[Rd] Wishlist: 'quietly' argument for .onAttach() / .First.li b()

[Liaw, Andy]

From: Prof Brian Ripley
> 
> On Thu, 13 Apr 2006, Peter Ruckdeschel wrote:
> 
> > Hi R-devels,
> >
> > in "Writing R extensions" as well as in the help
> > to .onAttach(), you mention that one could
> > use this function to issue a start-up message/banner
> > for the package.
> >
> > My little wish for Easter:
> >
> > a 'quietly'-type argument for .onAttach() / .First.lib() which is 
> > passed through by functions
> > require() and library() respectively,
> > and by means of which one could optionally
> > suppress this start-up message/banner .
> >
> > Is this hard to do?
> 
> I believe so (and think we have been here before).  The 
> documented call 
> sequence is
> 
>       .onLoad(libname, pkgname)
>       .onAttach(libname, pkgname)
> 
> the same as .First.lib.  There is no way to add an argument 
> here, as many 
> existing packages do not support it.  Beyond that, how would 
> you pass the 
> argument in?  Namespaces and packages are often 
> loaded/attached implicitly 
> as a result of loading other packages.
> 
> I did think you could make use of an option to decide whether 
> to the print 
> the message or not, but I have always assumed that those who 
> did want a 
> banner probably did not want it suppressed.

That certainly is the case with randomForest, speaking for myself
here.  The banner I put in contains the version number of the 
package and a reminder to see what's been changed/fixed.  I have 
not seen a compelling reason why suppressing such information is 
necessary (as opposed to "desirable").  I believe reporting 
version number upon startup is a Good Thing, as all too often 
people ask questions or report problems about packages without
mentioning the version of the packages they used.  I see this as
a way of reminding the users.

Andy


 
> -- 
> 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)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
> 
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