[Bioc-devel] Specifying dependencies for your package

[Seth Falcon]

Hi Li,

I'm cc'ing bioc-devel because others might find this useful.  You
asked:

On 25 Oct 2005, lilong at isb-sib.ch wrote:
> After removing zzz.R, how/where is the functionality achieved to
> load various required libs?  The NAMESPACE part doesn't say anything
> about required libs, does it?  Since I'm preparing a new package,
> I'd like to make it as close to the current standard as possible
> before handing it to you.

All packages listed in the Depends field of a package's DESCRIPTION
file will be attached prior to the package being attached.

If your package has a NAMESPACE (and it should!) then you have a
choice between listing a package in Depends and listing it under
Imports in DESCRIPTION.  Packages listed under Imports will not be
automatically attached and must be imported in the NAMESPACE file.
This will cause those packages (or portions thereof if using
importFrom) to be loaded but not attached.

In most cases, you should not need to make any calls to require() or
library() from your R code (there are exceptions, especially when you
are providing optional functionality).

One more note on using NAMESPACE files: .First.lib is not called.  Use
.onLoad instead.  However, since you can specify imports and dyn libs
inside NAMESPACE, there is often no need for .onLoad.

Hope that helps.  Let me know if I can clarify anything further.

Best,

+ seth