[Rd] Is ALTREP "non-API"?

[Hadley Wickham]

>
>
>
> > > ALTREP is part of the official R api, as illustrated by the presence of
> > > src/include/R_ext/Altrep.h. Everything declared in the header files in
> that
> > > directory is official API AFAIK (and I believe that is more definitive
> than
> > > the manuals).
> > >
> >
> > That is not true at all - the presence of header does not constitute
> declaration of something as the R API. There are cases where internal
> functions are in the headers for historical or other reasons since the
> headers are used both for the internal implementation and packages. That's
> why this is in R-exts under "The R API: entry points for C code":
> >
> > If I understand your point correctly, does this mean that
> Rf_allocVector() is not part of the "official" R API? It does not appear to
> be documented in the "The R API: entry points for C code" section.
> >
>
> It does, obviously:
> https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.html#Allocating-storage-1


I'm just trying to understand the precise definition of the official API
here. So it's any function mentioned in R-exts, regardless of which section
it appears in?

Does this sentence imply that all functions starting with alloc* are part
of the official API?

> For many purposes it is sufficient to allocate R objects and manipulate
those. There are quite a
> few allocXxx functions defined in Rinternals.h—you may want to explore
them.

Generally, things in a file with "internal" in its name are internal.

Hadley

-- 
http://hadley.nz

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