[R-pkg-devel] package CatDataAnalysis

[Duncan Murdoch]

It's easier to install a package from CRAN than from Github, but not all 
that much easier.  If it's too much trouble to satisfy CRAN, then don't 
bother.  Just post instructions on how to do a Github install of it and 
move on to other things.  (I'd post those instructions in a README.md 
file on the Github site, so when people follow your link they'll find 
the description.)

Duncan Murdoch

On 28/06/2020 12:07 p.m., Charles Geyer 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?
>