R devel - Mar 2024 - Question regarding .make_numeric_version with non-character input

Dear all,

I have a question regarding the R-devel version of .make_numeric_version()
function. As far as I can understand, the current code
(https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/66b91578dfc85140968f07dd4e72d8cb8a54f4c6/src/library/base/R/version.R#L50-L56)
runs the following steps in case of non-character input:

1. It creates a message named msg using gettextf.
2. Such object is then passed to stop(msg) or warning(msg) according to the
following condition

tolower(Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_")
!= "false")

However, I don't understand the previous code since the output of
Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_") !=
"false" is just a boolean value and tolower() will just return
"true" or "false". Maybe the intended code is
tolower(Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_"))
!= "false" ? Or am I missing something?

Thank you very much for your help
Kind regards

Andrea

On 29 March 2024 at 17:56, Andrea Gilardi via R-devel wrote:
| Dear all,
| 
| I have a question regarding the R-devel version of .make_numeric_version()
function. As far as I can understand, the current code
(https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/66b91578dfc85140968f07dd4e72d8cb8a54f4c6/src/library/base/R/version.R#L50-L56)
runs the following steps in case of non-character input:
| 
| 1. It creates a message named msg using gettextf.
| 2. Such object is then passed to stop(msg) or warning(msg) according to the
following condition
| 
|
tolower(Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_")
!= "false")
| 
| However, I don't understand the previous code since the output of
Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_") !=
"false" is just a boolean value and tolower() will just return
"true" or "false". Maybe the intended code is
tolower(Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_"))
!= "false" ? Or am I missing something?

Yes, agreed -- good catch.  In full, the code is (removing leading
whitespace, and putting it back onto single lines)

  msg <- gettextf("invalid non-character version specification
'x' (type: %s)", typeof(x))
 
if(tolower(Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_")
!= "false"))
      stop(msg, domain = NA)
  else
      warning(msg, domain = NA, immediate. = TRUE)  

where msg is constant (but reflecting language settings via standard i18n)
and as you not the parentheses appear wrong.  What was intended is likely

  msg <- gettextf("invalid non-character version specification
'x' (type: %s)", typeof(x))
 
if(tolower(Sys.getenv("_R_CHECK_STOP_ON_INVALID_NUMERIC_VERSION_INPUTS_"))
!= "false")
      stop(msg, domain = NA)
  else
      warning(msg, domain = NA, immediate. = TRUE)  

If you use bugzilla before and have a handle, maybe file a bug report with
this as patch at https://bugs.r-project.org/

Dirk

-- 
dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org