From gavin.simpson at ucl.ac.uk  Sun Aug 22 01:13:32 2010
From: gavin.simpson at ucl.ac.uk (Gavin Simpson)
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:13:32 +0100
Subject: [Rd] How do you make a formal "feature" request?
In-Reply-To: <02E3AE9E-2E64-44B1-BB79-306396A97419@yahoo.com>
References: <02E3AE9E-2E64-44B1-BB79-306396A97419@yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <1282432412.2388.123.camel@desktop.localdomain>

On Sat, 2010-08-21 at 11:41 -0400, Donald Winston wrote:
> Who decides what features are in R and how they are implemented? If
> there is someone here who has that authority I have this request: 

The R Core Development Team decide on what goes into the base R source
code.

You have almost zero chance of getting such a thing in base R. I say
that for several reasons; i) You haven't provided any code to implement
report() or provided a good description of what you would like
implemented, ii) R Core like to keep the base source code a small as
possible to limit the maintenance burden on themselves, iii) R has the
package mechanism so you or anyone else can add whatever features you
want to R, have it hosted on CRAN and be available to any R user at the
click of a button, iv) your attitude stinks!

I could go on, but I feel I'm just feeding a troll at this point.

I look forward to seeing your report package implementing a report()
function on CRAN in the near future. There are several manuals written
which document how to write extensions to the R environment, numerous
books on programming in R and several example reporting systems that
we've mentioned to you. Check out the R website for these. Learn some R,
do some reading, examine those systems that do exist then roll your own
function and let us all benefit. I won't hold my breath of course.
Whiners are not often doers...

Good luck!

G

> A report() function analogous to the plot() function that makes it
> easy to generate a report from a table of data. This should not be in
> some auxiliary package, but part of the core R just like plot(). As a
> long time SAS user I cannot believe R does not have this. Please don't
> give me any crap about Sweave, LaTex, and the "power" of R to roll
> your own. You don't have to "roll your own" plot do you? Reports are
> no different. If you don't agree do not bother me. If you agree then
> please bring this request to the appropriate authorities for
> consideration or tell me how to do it.
> 
> Thanks.
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

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[Rd] How do you make a formal "feature" request?
Gavin Simpson