[Bioc-devel] Adding NAMESPACE to packages

[Nishant Gopalakrishnan]

    Dear Bioconductor developers,

    We have noticed that several packages in the Bioconductor repository
do not
    have a NAMESPACE file.

    In the interest of reducing the number of objects on the search
path, we are
    requesting that all the Bioconductor developers add a NAMESPACE file
to their
    package at this time.
    
    Adding a namespace offers several advantages

    1) It lets other packages import functions but not put the package
on the
    search path.

    2) It helps ensure that your functions always work as intended since
you
    have control over which functions are used in your package, even if
    identically named ones are introduced in other packages.

    3) It simplifies the user interface so that only the important
functions are
    exposed while allowing the private functions to be available for
internal use.

    
    For general information regarding the process of adding a NAMESPACE
to your
    package, please refer to section 1.6 of the "Writing R Extensions"
manual at
    the CRAN website.

    http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.html#Package-name-spaces

    There is also a great RNEWS article (#54) by Luke Tierney regarding
    NAMESPACEs.
    
    http://cran.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/Rnews_2003-1.pdf

    You might also find some helpful hints in Roberts book.

    http://www.bioconductor.org/pub/RBioinf/

 
    If you have additional questions, please contact us by posting to the
    bioc-devel mailing list.  We will be glad to help.


    Thanks in advance for your time and effort,


    The Bioconductor core team