[R-pkg-devel] [External] May .External2() be used in packages?

[iuke-tier@ey m@iii@g oii uiow@@edu]

.External2() is not in the API and is not intended to be used in
packages.  Packages that for whatever reason have chosen to use it
could instead use .External(), and that is what yo should use. I don't
expect that to be enforced by the check code soon, but it might be.

[.External2() exists for historical reason to ease moving things that
used to be primitives in base out into packages where they fit more
naturally. It could be removed now, but I don't think that is high on
anyone's priority list.]

Best,

luke

On Wed, 1 May 2024, Konrad Rudolph wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Is the `.External2()` function part of the public API, and can it be used
> in R packages submitted to CRAN? I would like to start using it in a
> package, and there *are* packages on CRAN which use it. But its man page
> [1] calls it “internal”, R-exts doesn’t mention it at all (unlike `.C()`,
> `.Call()` and `.External()`), and it doesn’t have any actual documentation.
> In the context of the recent tightening of the C API CRAN rules, this makes
> me concerned that `.External2()` might be next on the chopping block.
>
> [1]
> https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/base/html/Foreign-internal.html
>
> Cheers,
>
>

-- 
Luke Tierney
Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
University of Iowa                  Phone:             319-335-3386
Department of Statistics and        Fax:               319-335-3017
    Actuarial Science
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