Kurt Hornik wrote:
Henrik Bengtsson writes:
Hi,
I would like to suggest a standard where all packages provide an Rd page
with the same name (or aliased) as the name of package so that
help(<package name>) or ?<package name> is always here. This especially
of interest to large packages with a large package index. This page
could explain the package in general and gives some hints on how to
start - not like extensive vignettes, but just to get started, e.g. list
the "most important" functions. This page could typically contain
information that is in the DESCRIPTION file (which contains valuable
information hardly every accessed by a general user), such as who is the
maintainer, how to report bugs and so on.
How would this be different from the results of
help(package = <package name>)
?
Thanks for that. I was not aware of this one; I like how DESCRIPTION is
included and how the index is divided in functions and dataset, e.g.
help(package=MASS). May I also suggest that the CITATION file is
included here, e.g. help(package=foreign).
My suggestion differ in the sense that 1) additional information may be
included such as which functions are "main" functions and which are of
less interest, and 2) that it would show up in the HTML index page too.
An automated solution such as help(package=<name>) is of course easier
to maintain. Part of Rd files can be generated this way too, but I did
not want to get too complicated in my suggestions.
/Henrik
-k
If you think the above is a good idea, then, would it even be useful to
enforce the existance of such a Rd page in R CMD check?
Henrik Bengtsson
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