[R-pkg-devel] How and where do I document sysdata.rda

[Michael Dewey]

Dear Charles

I agree and in fact that was in the back of my mind when I started this. 
I felt I should document it even though the chances of anyone wanting to 
access it still less edit it were almost indistinguishable from zero. I 
am reluctant to use a suggestion like yours as then I will have 
documentation created in diferent ways and that raises the possibility 
that they may interact

I have had a number of useful hints in the answers to my original 
question and I think I see a way forward. I will report back when I have 
digested them.

Michael

On 20/03/2025 23:50, Charles Plessy wrote:
> Le Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 12:56:49PM -0400, Kevin R. Coombes a écrit :
>> If it is *only *in sysdata.Rda, then it is accessible to your package
>> code but is not available to users. (They can't, for example, use the
>> "data" function to load it themselves.) So, there is no reason to
>> document it.
> 
> Hello Kevin and Michael,
> 
> Users who care about software provenance, security and software freedom would
> love to see it documented, because binary objects are hard to audit when there
> is no description of what they are expected to contain.
> 
> Redistributors who give guarantees to their users about software freedom, like
> Debian, also want to see that these objects are easy to modify in case of need
> (that is: the developer does not keep some secret receipes about how the object
> is made to keep an advantage against forks and other forms of competition), and
> to be able to check by themselves that they were not built from data that is
> not placed under too restrictive terms.
> 
> When I write R packages and when I reeistribute CRAN/Bioconductor pakcages in
> Debian, I find that the way documented in the R Packages book (./data-raw/,
> usethis::use_data(), etc.) fits my needs very well.
> 
> Have a nice day,
> 
> Charles
> 
> --
> Charles Plessy                         Nagahama, Yomitan, Okinawa, Japan
> Debian Med packaging team         http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med
> Tooting from home                  https://framapiaf.org/@charles_plessy
> - You  do not have  my permission  to use  this email  to train  an AI -
> 
> 
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-- 
Michael Dewey