[R] Re: Packages and Libraries

[Spencer Graves]

      The reasons to 'introduce "package()" and deprecate "library()"' 
may be OBVIOUS to you, but they completely escape me.  Could you please 
clarify why that's obvious?  I've seen many admonitions on this list 
that the term is "package" NOT "library", but I don't recall ever seeing 
any explanation of why the term "package" is more appropriate than 
"library". 

      I suspect there may be some rationale that "package" seems more 
appropriately descriptive.  However, is it so much more precise that it 
justifies creating a distinction between S-Plus and R? 

      Or is it your intention to make it harder for people who have to 
use S-Plus to also use R?  Or do you want to make it more difficult for 
people to write code that will work in both S-Plus and R or for people 
to migrate from S-Plus to R or vice versa?  Unless that is your intent, 
I'd like to know why you don't make the complementary change, namely 
globally replace "package" with "library" everywhere in the 
documentation -- or at least deprecate its future use. 

      R is a marvelous creation, a solid contribution to the advancement 
of science and through that human knowledge and eventually even the 
ability of people everywhere to live more comfortably, longer. 

      spencer graves

p.s.  I'm told that the French Royal Academy delayed the introduction in 
France of a product marketed by a US company.  The product couldn't be 
sold in France without a French language manual.  The translation could 
not be published until the French Royal Academy officially provided or 
blessed new French words for new technical terms.  Similarly, Le Monde 
Diplomatique recently carried an article proposing "A polyglot world to 
escape the English dictatorship."  (January 2005, pp. 22-23:  "Un monde 
polyglotte pour echapper a la dictature de l'anglais';  someone may wish 
to correct my translation.)  We could require all r-help subscribers to 
learn enough French, German, Spanish AND Portuguese to be able to read 
posts in those languages, but that might be counterproductive.   

Peter Dalgaard wrote:

>"A.J. Rossini" <blindglobe at gmail.com> writes:
>
>  
>
>>For OBVIOUS reasons, is there any chance that we could introduce
>>"package()" and deprecate "library()"?
>>    
>>
>
>usepackage() or usePackage() has been suggested, but someone got
>ambitious and wanted it to be different from library(), and it sort of
>didn't get any further. We still have some time before feature freeze
>for 2.1.0 though.
>
>  
>
>>(well, I'll also ask if we could deprecate "=" for assignment, but
>>that's hopeless).
>>    
>>
>
>You're not *forced* to use it...
>
>  
>