[R] what constitutes a 'complete sentence'?

[mxkuhn]

I encountered this a few months ago and, in my case, the sentence had a noun and verb but lacked a period at the end of the sentence. I tested that 'blah blah blah.' would have passed in that version of R-devel. 

Whenever I find a new rule or test with R CMD check, I tell myself that it must be there because of some previous issue, i.e. they probably had a good reason. I can't imagine what damage an incomplete sentence caused beyond a bruised aura. 

> On Jul 4, 2015, at 1:41 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 04/07/2015 12:26 AM, Rolf Turner wrote:
>>> On 04/07/15 06:27, Yihui Xie wrote:
>>> Sigh, how natural it is to say "This package ...", but you probably
>>> don't know a package can be easily rejected by CRAN simply because of
>>> this phrase "This package" (it has been clearly stated in the R-exts
>>> manual).
>> 
>> Urrrkkkk!  I *did* "know" that, but had forgotten.  Apologies for my 
>> wrong-headed suggestion.  Thanks for pointing out my error.
>> 
>>> I don't think the grammar is the problem here. When in doubt, I always
>>> check what MASS does:
>>> http://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/MASS/index.html Turns out its
>>> description is not a complete sentence, either.
>>> 
>>> Sounds like R has become a language for statistical computing and
>>> graphics, plus English grammar since 3.0.x.
>> 
>> The CRAN guidelines should be rewritten so that they say what they 
>> *mean*.  If a complete sentence is not actually required --- and it 
>> seems abundantly clear that it is not --- then guidelines should not say 
>> so.  Rather they should say, clearly and comprehensibly, what actually 
>> *is* required.
> 
> There's often a difference between a requirement and the test for it.
> If you meet the requirement, you should pass the test, but you can often
> pass the test without meeting the requirement, and then you may find
> that the test is improved in a later version.  (Requirements may also be
> changed, of course.)
> 
> Duncan Murdoch
> 
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