R help - Apr 2013 - Notes and warnings in building a package ('ms-dos style file name', 'no visible binding' and using .C("bincount", ..., PACKAGE = "base"))

Dear all,

While buildign a package (R 2.15.2 on windows XP) I had three
warnings/notes -- I would be grateful for any hints on what to do.

1. The first one is probably not really important if I'm not missing
something:
cygwin warning:
  MS-DOS style path detected: C:/x/y/z/package_1.0.tar.gz
  Preferred POSIX equivalent is: /cygdrive/c/x/y/z/package_1.0.tar.gz
  CYGWIN environment variable option "nodosfilewarning" turns off this
warning.

Would I just disregard it or set the cygwin environment variable, or is it
something important?

2. "No visible binding": there was a NOTE saying -

bells: no visible binding for global variable 'whistles'

The thing is that I used this in subset'ing a data frame that is supposed
to contain a variable called 'whistles': something like

subset(x, whistles > 100)

Should one avoid using `subset` in a package?

3. I used .C("bincount", PACKAGE="base") to count some
frequencies in a
long vector.  This was considerably quicker than with `table` but gives a
warning when building a package.

"Foreign function call with 'PACKAGE' argument in a base package:
  .C("bincount", ..., PACKAGE = "base")
Packages should not make .C/.Call/.Fortran calls to base packages. They
are not part of the API, for use only by R itself and subject to change
without notice."

I understand the reasons but what would be a good solution if I like the
way it works now?

Many thanks in advance,

Kenn

Kenn Konstabel
research fellow
Department of Chonic Diseases
National Institute for Health Development
Hiiu 42
Tallinn, Estonia

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