (after changing names to protect the innocent):
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> myPlot <- fucntion(myData, ...) {
     ? ? >>> ??? # get ready
     ? ? >>> ??? ggplot(myData, aes(x = myX, y = myY)) +
     ? ? >>> ?????? # add my decorations
     ? ? >>> ?????? theme_bw()
     ? ? >>> }
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Of course, "R CMD check --as-cran" complains that there is
    no global
     ? ? >>> binding for "myX" or "myY" since they are columns defined
    in the
     ? ? >>> data.frame "myData".
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> What is the best way to work around this issue?
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Of course, dinosaurs like myself might be tempted to
    suggest just
     ? ? >>> using
     ? ? >>> plain old "plot", so I don't need to see those suggestions.
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Do I just ignore the usual ggplot conventions and write
    "myData$myX"
     ? ? >>> inside "aes"? in order to appease the CRAN checker? Or is
    there some
     ? ? >>> tidy-er way to solve this problem?
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> Thanks,
     ? ? >>> ?? Kevin
     ? ? >>>
     ? ? >>> ______________________________________________
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     ? ? >>
     ? ? >>
     ? ? >> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
     ? ? >>
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