[R-pkg-devel] package CatDataAnalysis

[Charles Geyer]

The link to Alan's web site is on every help page (in the source section).
That's where the source is supposed to be.

I have no problem with adding the source to the DESCRIPTION file, but that
is not what CRAN asked me to do.

On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 12:16 PM Max Turgeon <Max.Turgeon using umanitoba.ca>
wrote:

> For what it's worth, I'd be inclined to interpreting CRAN's response
> *very* literally, i.e. your Description field is not descriptive enough.
> According to what I can see in the Github repo, you only have
>
>
> "Datasets used in the book Categorical Data Analysis by Agresti but not
> printed in the book."
>
>
> Which is not much more than what the Title field says. One glaring
> omission (IMO) from the Description field is any mention of Agresti's
> website, where the data comes from.
>
>
> In contrast, looking at the "woolridge" package, I can see from the
> Description field that it contains 111 datasets (well, that's in the Title
> field), it's about econometrics, and the purpose of the package is to make
> it easier for students to work with these datasets.
>
>
> Max Turgeon
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Statistics
> Department of Computer Science
> University of Manitoba
> maxturgeon.ca
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* R-package-devel <r-package-devel-bounces using r-project.org> on behalf
> of Charles Geyer <charlie using stat.umn.edu>
> *Sent:* June 28, 2020 11:38 AM
> *To:* Neal Fultz
> *Cc:* R Package Development
> *Subject:* Re: [R-pkg-devel] package CatDataAnalysis
>
> ********************************************************
> Caution: This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba.
> ********************************************************
>
> Actually the wooldridge package does not seem to satisfy any of the
> specific requests CRAN asked me for.  I have checked several other CRAN
> packages for textbooks and they don't seem to satisfy those requirements
> either.  So this seems to be a new idea from CRAN.
>
> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 11:32 AM Neal Fultz <nfultz using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm not sure exactly what cran is asking for, but the wooldridge
> > package is a good example of a text book data set package, so maybe
> > you can use the same format they did.
> >
> > https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/wooldridge/index.html
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Neal
> >
> > On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 9:08 AM Charles Geyer <charlie using stat.umn.edu>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I have a package that has the datasets for Categorical Data Analysis by
> > > Agresti that do not appear in the book.  The whole package is a github
> > repo
> > > https://github.com/cjgeyer/CatDataAnalysis.  All of the data were
> > > translated mechanically using the R script foo.R included in the repo
> > (but
> > > not in the package) from Agresti's web site
> > > http://www.stat.ufl.edu/~aa/cda/data.html.
> > >
> > > This package seems to be a useful service to students and teachers.
> The
> > > data
> > > are much simpler to use with this package than trying to get the data
> > from
> > > Agresti's web page (foo.R has 277 lines of code).
> > >
> > > When I submitted the package to CRAN, I got the following response.
> > >
> > > > The Description field of the DESCRIPTION file is intended to be a
> (one
> > > > paragraph) description of what the package does and why it may be
> > > > useful. Please elaborate. Tell the users what the datasets are about
> > and
> > > > what they contain so they can use them even when they haven't read
> your
> > > > book.
> > >
> > > > Please fix and resubmit, and document what was changed in the
> > submission
> > > > comments.
> > >
> > > In an alternate universe without copyright law this seems a reasonable
> > > request.  In this universe it seems to be asking for trouble.  I know
> > about
> > > fair use, but I am not a lawyer and do not want to walk the borderline
> > > between fair use and copyright violation.
> > >
> > > The package as it is seems OK because it comes from the author's public
> > web
> > > site and these data were never in the book.
> > >
> > > Please note that I made Alan Agresti (with his acquiescence) the author
> > of
> > > the package because it is his book and his data, but I (or rather
> foo.R)
> > > did all the work.
> > >
> > > I replied to cran.r-project.org, but that was apparently sent to
> > /dev/null.
> > >
> > > This book is IMHO the authoritative textbook on the subject.  Amazon
> > sales
> > > rank agrees.  The book is used for many courses.  So this package would
> > be
> > > very helpful as is to many students and teachers.
> > >
> > > So what to do?  Is there any way to get this package on CRAN?
> > >
> > > --
> > > Charles Geyer
> > > Professor, School of Statistics
> > > Resident Fellow, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science
> > > University of Minnesota
> > > charlie using stat.umn.edu
> > >
> > >         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> > >
> > > ______________________________________________
> > > R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
> > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >
>
>
> --
> Charles Geyer
> Professor, School of Statistics
> Resident Fellow, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science
> University of Minnesota
> charlie using stat.umn.edu
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>
>

-- 
Charles Geyer
Professor, School of Statistics
Resident Fellow, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science
University of Minnesota
charlie using stat.umn.edu

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