[R-pkg-devel] NOTE related to Miniconda installation

[Jeff Newmiller]

I can't really see why it should be "recommended" to handle installing system requirements inside an R package. There are many ways to satisfy such requirements that would not involve miniconda. If you were determined to provide such support, doing so in a normal function documented in a vignette seems more appropriate.

On September 17, 2021 11:55:07 AM PDT, "Walter, Vonn" <vwalter1 using pennstatehealth.psu.edu> wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>I am developing a package (called mypackage in the text below) that uses reticulate to call a Python script for computational efficiency.  At some point during the development of the package I read that it would be good to verify installation of Miniconda.  Thus mypackage includes an onLoad.R file that asks users to either confirm that Miniconda is installed or to proceed with installation on Miniconda.  When I run devtools::check() I get a NOTE related to my onLoad.R file, and this seems to be causing problems when I submit the package to CRAN.  There are no WARNINGs or ERRORs.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Vonn
>
>* checking R code for possible problems ... [19s] NOTE
>File 'mypackage/R/onLoad.R':
>  .onLoad calls:
>    packageStartupMessage("You should install miniconda before using this package")
>
>See section 'Good practice' in '?.onAttach'.
>
>Here's the code/text from my onLoad.R file:
>
>#' Perform necessary tasks when the mypackage package is loaded
>#'
>#'
>miniconda_installation <- NULL
>miniconda_permission <- NULL
>numpy_import <- NULL
>
>.onLoad <- function(libname, pkgname)
>                {
>                miniconda_installation <- utils::askYesNo("Is miniconda installed?")
>
>                if (isFALSE(miniconda_installation))
>                                {
>                                miniconda_permission <- utils::askYesNo("Install miniconda?  Downloads 50MB and takes time.")
>
>                                if (isTRUE(miniconda_permission))
>                                                {
>                                                reticulate::install_miniconda()
>                                                } else{
>                                                                packageStartupMessage("You should install miniconda before using this package")
>                                                                }
>
>                                numpy_import <- reticulate::import("numpy", delay_load = TRUE)
>                                }
>                }
>
>
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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-- 
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