[R-pkg-devel] CRAN test complaints about package that passes most platforms

[J C Nash]

My nlsr package was revised mid-February. After CRAN approved it, I got a
message that it was "failing" M1Mac tests. The issue turned out to be ANOTHER
package that was being used in an example in a vignette. Because M1 does not
provide the IEEE 754 80 bit registers, a method in package minqa did not
"converge", that is, it did not pass a termination test. Relaxing a tolerance
got a "pass" on the test service for M1 Mac then available. This issue can
be found by searching the web, though it probably deserves some clarity in
R documentation somewhere. The presentation of such problems can, of course,
take many forms.

There was a minor revision to nlsr in May to rationalize the names of some functions
to produce summary information about solutions. This seemed to give no issues until
now.

Two days ago, however, I received a msg that the (unchanged!) package is failing tests
on M1 and on Fedora clang r-devel tests in building some vignettes. The messages
are about pandoc and a missing file "framed.sty". All other tests showing on
CRAN are OK. When I try with R-hub I seem to get even more complaints than
the messages from CRAN, but about the same issues, and about vignette
building.

2 queries:

- Is anyone else getting similar messages? If so, it may be useful to share
notes to try to get this resolved. It seems within reason that the issue is
some unfortunate detail in Fedora and M1 that interacts with particular
syntax in the vignette, or that the setup of those machines is inadequate.
Comparing notes may reveal what is causing complaints and help to fix either
in the .Rmd vignettes or in the pandoc structure.

- Is there an M1Mac test platform to which packages can be submitted? Brian
Ripley did have one, but trying the link I used before seems not to present
a submission dialog.

I'd like to be helpful, but have a suspicion that a humble package developer
is being used as a stooge to find and fix software glitches outside of R. However,
if it's a matter of an unfortunate mismatch of document and processor, I'll be
happy to help document and fix it.

It would be a pity if vignettes cause enough trouble that developers simply don't
include them.

Best,

John Nash