[R] packaging standards for rda files?

[Jason Turner]

Paul Johnson wrote:
...
> We used the fine foreign library to bring in an SPSS dataset that was 
> about 9 megabytes and I can squeeze it into a much smaller R object 
> using compression with
> 
> save(ndat, file="NatAnnES2000.rda", compress=T).
...
> how do people 
> put in the meta information that appears in the right side of the data() 
> output, as in:
> 
> Data sets in package '.':
> 
> NatAnnES2000    
> Data sets in package 'base':
> 
> Formaldehyde            Determination of Formaldehyde
> HairEyeColor            Hair and Eye Color of Statistics Students
> ...

The meta information is from the documentation, such as 
help(Formaldehyde).  prompt(NatAnnES2000) will create a template .Rd 
file in R's working directory for the data frame (their doc standards 
are slightly different to functions).  Fill in the blanks, and copy to 
the man/ subdirectory of your package.

> Are there other attributes that I should specify if I want to package an 
> .rda file for other users?

Just documenting it works for me.  Rcmd CHECK or R CMD CHECK will 
grumble if there's something you've forgotten to document.

> An rda file created in this way will translate across platforms, won't it?

Not sure about the compression; otherwise, yes.

Cheers

Jason
-- 
Indigo Industrial Controls Ltd.
http://www.indigoindustrial.co.nz
64-21-343-545
jasont at indigoindustrial.co.nz