[R-pkg-devel] Package with JS dependency

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 2025-02-20 12:36 p.m., Brian Leonard wrote:
> Hello there,
> 
> [TLDR: I'm curious to know the degree to which including a pure javascript program (via the V8 package) in an R package affects the potential of passing CRAN review]
> 
> I'm working on implementing an R package to support users of the Psych-DS data specification<https://github.com/psych-ds>. The package will include a shiny app with helpful functions for assembling and publishing high-quality datasets in the behavioral sciences, but one of the core functions will be to validate existing datasets (local directories) according to the rules of our schema.
> 
> We already have this validator functionality set up as a Deno application, and we can use certain Deno tools, along with esbuild, to generate node-based and pure-javascript bundled versions of validator.
> 
> We'd like to be able to leverage our existing code instead of having to reinvent the wheel for the R context. If we try to publish our package to CRAN with this javascript script as a core part of the package's functionality, will that severely affect our chances of passing the review process? I know that having sufficient unit tests and well documented processes is crucial to getting a package through, but the validator code in this scenario would be stringy and minified, and the bundle would not include unit tests for all the validator's internal functions. Is it the case that a dependency like this is equally subject to CRAN review scrutiny, or would it be sufficient to have all the R-based components comply with CRAN requirements?

I am not a member of CRAN, so I can't give you authoritative advice on 
this.  But I think one issue is that if you are only including minified 
code, then they wouldn't see that as the original source.  My rgl 
package includes a few thousand lines of Javascript code which is 
minified when installed; the tarball contains the original source.

Duncan Murdoch