[R] Diagnostic and helper functions for defective & hard-to-import files

[andrewH]

Hi Folks!
I have been writing a small set of utilities for dealing with files that are
hard to open correctly for one reason or another, especially because they
are too big for memory, non-rectangular, or contain odd characters or
unexpected codings, or all of these things together. Today it suddenly hit
me that this has probably been done, done better, and upgraded to package
form a dozen times already. There were pointers to a couple functions useful
in this regard in the Core Import/Export document.  But my effort to come up
with search terms that were productive of such packages was unsuccessful. 

I would be grateful if someone would point me toward such a package or
packages if they exist.

Warmest regards, andrewH