I've made a small enhancement to R that would help developers better control 
what versions of code we're using where.  Basically, to load a package in R, 
one currently does:

                library(whateverPackage)

and with the enhancement, you can ensure that you're getting at least version X 
of the package:

                library(whateverPackage, version=3.14)

Reasons one might want this include:

  * you know that in version X some bug was fixed
  * you know that in version X some feature was added
  * that's the first version you've actually tested it with & you don't want to 
vouch for earlier versions without testing
  * you develop on one machine & deploy on another machine you don't control, 
and you want runtime checks that the sysadmin installed what they were supposed 
to install

In general, I have an interest in helping R get better at various things that 
would help it play in a "production environment", for various values of that 
term. =)

The attached patch is made against revision 58980 of 
https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk .  I think this is the first patch I've 
submitted to the R core, so please let me know if anything's amiss, or of 
course if there are reservations about the approach.

Thanks.

--
Ken Williams, Senior Research Scientist
WindLogics
http://windlogics.com



CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is for the sole use of the intended 
recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any 
unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution of any kind is strictly 
prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender 
via reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you.
______________________________________________
R-devel@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Reply via email to