[R] modifying code in contributed libraries - changes from versions 1.* to 2.*

[Seth Falcon]

On 22 Nov 2005, ligges at statistik.uni-dortmund.de wrote:
> Due to lazy loading (see a corresponding R News article) code is
> stored in databases for some time now, if you are looking into
> binary packages.
>
> In order to modify/fix something, download the source version of a 
> package, change the code, and INSTALL the source package.

Actually, R source packages are also mangled.  While the source is
readable, it is not in the form used to develop the package.  Changes
one makes by editing code in the source package will be difficult to
communicate to the package maintainer.

IMHO, the best option is to get a copy of the package source directory
tarball that the maintainer uses for package development.  This way,
you can easily send patches to the maintainer.

I suspect this will become more important as more things are computed
up front at R CMD build time.

Said another way: R source packages are special R-specific beasts.
They are not tarballs of the sources used to build the package.

+ seth