From b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk  Fri Mar 15 11:43:06 2013
From: b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk (Barry Rowlingson)
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:43:06 +0000
Subject: [Rd] Snippets from other packages/ License
In-Reply-To: <a48847374c644c08923d8fea217d36d4@EX-0-HT0.lancs.local>
References: <a48847374c644c08923d8fea217d36d4@EX-0-HT0.lancs.local>
Message-ID: <CANVKczMj+Ps_sQXe3O98xbYV_Eco-MSWRfDZnLDHQPq+wgQiDA@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Felix Sch?nbrodt <nicebread at gmx.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I want to use a function from another package (which is GPL>=3), about 20 lines of code, in my own package.
> I somewhat hesitate to depend on the entire package just for this single function, but of course I want to credit the original authors.
>
> What would be the best way to do that? Where should I put that credit? Or should I proceed completely different?

 Why so shy about the name and location of this function?

 I think I've seen cases like this before, where a package has a handy
little function that has use outside the context of the package. In
that case I think the best thing is often for that function to be
taken out of that package completely, and put in a new package,
because it isn't so tightly coupled to the aims of the package.

 Obviously this is overkill for one function, but its possible there's
a few functions, or that they are handy enough to belong somewhere
else, such as the plotrix package if its a little plotting function,
or in one of Hadley's packages if it has an underscore in the name.

Barry



[Rd] Snippets from other packages/ License
Barry Rowlingson