[R] Good practice for database with utf-8 string in package

Marc Girondot
Thu, 16 Sep 2021 16:05:43 -0000

Hello everyone,

I am a little bit stucked on the problem to include a database with
utf-8 string in a package. When I submit it to CRAN, it reports NOTES
for several Unix system and I try to find a solution (if it exists) to
not have these NOTES.

The database has references and some names have non ASCII characters.

* First I don't agree at all with the solution proposed here:

https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#Encoding-issues

"First, consider carefully if you really need non-ASCIItext."

If a language has non ASCII characters, it is not just to make the
writting nicer of more complex, it is because it changes the prononciation.

* Then I try to find solution to not have these NOTES.

For example, here is a reference with utf-8 characters

> DatabaseTSD$Reference[211]
[1] Hern?ndez-Montoya, V., P?ez, V.P. & Ceballos, C.P. (2017) Effects of
temperature on sex determination and embryonic development in the
red-footed tortoise, Chelonoidis carbonarius. Chelonian Conservation and
Biology 16, 164-171.

When I convert the characters into unicode, I get indeed only ASCII
characters. Perfect.

>  iconv(DatabaseTSD$Reference[211], "UTF-8", "ASCII",
"Unicode")
[1] "Hern<U+00E1>ndez-Montoya, V., P<U+00E1>ez, V.P. &
Ceballos, C.P.
(2017) Effects of temperature on sex determination and embryonic
development in the red-footed tortoise, Chelonoidis carbonarius.
Chelonian Conservation and Biology 16, 164-171."

Then I have no NOTES when I checked the package with database in UNIX...
but how can I print the reference back with original characters ?

Thanks a lot to point me to best practices to include databases with
non-ASCII characters and not have NOTES while submitted package to CRAN.

Marc


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