[R-pkg-devel] Internet resources and Errors

[Jeff Newmiller]

Grace is in the eyes of the beholder.

Using stop in your functions can be perfectly valid. But within the context of examples or tests you need to catch those errors because one key definition of success in normal building of a package is that no uncaught errors occur. So either don't call those functions during package check, or catch the errors and move on. The former is probably best (no point in wasting time if you are going to ignore the failure anyway)... only run them interactively or when running full tests during development.


On September 24, 2021 8:27:32 AM PDT, Roy Mendelssohn - NOAA Federal via R-package-devel <r-package-devel using r-project.org> wrote:
>Just so I am clear,  I should not call stop(),  but instead call a return() and return something or other  (there is nothing to skip to - it is doing a data download and either it works or it failed).  Is there a preferred something to return?  And it is okay to write a message to the screen?  
>
>I should add that when I first ran into this awhile back I asked what "failed gracefully" means,  and never received a response.  To me,  writing out a message to the user and stopping is graceful exit, but obviously it is not.  What would help then, since this problem has been cited by others, is more explicit guidelines as to what constitutes a graceful exit with examples.  My $0.02
>
>-Roy
>
>
>
>> On Sep 24, 2021, at 8:03 AM, Ben Bolker <bbolker using gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>  I think you're not supposed to stop().
>> 
>>  You should just proceed with the other tests (skipping any tests/examples that depend on access to the inaccessible internet resources, or values derived from the failing call, to work)
>> 
>>  Does that help?
>> 
>> On 9/24/21 10:49 AM, Roy Mendelssohn - NOAA Federal via R-package-devel wrote:
>>> Hi All:
>>> I am getting dinged again on CRAN  (just Solaris for some reason),  and the problem is how to exit if there is a failure of accessing the resource,  I know it has been discussed here before,  but I just am not understanding what is desired to end properly. As I have been reminded:
>>> 'Packages which use Internet resources should fail gracefully with an informative message
>>> if the resource is not available or has changed (and not give a check warning nor error).'
>>> All internet calls are wrapped in 'try()'.  If that shows an error,  I  write a message to the screen about the error,  and call stop(), perhaps with a further message in that call.   Somehow this does not appear to meet the standard.    Can someone then please tell me what I should do instead.  The point is I have checked that the access to the internet resources has worked,  i have seen that it hasn't,  now what should be the steps to take to exit gracefully.
>>> I also want to add to what others have said about the frustrations of dealing with Solaris.  I have spent a fair amount of time getting things to  work with Solaris which no one uses.  In this instance the package test is only failing on Solaris.   Not a good use of limited time IMO.
>>> Thanks for any advice.
>>> -Roy
>>> **********************
>>> "The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
>>> **********************
>>> Roy Mendelssohn
>>> Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
>>> NOAA/NMFS
>>> Environmental Research Division
>>> Southwest Fisheries Science Center
>>> ***Note new street address***
>>> 110 McAllister Way
>>> Santa Cruz, CA 95060
>>> Phone: (831)-420-3666
>>> Fax: (831) 420-3980
>>> e-mail: Roy.Mendelssohn using noaa.gov www: https://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/
>>> "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
>>> "From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
>>> "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>> 
>> -- 
>> Dr. Benjamin Bolker
>> Professor, Mathematics & Statistics and Biology, McMaster University
>> Director, School of Computational Science and Engineering
>> Graduate chair, Mathematics & Statistics
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>
>**********************
>"The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA."
>**********************
>Roy Mendelssohn
>Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
>NOAA/NMFS
>Environmental Research Division
>Southwest Fisheries Science Center
>***Note new street address***
>110 McAllister Way
>Santa Cruz, CA 95060
>Phone: (831)-420-3666
>Fax: (831) 420-3980
>e-mail: Roy.Mendelssohn using noaa.gov www: https://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/
>
>"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
>"From those who have been given much, much will be expected" 
>"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr.
>
>______________________________________________
>R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel

-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.