[Rd] Wish list

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

> For CRAN to list changes to other packages would require cooperation
> from all the package developers. If the maintainer of acepack isn't
> sufficiently together to reply to your messages, he probably won't be
> keeping up with other aspects of change tracking.  Even trying to
> extract a NEWS or Changelog file might not work -- eg for survival the
> Changelog file is Terry Therneau's change log, not my log for changes to
> the R port.

Debian uses a convention that (somewhat simplified)

if the package is a standard upstream package then
   its changelog or news or changes or ... file is installaed as ChangeLog
   and the Debian maintainer changes go into ChangeLog.Debian
else if the package is a 'native' Debian package
   the changelog is installed as ChangeLog
fi

R CMD check could warn if there is not ChangeLog or Changes file, and
thereby suggest that authors provide them.

R CMD install could install them in a standard place as we control the
installation mechanism.

Would that help?  In order to parse a Changelog, we'd need a common format.
We could start with the standard emacs mode (with vi or, mercy on them,
notepad users can emulate free-hand).  Or is all this too restrictive?

The good thing is that enough rigour was put into CRAN practices early so
ensure a very decent level of conformity across packages. We could try to
extend this.

Hth, Dirk

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