[Rd] legitimate use of :::

[Benjamin Hofner]

Am 26.08.2013 17:38, schrieb Hadley Wickham:
>> I would say that you should certainly state it in the man page, and have
>> something in the DESCRIPTION file as well.  It might be something like
>>
>> Author:  Duncan Murdoch, with code from others (see the man pages)
>>
>> However, I just looked at rgl (a package I maintain), and I see we didn't do
>> that.  We have a separate README file listing other credits.
>
> The feedback that I've been getting from CRAN maintainers lately is
> that you have to include all source code contributors in the authors
> field.
>
> Hadley

I read these mails as well when I was looking for a good way to document 
code contributions. However, it seems to be nonsense to me, especially 
if you really just duplicate a simple function such as the n.knots. Next 
time I just "rewrite" the function (which doesn't seem to be good 
practice as well).

Well, on the other hand it reads nice to have R Core as contributing 
authors in my package(s)...

Perhaps a new field in DESCRIPTION and a standardized way how to name 
authors of functions one has duplicated would save a lot of the hassle? 
I could imagine a field that requires the structure:

Contributions:
   function (pkg): Authors

e.g.

   n.knots (stats): R Core

(perhaps with an added LICENSE "field")

Benjamin
-- 
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Dr. rer. nat. Benjamin Hofner

Institut für Medizininformatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie
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