On 2026-01-25 4:39 p.m., Michael L Friendly wrote:> One thing I'd like to do is to use `demo(package="mypkg")` in
the
> README.Rmd file for `mypkg`.
> Currently, this opens up an editor window in RStudio. But I don't know
> how to capture this for inclusion in the README. It returns an object of
> class ?packageIQR? which I?ve never heard of
> demo(package = "vcdExtra") |> class()
> [1] "packageIQR"
> demo(package="vcdExtra")
If you run `unclass(demo(package="vcdExtra"))` you can see the
(undocumented?) structure of a packageIQR object. It's pretty simple:
a list with a few labels, and a "results" matrix with information
about
the demos. You could print it using
demo(package="vcdExtra")$results
or just the interesting bits with
demo(package="vcdExtra")$results[,3:4]
Duncan Murdoch
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Koenker, Roger W <rkoenker at illinois.edu>
> Sent: January 25, 2026 3:53 PM
> To: Michael L Friendly <friendly at yorku.ca>
> Cc: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>; R-help at
r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] Demo files in R packages
> I too find demos quite useful, particularly for my REBayes package for
> which documented examples are useless since CRAN checking doesn?t or at
> least didn?t have an installed Mosek capability.? I?ve taken to adding
> references to them in the body of the roxyen2 documentation but this is
> a bit hit or miss.? Fortunately, as Micheal says demo(package = ?foo?)
> still works provided that users are aware of it.? I would also be
> interested in other creative solutions to make them more visible.
> Roger
>> On Jan 25, 2026, at 10:44?AM, Michael L Friendly <friendly at
yorku.ca <mailto:friendly at yorku.ca>> wrote:
>>
>> I know I can put them into a vignette, but the advantage of demo files
is that you can run them using demo().
>> It just seems like the facilities for demo files were abandoned.
>>
>> -Michael
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com
<mailto:murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>>
>> Sent: January 24, 2026 6:02 PM
>> To: Michael L Friendly <friendly at yorku.ca <mailto:friendly at
yorku.ca>>; R-help at r-project.org
> <mailto:R-help at r-project.org>
>> Subject: Re: [R] Demo files in R packages
>>
>> On 2026-01-24 4:49 p.m., Michael L Friendly wrote:
>>> Before vignettes were established as a way to document a package,
there were demos, R files in a `demo/` folder with a `demo/00-Index` file giving
their contents.
>>> Used as `demo(package="...")` this gave a window with a
list and titles, and `demo("example1", package="...") ran
`demo/example1.R` in the console.
>>> It was also a good way to give a pointer to something more
extensive than you wanted to include in the examples for a function or dataset.
>>>
>>> This idea still works for R packages, but is not available for use
in roxygen2 documentation, or pkgdown sites.
>>> I have several packages with collections of demo/ files, and am
wondering if there is anything further I can do with them to make them
accessible.
>>
>> I converted most of my demo files in rgl to a single vignette.? I just
>> added a simple paragraph
>>
>>> This vignette holds code that was previously included as
"demos"
>>> in `rgl`.? Some of the demos require R to be running; those remain
>>> available via `demo(package = "rgl")`.
>>
>> As the second sentence indicates, rgl still has a few demos, mostly
Shiny examples.
>>
>> Conversion was simple:? just copy the title into a heading, and include
all the code.
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
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