[R-pkgs] New versions for the distr-family of packages, and a new package "startupmsg"

[Peter Ruckdeschel]

We would like to announce the availability on CRAN of new versions
of our packages "distr" (1.7), "distrEx" (0.4-3), "distrSim" (1.7), "distrTEst" (1.7),
as well as a new package "startupmsg" [all of them require R >= 2.2.0]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
************ new package "startupmsg" *****************
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
### startupmsg  -- v0.3
Utilities for start-up messages for packages:
provides:
+functions:  to display a NEWS file (if existing) and tags from the
             DESCRIPTION file of a package
+conditions: a new sub-condition to 'message'  (with a 'types' slot)
             is introduced, allowing for scalable startup messages by
             condition "catchers" muffleMessage() [for StartupMessage],
             onlytypeMessage(), and custom()
additionally:

+ buildStartupMessage: automatically generates a 'complete' start-up message including
         *a start-up message of type "version" as to information on the package version
         *a start-up message of type "notabene" (optionally)
         *a start-up message of "information" mentioning
            -?"<pkg-name>",
            -NEWS("<pkg-name>"), if there is a NEWS file,
            -the URL tag of the package DESCRIPTION file, (if existing),
            -a file / a URL to a manual (optional)
(to be called in the .onAttach() / .First.lib() function of a package)

+ takes up thread "Wishlist: 'quietly' argument for .onAttach() / .First.lib()"
  on r-devel, April 2006, more precisely:
  Brian Ripley: https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2006-April/037281.html
  Andy Liaw:    https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2006-April/037286.html
  Seth Falcon:  https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2006-April/037317.html
  and           https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2006-April/037367.html
  also compare  https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2006-April/037382.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
************************** Changes **************************************
of "distr" (1.7), "distrEx" (0.4-3), "distrSim" (1.7), "distrTEst" (1.7),
*************************************************************************
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most important changes can be inspected at

        http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/math/org/mathe7/DISTR

and the pages linked to on this page.

After package installation you may also have a look
at NEWS("<pkg-name>") for all the packages mentioned in this mail.

A more detailed manual is available at

        http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/math/org/mathe7/DISTR/distr.pdf

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Short Descriptions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
************ "distr":
"distr" is to provide a conceptual treatment of random variables
(r.v.'s) by means of S4--classes. A virtual mother class "Distribution"
is introduced.
All distributions of the "stats" package are implemented as subclasses of
either "AbscontDistribution" or "DiscreteDistribution".

Using these classes, we also provide (default) methods to automatically
generate the image distributions under unary mathematical operations as
well as a general convolution algorithm.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
************ "distrSim":
Classes and methods are provided for a standardized treatment of
simulations (also under contaminations) .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
************ "distrTEst":
Classes and methods are provided for a standardized treatment of
the evaluation of statistical procedures (up to now only estimators)
at data/simulations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
************ "distrEx":
This package provides some extensions to package "distr" like:
* extreme value distribution classes,
* expectations
  +in the form E(X)  for the expectation of X where X is some
    distribution or
  +in the form E(X,f) for the expectation of f(X) where X is
     some distribution and f some function in X,
* further functionals: var, sd, IQR, mad, median
* truncated moments,
* distances between distributions
  (Hellinger, Kolmogorov, total variation, "convex contamination")
* lists of distributions,
* conditional distributions in factorized form
* conditional expectations in factorized form
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We look forward to receiving questions, comments and suggestions

Peter Ruckdeschel
Matthias Kohl
Thomas Stabla
Florian Camphausen