[R-pkg-devel] Problems with too much testing

[Rainer Krug]

> On 16 Apr 2021, at 14:06, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 16/04/2021 7:54 a.m., Hugh Parsonage wrote:
>> My 2c is that if a package has actually tested something like that
>> (say, the ordering of a list's elements), then it is 100% likely that
>> a script out there depends on that behaviour too. 
> 
> I suspect this test is not intentional, and it really wouldn't make sense for a package to depend on the order of named list components.

You could randomise the order….


> 
> In other words, the
>> change is not inconsequential.  R users are in debt to package
>> developers but I think it behoves us to take special care not to
>> underestimate the work involved when a package's behaviour changes.
> 
> There's a difference between internal implementation changes and external behaviour changes.  For example, there are clear warnings not to use un-exported functions (via :::), and a package that did that would not be accepted on CRAN.
> 
> What I'm asking for are suggestions for ways to hide internal layouts of objects from users.  That seems a lot harder.
> 
> Duncan Murdoch
> 
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