[Rd] When to use LazyLoad, LazyData and ZipData?

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, Bjørn-Helge Mevik wrote:

> Dear developeRs,
>
> I've searched the documentation, FAQ, and mailing lists, but haven't
> found the answer(*) to the following:
>
> When should one specify LazyLoad, LazyData, and ZipData?

Preferably always, and I would suggest all should be 'yes' if your package 
will work with them.

> And what is the default if they are left unspecified?

It varies by R version and platform.  But as a guide

LazyLoad: yes for all but small packages (those with less than
   25Kb of R code)
LazyData: no
ZipData: yes on Windows if there is more than 100Kb of data and no
   duplicate namestems (e.g. foo.R and foo.tab).

> (*)Except that
> 1) If the package you are writing uses the methods package, specify
> LazyLoad: yes, and
> 2) The optional ZipData field controls whether the automatic Windows
> build will zip up the data directory or no: set this to no if your
> package will not work with a zipped data directory.


-- 
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