[R] FREDR and R 3.6

[H]

On 10/29/2020 07:20 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:
>> On Oct 29, 2020, at 6:35 PM, H <agents using meddatainc.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 10/29/2020 01:49 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:
>>>> On Oct 29, 2020, at 1:29 PM, H <agents using meddatainc.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I tried to install the fredr package yesterday to access the data series hosted by the St. Louis Fed but my installation of R, version 3.6, tells me it is not available from a cran repository.
>>>>
>>>> I could not find any information on this on the fredr information package and was wondering if anyone here might know?
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> When that happens, check the CRAN page for the package:
>>>
>>>  https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/fredr/index.html
>>>
>>> where you will see that the package has been archived as a result of a lack of response by the maintainer to problems with the package.
>>>
>>> The archive link on the above page allows you to download the last version of the source package tarball, however, the check results for the package show numerous issues.
>>>
>>> You may want to contact the package maintainer (sboysel using gmail.com) to see what the current status of the package is, and if they plan to resolve the issues. If not, consider alternative approaches.
>>>
>>> You should also consider updating your R installation, as 3.6.0 is well over a year old at this point. 4.0.3 is the current stable release.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Marc Schwartz
>> Thank you. That is very surprising! I would have thought there would be sufficient number of users and interest enough for this important package that it would be maintained!
>>
>> As for R 3.6, it is the latest version in the repository for my operating system, CentOS/RHEL...
>
> Hi,
>
> On your first point, the number of users is largely irrelevant, if the package maintainer no longer has the interest or the time to continue to support it. It is possible, in that scenario, that an interested user, who has the time and interest, might engage in a process to take over such maintenance.
>
> Keep in mind that package maintainers are, in the vast majority of cases, volunteers. Their motivations for creating and maintaining CRAN packages will vary.
>
> I did a quick check and found that there are discussions in the Issues section of the package's Github repo:
>
>   https://github.com/sboysel/fredr
>
> that suggest that such discussions are indeed taking place. So perhaps the situation with CRAN will be resolved in time. Again, you should contact the maintainer to get a better sense of their plans and possible timeline.
>
> With respect to CentOS/RHEL, you might post to r-sig-fedora, which focuses on R issues on RH derived Linux distros, to see if there are any plans to update R for your version of the distribution:
>
>   https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-fedora
>
> The R RPM maintainers, like Tom Callaway, follow that list.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marc
>
Thank you, I will check out the GitHub pages tomorrow. As for R, amazingly enough, shortly after your post I received another post that R 4.0 was available for CentOS 8... I run CentOS 7 though but hopefully R 4.0 will be available there shortly as well. Turns out I was already a member of that mailing list and will post a question.