[Rd] S3 methods in default namespace

[Uwe Ligges]

On 27.08.2011 20:02, Hadley Wickham wrote:
>>> Are there any plans for figuring out potential S3 methods and declaring
>>> them
>>> with S3method() in the automatic default NAMESPACE?
>>
>> There are no safe ways to do that.
>
> So doesn't that break packages that use S3 but don't have a NAMESPACE?

Maybe, but since the methods are exported as functions they are also 
found for method dispatch and imported, if another package imports from 
the Namspace. The problem I see is what happens if method dispatch is 
done on a package that is not attached but just the Namespace is only 
loaded.

Anyway, we should really recommend that package authors write NAMESPACE 
files in case their packages are not trivial.
Note that there are many CRAN packages that fail under R-devel, some of 
them sue to NAMESPACE issues.

Best,
Uwe






>
> Hadley
>