[Rd] Warning: missing text for item ... in \describe?

[Dr. Peter Ruckdeschel]

Hi Brian and Berwin,

thanks for finding the reason for all this trouble.
> 1) Having run tests on CRAN and BioC overnight, the results are
> quite depressing.  There are 112 packages on CRAN and a score
> on BioC with incorrectly rendered help pages because of spaces
> after \item{foo}. 
> In two cases (fields and MANOR) the text skipped is invalid, so it
> is not simply a case of ignoring the whitespace.
As you already have found out the "depressing" number of 112, could you
please alert the maintainers of these packages --- I would not be surprised
if I were among them ...
> 2) On the original subject line, I found a different reason.  E.g. I
> get the
> message on distrMod, which has (sqrt-methods.Rd, also
> solve-methods.Rd)
>
> \section{Methods}{\describe{
> \item{sqrt}{\code{signature(x = "PosSemDefSymmMatrix")}: produces a
> symmetric, p.s.d. matrix \eqn{y} such that  \eqn{x = y^2}}
> }}

You indicate that the problem could easily be solved by inserting
punctuation.

I would have no problems with this as a binding restriction, and
probably the same
goes for other maintainers.
So could you perhaps add a corresponding recommendation
to the "Writing R extensions" manual?

I have just uploaded a quick patch for the sqrt() and solve() ".Rd"
files of distrMod
inserting a "." at the closing brace of \eqn{} in both cases.

Should be on CRAN  soon...

Best,
Peter

-- 
Dr. Peter Ruckdeschel, Abteilung Finanzmathematik, F3.17
Fraunhofer ITWM, Fraunhofer Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern
Telefon:  +49 631/31600-4699
Fax    :  +49 631/31600-5699
E-Mail :  peter.ruckdeschel at itwm.fraunhofer.de