R devel - Oct 2016 - enhancement to R CMD check: do imported objects from multiple packages mask each other?

Dear R-Developement Team,

I want to suggest an additiol check to the R CMD check functionality.

Consider the situation where the objects of more than one package are
imported to the NAMESPACE of a third package, e.g. via

    import(foo, bar)

in the NAMESPACE file.

There might be situations where exported objects in the packages `foo`
and `bar` have the same name, let?s say there is an object `f`
exported from both packages.

Then a warning created by R CMD check comparable to the same situation
when attaching multiple packages to the search path, like
> library(foo)
> library(bar)
The following objects are masked from ?package:foo?:

    f


would be very helpful.

I am aware that it is not best practice to import many packages with
many exported objects to the NAMESPACE of another package.
Nevertheless it would be nice feature to be warned about the resulting
name conflict.

Thanks in advance.

Steffen

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On 27/10/2016 5:26 AM, Steffen Wagner wrote:
> Dear R-Developement Team,
>
> I want to suggest an additiol check to the R CMD check functionality.
>
> Consider the situation where the objects of more than one package are
> imported to the NAMESPACE of a third package, e.g. via
>
>      import(foo, bar)
>
> in the NAMESPACE file.
>
> There might be situations where exported objects in the packages `foo`
> and `bar` have the same name, let?s say there is an object `f`
> exported from both packages.
>
> Then a warning created by R CMD check comparable to the same situation
> when attaching multiple packages to the search path, like
>
> > library(foo)
> > library(bar)
> The following objects are masked from ?package:foo?:
>
>      f
>
>
> would be very helpful.
>
> I am aware that it is not best practice to import many packages with
> many exported objects to the NAMESPACE of another package.
> Nevertheless it would be nice feature to be warned about the resulting
> name conflict.
That sounds like a reasonable suggestion.  However, unless someone 
volunteers to do it very quickly, it will likely get lost in the 
archives of this list and forgotten.

Could you please post it to the bug list as an enhancement request? 
Those should be persistent.

If you have never posted to the bug list you will need to be manually 
added to the list of people allowed to post.  In that case, write to me 
and I'll do it.

Duncan Murdoch

Hi Duncan,

On 10/27/2016 05:17 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
[...]
> Could you please post it to the bug list as an enhancement request?
> Those should be persistent.
>
> If you have never posted to the bug list you will need to be manually
> added to the list of people allowed to post.  In that case, write to me
> and I'll do it.
Sorry to ask such a naive question but is there a bug list or do you
mean the Bugzilla bug tracker?

Thanks,
H.

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