[R-pkg-devel] NOTE in r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-clang

[Brian G. Peterson]

On Fri, 2020-08-07 at 15:46 +0100, Gábor Csárdi wrote:
> If you want to link to a package in the documentation, you'll have to
> add it to Suggests.

This doesn't make any sense.  If you don't use the code from that
package anywhere, then a cross-reference to that package should not
require the extra dependency in Suggests.  

Cross references should be able to point to other functionality that
might be useful to the user, or might add extra depth of understanding
to a concept.  If the user doesn't have the package installed, no
worries, it is just a cross reference.

The requirement you are suggesting is also not discussed in Writing R
Extensions:

https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-patched/R-exts.html#Cross_002dreferences

In fact, it explicitly allows links to potentially uninstalled
packages.

Regards,

Brian