Hello, I don't believe it is illegal, as ALTREP "implements an abstraction underneath the C API". And is "compatible with all code which uses the API".
Please see slide deck by Gabriel Becker, with L Tierney, M Lawrence and T Kalibera. https://bioconductor.org/help/course-materials/2020/BiocDevelForum/16-ALTREP .pdf ALTREP framework implements an abstraction underneath traditional R C API - Generalizes whats underneath the API - Without changing how data are accessed - Compatible with all C code which uses the API - Compatible with R internals I hope this helps, Hernando -----Original Message----- From: R-devel <r-devel-boun...@r-project.org> On Behalf Of Hiroaki Yutani Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2024 8:48 PM To: r-devel <r-devel@r-project.org> Subject: [Rd] Is ALTREP "non-API"? Writing R Extension[1] defines "API" as: Entry points which are documented in this manual and declared in an installed header file. These can be used in distributed packages and will only be changed after deprecation. But, the document (WRE) doesn't have even a single mention of ALTREP, the term "ALTREP" itself or any entry points related to ALTREP. Does this mean, despite the widespread use of it on R packages including CRAN ones, ALTREP is not the API and accordingly using it in distributed packages is considered illegal? Best, Yutani [1]: https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#The-R-API [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ 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
