[Rd] Wish list

[Gabor Grothendieck]

On 1/8/07, Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
> >>>>> "Duncan" == Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
> >>>>>     on Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:45:31 -0500 writes:
>
>    Duncan> On 1/1/2007 1:28 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>    >> 7. documentation standards for packages - NEWS/ChangeLog
>    >> (also should be accessible from CRAN page for package and
>    >> should be included in built version of package) -
>    >> package?mypackage
>
>    Duncan> Just to let you know: I uploaded a revision of rgl
>    Duncan> just a minute ago, and moved the ChangeLog file to a
>    Duncan> place where it will be included when installed, and
>    Duncan> available from the ?rgl or package?rgl help topic.
>
> That's a good idea, but I think  "R CMD build" should try to do
> this automatically,
> and indeed try both 'NEWS' and 'ChangeLog'.
>
> With something like the following as basic idea,
> ugly at the moment
> (I'm using 'sh' syntax; assuming working directory is "just
>  inside" the source package) :
>
>  if [ ! -f inst/ChangeLog ]
>  then
>   if [ -f ChangeLog ]
>   then
>      if [ ! -d inst ] ; then mkdir inst ; fi
>      mv ChangeLog inst
>
>      <<< tar cfz .... etc build the   <pkg>_<version>tar.gz >>>
>
>      mv inst/ChangeLog .
>   fi
>  fi
>
> {{ yes, a proper solution would not use  'mv' and 'mv back' }}
>
> For pkg authors on a Unix alike OS, a very simple
> solution would be to simply always have the real file in
>   inst/ChangeLog
> and have
>   ln -s inst/ChangeLog .
> such that niceities like "C-x 4 a" in Emacs for semi-automatic
> ChangeLog updating still work.
>
> -----
>
> BTW, I wonder if extending the list to also include files such
> as "TODO" or "README" wouldn't make sense too, but probably not:
> People really interested in a package's development look at the
> package *source*, not the installed package.

I think it would be nice to extend this to THANKS so that contributors
are recognized by the users of the package and not just the developers.