From brahm at alum.mit.edu  Wed Aug 25 21:10:04 2004
From: brahm at alum.mit.edu (David Brahm)
Date: Wed Aug 25 21:09:44 2004
Subject: [Rd] Minimal DESCRIPTION file
Message-ID: <16684.58380.213275.750530@lwtc3.fmr.com>

My "g.data" contributed package fails under R-devel.  g.data creates minimal
packages which consist only of a "DESCRIPTION" file and the "R" and "data"
subdirectories, but .find.package() now rejects them because the DESCRIPTION
file lacks a "Version" field.  I will fix g.data to add a "Version" field.

My question is, what else is necessary for a minimal package?  "Writing R
Extensions" states:
   "The `Package', `Version', `License', `Description', `Title', `Author',
    and `Maintainer' fields are mandatory..."
So should I really add all these (superfluous) fields, to avoid future
rejection?

(A comment inside .find.package() refers to tools:::check_package_description,
but I could not find such a function.  Is there a plan for a universal package
validator, and if so, what are its requirements?)

Bigger picture, will g.data be rendered obsolete by lazy loading?
-- 
                              -- David Brahm (brahm@alum.mit.edu)


[Rd] Minimal DESCRIPTION file
David Brahm