[Rd] obsolescence

[Barry Rowlingson]

Since many posts to R-devel/help invoke this response:

Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> Please, use the current version of R and not an obselete one 

is there an argument for including a version check on R startup?  These 
things seem somewhat in vogue these days (what with everything on the 
internet being in a permanent 'beta' state), and software will often 
start up with 'A new version of Foobar is available' dialog.

  Perhaps R.version could return a component that says 'current', 
'buggy', or 'obsolete' as appropriate?

  It would need a file on a well-known URL to give the version 
information, an internet connection, and a bit of R code.  And obviously 
a server capable of handling the load...

  I'd vote to have the version check off by default, perhaps settable at 
compile-time, and configurable by the usual R startup mechanism.  The 
check wouldn't run if R is running with the BATCH command.  Personally, 
I'd switch it off completely, because these things annoy me.

  Maybe this is already in R, but I'm using an obsolete version at the 
moment (2.4.0).

Barry