On 07.02.2013 15:41, Dr. Peter Ruckdeschel wrote:
Hi,
to speed up computations in our RobASt family of packages, we use
interpolation on a grid of precomputed values which we save together
with the interpolating functions (results of splinefun essentially)
in sysdata.rda in the R folder of our pkg.
After adding grids for some more models, this file has grown
considerably, even after application of tools::resaveRdaFiles.
At the moment we are at about 2MB (compressed) and 8.8 MB
(uncompressed) and hence R CMD check --as-cran issues a NOTE.
We want to comply with cran policies,
http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html
in particular with
Where a large amount of data is required (even after compression),
consideration should be given to a separate data-only package which
can be updated only rarely (since older versions of packages are
archived in perpetuity).
Q1: Are packages only consisting of a sysdata.rda file thinkable for
submission on CRAN ? Are such pkgs the way to go for w.r.t. to the
cited policy?
Yes, given this package needs less updates than the main package, one
should consider such a data only package that needs rare updates and
does not flood the space with archived versions.
If this is the case, how would one document such a package, in particular
if we do not export any objects in the NAMESPACE file?
In addition, with a sysdata.rda-only pkg, R CMD check issues a warning
"Found directory 'R' with no source files" Of course a workaround is
adding a comment-only file comment.R to the R folder.
If the checks will be changed not to warn in such a case, this can only
happen for R >= 3.0.0, so your workaround to tell the checks you really
intended such a package with R folder not containing any code sounds
plausible for now.
Q2: Is there a lazy load / lazy data mechanism available for
sysdata.rda ? If so how would one enforce it?
It is lazy loaded. From WRE:
"if the ‘R’ subdirectory contains a file ‘sysdata.rda’ [...] this will
be lazy-loaded into the namespace/package environment"
Best,
Uwe
Any suggestions appreciated,
Best, Peter
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