[R] orphaned packages

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004, Neil Eastep wrote:

> Are there many packages that are orphaned, and have a better "half" much 
> like bootstrap?

Not many are orphaned -- currently precisely two although one previously
orphaned has acquired a new maintainer recently.   I suspect a few more 
have non-responsive maintainers.

> Is there a listing, or directory of "recommended" packages (other than the 
> packages downloaded with the initial R install)?

It is precisely the set that come with the R distribution.

The CRAN packages page lists both the priority (possibly "recommended") 
and maintainer (possibly ORPHANED).  The daily check page

http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/checkSummary.html

lists those as well as the result of the latest checks (although today's 
list seems missing results for the last few packages).

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Neil Eastep.
> An "R" newbie
> 
> -----------
> Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> writes:
> >>Package bootstrap is orphaned, that is no longer maintained.
> >>Package boot is much more comprehensive, and a recommended
> package.
> >>That suggests to me that you always use boot: I do.

-- 
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)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595