[Bioc-devel] Contradicting descriptions of "Enhances"

[Dan Tenenbaum]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jonathan Rosenblatt" <john.ros.work at gmail.com>
> To: bioc-devel at r-project.org
> Sent: Sunday, August 3, 2014 10:39:57 PM
> Subject: [Bioc-devel] Contradicting descriptions of "Enhances"
> 
> At the time of writing:
> 
>  *Writing R Extensions:*
> "...the ‘Enhances’ field lists packages “enhanced” by the package at
> hand..."
> 


This is backwards, maybe just a grammar fail? IMO it should say "the 'Enhances' field lists packages which 'enhance' the package at hand, if they are present."

> *Bioconductor:*
> "Enhances: is for packages such as Rmpi or parallel that enhance the
> performance of the current package, but are not strictly needed for
> its
> functionality."
> 
> 
> Have these definitions been resolved?
> 

IMO R-exts should be corrected along the lines I suggest above (and R-devel is the appropriate place for such a suggestion); however, the text on the bioc site is also probably less than ideal (will confer with bioc core as to how to rewrite it). Rmpi and parallel are not _always_ "take it or leave it" packages. Other than the grammar blooper, R-exts goes on to give more detailed and correct information, the most important bit of which is that all invocations of packages in enhances should be wrapped in 

if (require(somePkg)).

Dan



> 
> 
> --
> --
> Jonathan Rosenblatt
> Postdoctoral Researcher
> Faculty of Mathematics and CS
> Weizmann Institute of Science
> www.john-ros.com
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