[R] Packages 'effects' loads 'name' which conflicts with 'lme4' [corrected subject: Package 'effects' loads 'nlme' which conflicts with 'lme4']

[John Fox]

Dear Spencer,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Spencer Graves [mailto:spencer.graves at prodsyse.com]
> Sent: March-08-12 10:29 AM
> To: Michael Kubovy
> Cc: John Fox; r-help
> Subject: Re: [R] Packages 'effects' loads 'name' which conflicts with
> 'lme4' [corrected subject: Package 'effects' loads 'nlme' which
> conflicts with 'lme4']
> 
> Dear John, et al.:
> 
> 
>        What happens if lme4 is loaded before the effect package?

Then some functions in it will be masked by nlme, which is loaded along with
effects. 

Sandy Weisberg and I are discussing moving nlme from "Depends" to "Suggests"
in the effects package Description file to avoid this potential problem.
Although we'll have to check more carefully, I don't at this point see a
reason not to do that.

> 
> 
>        Is this an issue of a user wanting to use two different packages
> with potentially conflicting names?  What are the standard
> recommendations for handling issues like this?  Just to test my
> comprehension, I assume that the key is that users should routinely
> watch for warnings of name conflicts and follow the advice of sect.
> "1.6.1 Specifying imports and exports" of "Writing R Extensions" when
> that occurs?  (This is another reason for writing R packages and using
> namespaces, so users can record appropriately what they want in
> situations like this and not have to worry about name conflicts later?)

The name conflicts are in lme4 and nlme, which share an author. I think that
it's inevitable with 3000+ CRAN packages that there will be name conflicts,
even if packages only export objects meant for the user.

Best,
 John

> 
> 
>        Thanks,
>        Spencer
> 
> 
> On 3/8/2012 4:19 AM, Michael Kubovy wrote:
> > Dear John,
> >
> > Thanks for the quick response. It works perfectly.
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > On Mar 7, 2012, at 9:19 PM, John Fox wrote:
> >
> >> Dear Michael,
> >>
> >> effect() works with lmer(). Just load lme4 after the effect package.
> See the penultimate example in ?effect.
> >>
> >> I hope this helps,
> >> John
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------
> >> John Fox
> >> Sen. William McMaster Prof. of Social Statistics Department of
> >> Sociology McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
> >> http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
> >>
> >> On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 20:53:20 -0500
> >> Michael Kubovy<kubovy at virginia.edu>  wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> I would like to use the effect() function (actually a slightly
> modified version of it) on the output of the lmer() function in the
> lme4 package. But the effects package requires the nlme pacvkage, which
> is incompatible with lme4. Workaround?
> > ______________________________________________
> > Professor Michael Kubovy
> > University of Virginia
> > Department of Psychology
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> 
> 
> --
> Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
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