R help - Mar 2015 - Find the name of the package with called the function

Dear all,

I have several pacakges which all use some generic functions stored in
package. Let's call the package with generic functions 'auxiliary',
a
package which uses those functions 'main'.

'auxiliary' has a function that needs the name of the package it is
called
by. Currently I solve this by passing the name of the package as an
argument.

auxiliary::a <- function(package){
  cat("do something with", package)
}

#'@importFrom auxiliary a
main::use_a <- function(){
   a(package = "main")
}

I was wondering how I can rewrite this so I don't have to pass the package
name as an argument.

auxiliary::a <- function(){
  package <- the_thing_I_am_looking_for()
  cat("do something with", package)
}

#'@importFrom auxiliary a
main::use_a <- function(){
   a()
}

Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature and
Forest
team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Anderlecht
Belgium

To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more
than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say
what the experiment died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
The plural of anecdote is not data. ~ Roger Brinner
The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not
ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
~ John Tukey

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Please don't. This violates basic principles of functional design for a very
minor degree of convenience. In fact, the whole concept of a function interface
that accepts a caller's package name strikes me as brittle design. If your
function needs to do callbacks, give it a function to call. If you need to
manipulate an object, use some form of method dispatching (I like S3, but you
have alternatives) on an object you pass in.
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On March 5, 2015 2:24:38 AM PST, Thierry Onkelinx <thierry.onkelinx at
inbo.be> wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>I have several pacakges which all use some generic functions stored in
>package. Let's call the package with generic functions
'auxiliary', a
>package which uses those functions 'main'.
>
>'auxiliary' has a function that needs the name of the package it is
>called
>by. Currently I solve this by passing the name of the package as an
>argument.
>
>auxiliary::a <- function(package){
>  cat("do something with", package)
>}
>
>#'@importFrom auxiliary a
>main::use_a <- function(){
>   a(package = "main")
>}
>
>I was wondering how I can rewrite this so I don't have to pass the
>package
>name as an argument.
>
>auxiliary::a <- function(){
>  package <- the_thing_I_am_looking_for()
>  cat("do something with", package)
>}
>
>#'@importFrom auxiliary a
>main::use_a <- function(){
>   a()
>}
>
>Best regards,
>
>ir. Thierry Onkelinx
>Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature
>and
>Forest
>team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / team Biometrics & Quality
Assurance
>Kliniekstraat 25
>1070 Anderlecht
>Belgium
>
>To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more
>than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to
>say
>what the experiment died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
>The plural of anecdote is not data. ~ Roger Brinner
>The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does
>not
>ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of
>data.
>~ John Tukey
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>______________________________________________
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