Dear r-devel members,
My Rcmdr package "depends" on several other packages (tcltk,
grDevices,
utils, and car) and "suggests" a number of others (abind, aplpack,
colorspace, effects, foreign, grid, Hmisc, lattice, leaps, lmtest, MASS,
mgcv, multcomp, nlme, nnet, relimp, rgl, and RODBC). The reason for the
distinction is that I don't want all of these packages to load when the
Rcmdr loads; rather, the "suggested" packages are loaded as
they're needed.
But all of the packages -- both those under "depends" and those under
"suggests" -- really are necessary for all of the features of the
Rcmdr to
work. For example, if the "leaps" package is absent, then the
"Subset model
selection" item in the "Models" menu is suppressed.
This arrangement works reasonably well, but it makes it awkward to install
the Rcmdr. If the user issues the command install.packages("Rcmdr"),
then
the "suggested" packages aren't installed. On the other hand, if
the user
issues the command install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies=TRUE), which
is
what I currently recommend, then "suggested" packages are installed
recursively, causing dozens of packages, most of them actually unnecessary,
to be installed. This issue has been growing more acute, and at this point
even with a fast Internet connection it takes quite a while for all of the
dependencies to download and install.
I wonder whether I've missed something. Is there a way for me to arrange the
Rcmdr package dependencies so that only the necessary packages (those
currently listed under both "depends" and "suggests" and the
packages on
which they "depend") are installed along with the Rcmdr, but the
currently
"suggested" packages aren't loaded when the Rcmdr loads?
Any help would be appreciated.
John
------------------------------
John Fox, Professor
Department of Sociology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox
John Fox wrote:> Dear r-devel members, > > My Rcmdr package "depends" on several other packages (tcltk, grDevices, > utils, and car) and "suggests" a number of others (abind, aplpack, > colorspace, effects, foreign, grid, Hmisc, lattice, leaps, lmtest, MASS, > mgcv, multcomp, nlme, nnet, relimp, rgl, and RODBC). The reason for the > distinction is that I don't want all of these packages to load when the > Rcmdr loads; rather, the "suggested" packages are loaded as they're needed. > But all of the packages -- both those under "depends" and those under > "suggests" -- really are necessary for all of the features of the Rcmdr to > work. For example, if the "leaps" package is absent, then the "Subset model > selection" item in the "Models" menu is suppressed. > > This arrangement works reasonably well, but it makes it awkward to install > the Rcmdr. If the user issues the command install.packages("Rcmdr"), then > the "suggested" packages aren't installed. On the other hand, if the user > issues the command install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies=TRUE), which is > what I currently recommend, then "suggested" packages are installed > recursively, causing dozens of packages, most of them actually unnecessary, > to be installed. This issue has been growing more acute, and at this point > even with a fast Internet connection it takes quite a while for all of the > dependencies to download and install. > > I wonder whether I've missed something. Is there a way for me to arrange the > Rcmdr package dependencies so that only the necessary packages (those > currently listed under both "depends" and "suggests" and the packages on > which they "depend") are installed along with the Rcmdr, but the currently > "suggested" packages aren't loaded when the Rcmdr loads?Dear John, no, this is not possible. Consider your package A (or Rcmdr) suggests B that suggests C. Then A::foo uses the function B::bar which only works if C::dep is present. B works essentially without C but it requires C just to make bar work. Then this means your A::foo won't work if C is not installed and you won't get it with the setup mentioned above. In summary, I fear what you want might work well *now* (by chance), but it does not work in general. Best wishes, Uwe> Any help would be appreciated. > > John > > ------------------------------ > John Fox, Professor > Department of Sociology > McMaster University > Hamilton, Ontario, Canada > web: socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
Create a package called RcmdrInstall, say, with no content and have it depend on Rcmdr. RcmdrInstall would have all packages as dependencies while Rcmdr would only have the essential packages as dependencies. Install RcmdrInstall. That would also force Rcmdr to be installed. Now issue: library(Rcmdr) as before and the non-essentials won't be loaded. Thus the only difference between the current procedure and the new procedure as far as the user is concerned is that they install RcmdrInstall rather than Rcmdr. They load and run Rcmdr in the same way. On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 9:15 AM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:> Dear r-devel members, > > My Rcmdr package "depends" on several other packages (tcltk, grDevices, > utils, and car) and "suggests" a number of others (abind, aplpack, > colorspace, effects, foreign, grid, Hmisc, lattice, leaps, lmtest, MASS, > mgcv, multcomp, nlme, nnet, relimp, rgl, and RODBC). The reason for the > distinction is that I don't want all of these packages to load when the > Rcmdr loads; rather, the "suggested" packages are loaded as they're needed. > But all of the packages -- both those under "depends" and those under > "suggests" -- really are necessary for all of the features of the Rcmdr to > work. For example, if the "leaps" package is absent, then the "Subset model > selection" item in the "Models" menu is suppressed. > > This arrangement works reasonably well, but it makes it awkward to install > the Rcmdr. If the user issues the command install.packages("Rcmdr"), then > the "suggested" packages aren't installed. On the other hand, if the user > issues the command install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies=TRUE), which is > what I currently recommend, then "suggested" packages are installed > recursively, causing dozens of packages, most of them actually unnecessary, > to be installed. This issue has been growing more acute, and at this point > even with a fast Internet connection it takes quite a while for all of the > dependencies to download and install. > > I wonder whether I've missed something. Is there a way for me to arrange the > Rcmdr package dependencies so that only the necessary packages (those > currently listed under both "depends" and "suggests" and the packages on > which they "depend") are installed along with the Rcmdr, but the currently > "suggested" packages aren't loaded when the Rcmdr loads? > > Any help would be appreciated. > > John > > ------------------------------ > John Fox, Professor > Department of Sociology > McMaster University > Hamilton, Ontario, Canada > web: socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel >