[R] Growth of CRAN?

[Spencer Graves]

Hi, Hadley:


On 4/14/2014 5:53 AM, Hadley Wickham wrote:
> For finer level detail, have a look at
> https://github.com/hadley/cran-packages. It contains the description
> file of every package ever uploaded to CRAN (the cache is a few months
> out of date, but you can easily re-run)


       Can that be mined to get the date of first commit to CRAN? Dates 
in description files are sometimes updated.  Example:  The "Date" in the 
Description file for the version of "fda" now on CRAN is 2013-05, but 
fda was on CRAN at least in 2006 and probably earlier.  You are listed 
as second author on that package based on work you did in by 2006.


       Spencer

> Hadley
>
> On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Spencer Graves
> <spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com> wrote:
>>        What data exist on the growth of CRAN?
>>
>>
>>        John Fox published some data on it in 2009 ("Aspects of the Social
>> Organization and Trajectory of the R Project", R Journal,
>> http://journal.r-project.org/archive/2009-2/RJournal_2009-2_Fox.pdf). Below
>> please find those numbers plus some additions of mine since. If anyone else
>> has other numbers (or more accurate numbers), I'd like to know.
>>
>>
>>        I plan to add a "CRANpackages" data set to the "Ecdat" package with a
>> title, "Growth of CRAN" unless someone else provides better numbers or
>> title.  [If it already exists on CRAN, I'd like to know. I doubt if it does,
>> because I couldn't find it with findFn{sos} for 'number of CRAN packages'
>> and 'growth of CRAN'.]
>>
>>
>>        Thanks,
>>        Spencer
>>
>>
>> date    packages
>> 2001-06-21    110
>> 2001-12-17    129
>> 2002-06-12    162
>> 2003-05-27    219
>> 2003-11-16    273
>> 2004-06-05    357
>> 2004-10-12    406
>> 2005-06-18    548
>> 2005-12-16    647
>> 2006-05-31    739
>> 2006-12-12    911
>> 2007-04-12    1000
>> 2007-11-16    1300
>> 2008-03-18    1427
>> 2008-10-18    1614
>> 2009-09-17    1952
>> 2012-06-12    3786
>> 2012-11-01    4082
>> 2012-12-14    4210
>> 2013-10-28    4960
>> 2013-11-08    5000
>> 2014-04-13    5428
>>
>>
>> * NOTE:  These numbers may differ slightly from other sources. Numbers
>> through 2009 were read from a plot in Fox's paper.  Numbers since were read
>> at an arbitrary time during the day, Pacific time, from a mirror in the
>> United States and could differ from those recorded by someone else using a
>> different mirror having the same date in local time  someplace else.
>>
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>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
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