R devel - Feb 2014 - path.package() versus system.file() for locating installed package folders

Hi all,

For several years, I have used path.package() to get the path to Perl scripts
contained within WriteXLS.

I have a request to change this to using system.file(), which would provide the
ability to utilize WriteXLS functionality, without having to load the package,
which path.package() requires.

Based upon my review of the code, I don't see any obvious down sides to
making the change, but wanted to solicit comments from anyone that might
challenge the change in the code.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz

On 12/02/2014 16:28, Marc Schwartz wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> For several years, I have used path.package() to get the path to Perl
scripts contained within WriteXLS.
>
> I have a request to change this to using system.file(), which would provide
the ability to utilize WriteXLS functionality, without having to load the
package, which path.package() requires.
>
> Based upon my review of the code, I don't see any obvious down sides to
making the change, but wanted to solicit comments from anyone that might
challenge the change in the code.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marc Schwartz
I don't think path.package() ever was the right tool: find.package() 
looks a closer match, and system.file() is a wrapper for it (which was 
all that was made available for many years: up to R 2.13.0 AFAIR).

-- 
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)
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