[Rd] .First.lib and namespaces

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004, Deepayan Sarkar wrote:

> 
> The lattice package has a namespace, so it has a .onLoad function. I 
> also keep around a .First.lib, for use during development, when I 
> temporarily delete the NAMESPACE file.
> 
> When using a namespace, I used to comment out the .First.lib function.  
> However, that seems unnecessary since it's not executed anyway. Is this 
> intended (and dependable) behaviour? 

Yes.

> (If so, this should probably be mentioned in ?library, which currently 
> says
> 
>      '.First.lib' is called when a package is loaded; '.Last.lib' is
>      called when a package is detached.
> 
> without any mention of namespaces).

[.Last.lib is called when a package with a namespace is detached.]

Indeed, but see `Writing R Extensions', under `Load hooks', and

Various @R{} functions in a package can be used to initialize and clean
up.  For packages without a name space, these are @code{.First.lib} and
@code{.Last.lib}.  (For packages with a name space, @xref{Load hooks}.)


I'll update library.Rd to mention this and user hooks.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
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