[Rd] path.package() versus system.file() for locating installed package folders

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On 12/02/2014 16:28, Marc Schwartz wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> For several years, I have used path.package() to get the path to Perl scripts contained within WriteXLS.
>
> I have a request to change this to using system.file(), which would provide the ability to utilize WriteXLS functionality, without having to load the package, which path.package() requires.
>
> Based upon my review of the code, I don't see any obvious down sides to making the change, but wanted to solicit comments from anyone that might challenge the change in the code.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marc Schwartz

I don't think path.package() ever was the right tool: find.package() 
looks a closer match, and system.file() is a wrapper for it (which was 
all that was made available for many years: up to R 2.13.0 AFAIR).

-- 
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)
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