[R-pkgs] new version of distr-family of packages

[Matthias Kohl]

The new version 2.2 of our distr-family of packages has now been 
available on CRAN for several days. As there were many changes we will 
only sketch the most important ones here. For more details see the 
corresponding NEWS files (e.g. news(package = "distr") or using function 
NEWS from package startupmsg i.e. NEWS("distr")).

First of all a new package distrEllipse was added to the family which 
includes S4 classes and methods for elliptical symmetric distributions.

##############################################
## All packages (distr, distrEx, distrSim, distrTEst, distrTeach,
##                         distrMod, distrEllipse, distrDoc as well as
##                         startupmsg and SweaveListingUtils)
##############################################
- TOBEDONE file was added as a starting point for collaborations. The
  file can be displayed via function TOBEDONE from package startupmsg;
  e.g. TOBEDONE("distr")
- tests/Examples folder for some automatic testing was introduced


##############################################
## Package distr
##############################################
- new diagnostic function (more specifically S4 method)
                                  qqplot()
  for quantile-quantile plots to work with distribution objects
  as argument;  in addition to function qqplot() from package "stats"
  has functionality for point-wise and simultaneous confidence bands
- under the hood: a new slot symmetry was introduced
  for distributions

##############################################
## Package distrEx
##############################################
- enhanced E (expectation), m1df, m2df (clipped 1. and 2.
  moments) methods  --- now you can specify lower and
  upper integration bounds in the E(.), var(.) functions
- new class GPareto for generalized Pareto distribution
  (implemented by Nataliya Horbenko)

##############################################
## Package distrMod
##############################################
- methods for qqplot() for parametric model objects as argument
- unified treatment of NAs

##############################################
## Package SweaveListingUtils
##############################################
- commands:
 * SweaveListingPreparations() is more flexible
    [see help & NEWS file]
 * integrated Andrew Ellis's nice ideas into SweaveListingUtils
    to use \lstenvironment
 * individual markup style for base or recommended packages
   (checked for with new function isBaseOrRecommended()) is
    distinct now by default (extra color RRecomdcolor)
 * temporarily changes (like background color) made easier:
    by new functions
     + lstdefRstyle to change Rstyle
     + lstsetRall to change all R-like styles (i.e. Rstyle, Rinstyle,
        Routstyle, Rcodestyle)
 * now can specify markup styles for Sinput, Soutput, Scode,
    separately as Rin, Rout, Rcode
 * colors now have suffix "color", i.e.
     Rcomment -> Rcommentcolor, Rout -> Routcolor
- vignette:
 * included an example with escape sequences in vignette
 * included an example with framed code in vignette

Best
Peter
Matthias

-- 
Dr. Matthias Kohl
www.stamats.de