I was recently browsing through CRAN's Finance task view to remind
myself of the publicly available packages relevant to my work. As the
reference manuals are all online, I am able to flip through the
available functions to get an idea of the package's scope before
downloading.
That said, many authors have taken the time to additionally provide a
useful vignette which provides a better overview to complicated
packages. However, as far as I can tell, the only way to read or even
know if a package has a vignette is to first download and unpack the
package source, which is inconvenient when one wants to understand a
package _before_ installing.
Perhaps an easy way to make vignettes more accessible to the end user
would be to link the vignette PDF directly to the download page so that
one could download it just as one can download the reference manual or
package source. This both publicizes the vignette (since many users may
even be unaware that a package has a vignette) and facilitates browsing.
Just a thought!
Best,
Robert
Robert McGehee
Quantitative Analyst
Geode Capital Management, LLC
53 State Street, 5th Floor | Boston, MA | 02109
Tel: 617/392-8396 Fax:617/476-6389
mailto:robert.mcgehee at geodecapital.com
This e-mail, and any attachments hereto, are intended for us...{{dropped}}
Might it be feasible to just bundle any vignettes with the help file? Wouldn't this make them more accessible to, e.g., RSiteSearch? Just a thought. Spencer Graves McGehee, Robert wrote:> I was recently browsing through CRAN's Finance task view to remind > myself of the publicly available packages relevant to my work. As the > reference manuals are all online, I am able to flip through the > available functions to get an idea of the package's scope before > downloading. > > That said, many authors have taken the time to additionally provide a > useful vignette which provides a better overview to complicated > packages. However, as far as I can tell, the only way to read or even > know if a package has a vignette is to first download and unpack the > package source, which is inconvenient when one wants to understand a > package _before_ installing. > > Perhaps an easy way to make vignettes more accessible to the end user > would be to link the vignette PDF directly to the download page so that > one could download it just as one can download the reference manual or > package source. This both publicizes the vignette (since many users may > even be unaware that a package has a vignette) and facilitates browsing. > > Just a thought! > > Best, > Robert > > Robert McGehee > Quantitative Analyst > Geode Capital Management, LLC > 53 State Street, 5th Floor | Boston, MA | 02109 > Tel: 617/392-8396 Fax:617/476-6389 > mailto:robert.mcgehee at geodecapital.com > > > > This e-mail, and any attachments hereto, are intended for us...{{dropped}} > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
This would certainly be nice. Note that the BioConductor package vignettes are online: http://www.bioconductor.org/docs/vignettes.html but there is nothing comparable for CRAN. In some cases the package has a home page mentioned in the URL field of the DESCRIPTION file and following that can sometimes get vignette or other information although I agree we really need a standardized way to discover that a vignette exists and to access it without installing the package. It would also be nice to be able to access the ChangeLog or NEWS file online as well as from the installed package. Currently one has to download and unpack the source to get it in many cases and even then one can't even be sure that it exists. That's even worse than the sitution with vignettes. On 5/22/06, McGehee, Robert <Robert.McGehee at geodecapital.com> wrote:> I was recently browsing through CRAN's Finance task view to remind > myself of the publicly available packages relevant to my work. As the > reference manuals are all online, I am able to flip through the > available functions to get an idea of the package's scope before > downloading. > > That said, many authors have taken the time to additionally provide a > useful vignette which provides a better overview to complicated > packages. However, as far as I can tell, the only way to read or even > know if a package has a vignette is to first download and unpack the > package source, which is inconvenient when one wants to understand a > package _before_ installing. > > Perhaps an easy way to make vignettes more accessible to the end user > would be to link the vignette PDF directly to the download page so that > one could download it just as one can download the reference manual or > package source. This both publicizes the vignette (since many users may > even be unaware that a package has a vignette) and facilitates browsing. > > Just a thought! > > Best, > Robert > > Robert McGehee > Quantitative Analyst > Geode Capital Management, LLC > 53 State Street, 5th Floor | Boston, MA | 02109 > Tel: 617/392-8396 Fax:617/476-6389 > mailto:robert.mcgehee at geodecapital.com > > > > This e-mail, and any attachments hereto, are intended for us...{{dropped}} > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel >
>>>>> McGehee, Robert writes:> I was recently browsing through CRAN's Finance task view to remind > myself of the publicly available packages relevant to my work. As the > reference manuals are all online, I am able to flip through the > available functions to get an idea of the package's scope before > downloading.> That said, many authors have taken the time to additionally provide a > useful vignette which provides a better overview to complicated > packages. However, as far as I can tell, the only way to read or even > know if a package has a vignette is to first download and unpack the > package source, which is inconvenient when one wants to understand a > package _before_ installing.> Perhaps an easy way to make vignettes more accessible to the end user > would be to link the vignette PDF directly to the download page so > that one could download it just as one can download the reference > manual or package source. This both publicizes the vignette (since > many users may even be unaware that a package has a vignette) and > facilitates browsing.Yes, that would be very useful. Will have a look, but this looks like something for the summer break. Best -k