[Rd] declaring package dependencies

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 13-09-14 9:16 AM, Brian G. Peterson wrote:
> On 09/14/2013 08:04 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>   >> On 13-09-13 12:00 PM, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
>>> But the focus here should not be on my hobby package. The focus
>>> needs to be on how four CRAN maintainers (who do a boatload of
>>> amazing work which is _truly_ appreciated in its thoroughness and
>>> reach) could make the life of authors of 4800+ packages easier by
>>> communicating and planning a tad more.
>>
>> Let me paraphrase that:  "The CRAN maintainers do a lot of work, and it
>> helps me a lot, but if they only did a little bit more work it would
>> help me even more."
>>
>> I suspect they'd be more receptive to suggestions that had them doing
>> less work, not more.
>
> I think you're both right.
>
> If the CRAN team would communicate more with this list about pending
> changes, package authors could make those changes before submitting.
> Those submissions that won't pass unannounced R-devel checks waste
> everybody's time, including the time of the CRAN team.

Paraphrasing again:  "If the CRAN team would do this, then they would 
waste less of everyone's time."

I think you should assume that the CRAN team doesn't choose to waste 
it's own time, so in their judgment, doing more on this list would waste 
more of its time.


>
> Not to mention, most open source projects seem to have concluded that
> more eyes on pending or proposed changes make everyone's life better in
> the long term.

There are no secrets in R.  You are perfectly free to run your package 
against exactly the same version the CRAN team is using.  If you choose 
not to do so, you're the one wasting everyone's time.

Duncan Murdoch