Claudia, thanks for you comments .
On Feb 4, 2011, at 3:18 AM, Claudia Beleites wrote: > Dear all, > > From the writing extensions manual: > "Other dependencies (external to the R system) should be listed in the > ‘SystemRequirements’ field, possibly amplified in a separate README file." > > I guess one problem is the user may not realize that the -dev version is > needed, and just sees libxml2 installed but the R package installation > stopping with the respective error. > I'd argue that if a user attempts to install a package from sources instead of using the distribution binaries, he should know what he's doing as there is much more involved (proper tools, usually a different library location etc.). And anyone who knows what he's doing also knows that -dev packages are needed (at the latest when the installation fails you remember ;)). If he doesn't then it should give him a clue that he may want to use something else (and especially Linux users should know better ;)). Clearly, it doesn't prevent users from doing stupid things and I completely agree with you that the README should have the instructions as far as the developer knows. And as a package developer you'll learn soon enough when people start complaining ;). Thanks, Simon > Giving the package name for specific distributions is of course polite (if > the developer knows it). As developer you may also put into the README that > the package's mailing list/forum/wiki/... contains information and ask the > user to enter the package name on his distro if it is not already there. > > > my 2 ct > > Claudia > > > > Am 04.02.2011 04:48, schrieb Simon Urbanek: >> Jeroen, >> >> On Feb 3, 2011, at 9:31 PM, Jeroen Ooms wrote: >> >>> >>> Many R packages depend on some unix libraries that are not part of most >>> default installations. I often spend a significant amount of time figuring >>> out where to get the appropriate libraries for compiling these packages, >>> after they give some vague error of something missing. I was wondering why >>> there is no formal system of specifying non-R dependencies in the >>> DESCRIPTION file. If this would be the case, then during the installation of >>> an R package, the user could be prompted to install required system packages >>> (if they have appropriate privileges). >>> >>> So for example: >>> >>> Package: XML >>> Version: 3.2-0 >>> Depends: R (>= 1.2.0), methods, utils >>> Depends-debian: libxml2-dev >>> Depends-ubuntu: libxml2-dev >>> Depends-redhat: libxml2-devel >>> Depends-suse: libxml2-devel >>> etc. >>> >>> This might make life for many people just a little easier. If they are root >>> and the package is in their system repositories, than it will install >>> automatically. If not, at least they know for which package to look, or >>> request their sys admin to install. >> >> Well, there is already such system in place and it is the corresponding >> descriptions in the distributions. Obviously as an author of the package I >> don't care what any particular Linux distribution uses as a name for the >> needed dependencies as the corresponding chaos is distribution-specific. The >> only person who can reasonably determine the dependencies is the maintainer >> of the distribution and that's what they do and as a user of the above >> mentioned distributions you should be thankful to them. Fortunately, normal >> users don't have to worry about it as major distributions already come with >> a large set of R packages resolving all dependencies. Hence I don't see any >> reason why this should have anything to do with the DESCRIPTION file. The >> improvements I could think of would be a parseable entry or a canonical >> pointer to dependency sources, but that's a whole another story. >> >> Cheers, >> Simon >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-devel@r-project.org mailing list >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
