[R-pkg-devel] Changes in function call with respect to the current published version

Tue Dec 17 23:34:15 CET 2024

> myfun(y = birthweight, x = cotinine, z = age, data = mydata, ...)

> and new usage would be

> myfun(formula = birthweight ~ cotinine + age, data = mydata, ...)

The NEWS file should state this incompatible change, loudly.

If you don't want to break user code, you could make the new signature of the function something like:

myfun(formula, data = mydata, ..., y, x, z)

Then you could start with 

if(!is.formula(formula)) {
    issue a message that this is old syntax;

    create a formula for the user from the arguments
}

You need this check since users often don't name the first argument. The purpose of putting y,x, and z after the ... is so that you will have arguments with these names only if the user explicitly named them so.

In the new documentation function describe only the new usage and state that the old arguments are for back compatibility only and will be removed in version x.y.

Georgi Boshnakov

________________________________________
From: R-package-devel <r-package-devel-bounces using r-project.org> on behalf of Jose Barrera-Gómez <jose.barrera using isglobal.org>
Sent: 17 December 2024 21:00
To: R Package Development
Subject: [R-pkg-devel] Changes in function call with respect to the current published version

Dear List,

I have a package that works in the context of regression models. The main
function has arguments (y, x, z, data, ...), where y is the response
variable, x is the explanatory variable and z can be other covariates.

Due to some bugs, I am interested in changing the call from (y, x, z, data,
...) to (formula, data, ...).

For instance, current usage is

myfun(y = birthweight, x = cotinine, z = age, data = mydata, ...)

and new usage would be

myfun(formula = birthweight ~ cotinine + age, data = mydata, ...)

This change would have no impact on the usage for the rest of the package.

My concern is that users updating the package won't be able to reproduce
old analyses. I.e. they would need to update the calls to myfun (but
nothing else related to the usage of other functions or methods).

I think the new usage would result in some advantages and bugs fixing and
only the disadvantage I mentioned just above.

I would appreciate advice on:

1) There could be other disadvantages for users of previous versions that I
don't see?

2) What would be the best location(s) in the documentation to explain in
detail this change?

Thanks in advance,

Jose Barrera
Statistician, Associate Lecturer

*IS**Global*
Barcelona Institute for Global Health - Campus MAR
Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) (Room Hypatia)

Doctor Aiguader, 88
08003 Barcelona, Spain
Tel. +34 93 2147383
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