>>>>> "Seth" == Seth Falcon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>> on Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:42:39 -0700 writes:
Seth> Hi all, The write_PACKAGES function has a 'fields'
Seth> argument that allows a user generating a PACKAGES file
Seth> to specify additional fields to include. For
Seth> symmetry, it would be nice for the available.packages
Seth> function to be able to read those extra fields when
Seth> specified.
Seth> Similarly, it would be useful for installed.packages
Seth> to have a 'fields' argument. This would allow a user
Seth> to query the set of installed packages for other
Seth> fields in the DESCRIPTION file.
Seth> One use for this would be for repository hosters to
Seth> include the License field in their PACKAGES file. In
Seth> this way, end users could query a repository and only
Seth> download packages that they have a license to use.
Seth> Below is a patch against svn 38996 that attempts to
Seth> implement this.
I like the idea and will look into applying the patch
(note there's at least one typo which makes "make check" fail:
/priotiry/)
A propos:
A while back (in last summer?), we (some of R-core) have
discussed about a new field to be added to DESCRIPTION,
and AFAIR, the only problem we had, is to find a name we
all liked.
Or was there more then the name alone, and some where convinced
that it is superfluous and hence too complicated.
The idea was a field related to but weaker than 'Suggests' :
Something like
'canMakeUseOf: <pkg1> [, <pkg2>, ... ]
which is *not* used in any QA/QC checking, but is purely
informative: If <pkg1> is require()able, then some examples may
look nicer, a function may provide another feature, etc, etc.
Alternatives to 'canMakeUseOf' would have been
'isHappilyCoworkingWith' ....
What do you (R-devel listeners) think about the idea?
Martin
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