[R-pkg-devel] Should 'methods' be in Imports?

[Ivan Krylov]

On Thu, 16 Mar 2023 11:29:33 -0400
Noah Greifer <noah.greifer using gmail.com> wrote:

> Is including these packages filling the DESCRIPTION with unnecessary
> dependencies that are automatically satisfied, or is it being
> helpfully explicit about the packages your package relies on?

Here's a comment from the part of R CMD check that checks for NAMESPACE
dependencies unstated in DESCRIPTION:

>> Not clear whether we want to require *all* namespace package
>> dependencies listed in DESCRIPTION, or e.g. just the ones on
>> non-base packages.  Do the latter for time being ...
>> Actually we need to know at least about S4-using packages,
>> since we need to reinstall if those change.

So the answer is maybe. Personally, I opt for listing even the base
packages explicitly, but it's a choice. Duncan's quote from WRE hints
that this may be enforced in the future.

I do find it a bit strange that not listing methods as a dependency in
DESCRIPTION doesn't lead to complaints from R CMD check, because it
does seem that the code excludes methods (and stats4) from the list of
packages that are currently okay not to declare in DESCRIPTION.

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan