R devel - Apr 2006 - Wishlist: 'quietly' argument for .onAttach() / .First.li b()

From: Prof Brian Ripley
> 
> On Thu, 13 Apr 2006, Peter Ruckdeschel wrote:
> 
> > Hi R-devels,
> >
> > in "Writing R extensions" as well as in the help
> > to .onAttach(), you mention that one could
> > use this function to issue a start-up message/banner
> > for the package.
> >
> > My little wish for Easter:
> >
> > a 'quietly'-type argument for .onAttach() / .First.lib() which
is
> > passed through by functions
> > require() and library() respectively,
> > and by means of which one could optionally
> > suppress this start-up message/banner .
> >
> > Is this hard to do?
> 
> I believe so (and think we have been here before).  The 
> documented call 
> sequence is
> 
>       .onLoad(libname, pkgname)
>       .onAttach(libname, pkgname)
> 
> the same as .First.lib.  There is no way to add an argument 
> here, as many 
> existing packages do not support it.  Beyond that, how would 
> you pass the 
> argument in?  Namespaces and packages are often 
> loaded/attached implicitly 
> as a result of loading other packages.
> 
> I did think you could make use of an option to decide whether 
> to the print 
> the message or not, but I have always assumed that those who 
> did want a 
> banner probably did not want it suppressed.
That certainly is the case with randomForest, speaking for myself
here.  The banner I put in contains the version number of the 
package and a reminder to see what's been changed/fixed.  I have 
not seen a compelling reason why suppressing such information is 
necessary (as opposed to "desirable").  I believe reporting 
version number upon startup is a Good Thing, as all too often 
people ask questions or report problems about packages without
mentioning the version of the packages they used.  I see this as
a way of reminding the users.

Andy


 
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
> 
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>

From: Bill Dunlap
> 
> On Thu, 13 Apr 2006, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 13 Apr 2006, Peter Ruckdeschel wrote:
> >
> > > Hi R-devels,
> > >
> > > in "Writing R extensions" as well as in the help
> > > to .onAttach(), you mention that one could
> > > use this function to issue a start-up message/banner
> > > for the package.
> > >
> > > My little wish for Easter:
> > >
> > > a 'quietly'-type argument for .onAttach() / .First.lib()
which is
> > > passed through by functions
> > > require() and library() respectively,
> > > and by means of which one could optionally
> > > suppress this start-up message/banner .
> > >
> > > Is this hard to do?
> >
> > I believe so (and think we have been here before).  The documented 
> > call sequence is
> >
> >       .onLoad(libname, pkgname)
> >       .onAttach(libname, pkgname)
> >
> > the same as .First.lib.  There is no way to add an argument 
> here, as 
> > many existing packages do not support it.  Beyond that, how 
> would you 
> > pass the argument in?  Namespaces and packages are often 
> > loaded/attached implicitly as a result of loading other packages.
> >
> > I did think you could make use of an option to decide 
> whether to the 
> > print the message or not, but I have always assumed that 
> those who did 
> > want a banner probably did not want it suppressed.
> 
> If the .onAttach() used message() instead of cat()
> to display the banner message then you could use
> 	suppressMessages(require("randomForest"))
> to squelch the message.
Thanks!  This looks like a good alternative.  What do others think of this
approach?

Andy

 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------
> Bill Dunlap
> Insightful Corporation
> bill at insightful dot com
> 360-428-8146
> 
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