[RsR] synchronization with contributing packages

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "ValenT" == Valentin Todorov <valentin.todorov using chello.at>
>>>>>     on Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:26:14 +0100 writes:

    ValenT> Dear All, after returning home from the Robcla'2006
    ValenT> workshop in Florence (thanks, Marko), I would like
    ValenT> to continue here a discussion that we started with
    ValenT> Martin (in German). We think that more opinions are
    ValenT> necessary.

and we are still waiting...

    ValenT> What happens with packages that contribute to
    ValenT> robustbase, at least now, in the early stages?

    ValenT> When, at what stage of maturity of robustbase,
    ValenT> should the contributed code be removed from the
    ValenT> other packages and they have to rely on 
    ValenT> 'Depends: robustbase'?

In theory, the code that has been moved to robustbase could be
stripped from the other package immediately after a new version
(that contains the "moved functionality") of 'robustbase' is
released to CRAN and available from there both in source and
(MacOSX + Windows) binary formats.

This theory works when people use
   install.packages(...., dependencies = TRUE)
and because in windows (and I think Mac OSX), the menus
"Packages" -> "install packages" uses the ``dependencies = TRUE'' setting.

In practice, I would aim for a more pragmatic solution;
e.g., after the appearance of the new version of robustbase, 
wait for several weeks before stripping the functionality from
your package.  Well actually, as package author, you can do it
immediately in your sources, but only release a new version of
your package to CRAN after a certain amount of time.

Martin

And yes, as Valentin, I am very much interested to hear what
others think...