From Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at  Thu Apr  5 20:30:11 2001
From: Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at (Kurt Hornik)
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 21:30:11 +0200
Subject: [Rd] Detaching "ctest"
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.20.0104031001530.13680-100000@laplace>
References: <15044.46028.686427.367469@mithrandir.hornik.net>
 <Pine.GSO.4.20.0104031001530.13680-100000@laplace>
Message-ID: <15052.51139.270582.27097@mithrandir.hornik.net>

>>>>> Jonathan Rougier writes:

> On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, Kurt Hornik wrote:
>> >>>>> Peter Dalgaard BSA writes:
>> 
>> > ...
>> 
>> >> configure("packages")
>> 
>> > which could do different things depending on whether you were using a
>> > GUI, terminal interface, ESS, or maybe even batch mode. In simple
>> > modes it might simply be based on edit()ing the output of
>> 
>> >   data.frame(package=.packages(all=T),
>> >              load=!is.na(match(.packages(all=T),.packages())))
>> 
>> > - although you might want to distinguish between the usual profile-ish
>> > things (site-level/user-level/directory-level/workspace-specific) too.
>> > With a GUI, you'd likely want something with checkboxes instead.
>> 
>> Nice idea!  Two remarks.
>> 
>> * We might want similar ways of setting `preferences' such as options.
>> [E.g., via something like Emacs M-x customize, or in a GUI style.]
>> 
>> * In any case, as far as I am concerned the real problem is not having a
>> convenient interface but on agreeing on what the choices should be,
>> and how well-educated users or site admins need to be to make the
>> right choices.  E.g., when it comes to setting a default profile for
>> packages, how does the user find out which packages he wants?

> I certainly agree with this last point.  However, the problem is
> lessened if the user can use .Rprofile to tune the set-up.  The
> current arrangement prevents that (or, at least, makes it rather
> inelegant) by using .First to load ctest (and, in the future, other
> mandatory packages?).  It seems to me that in an ideal world .Rprofile
> would be the very last thing invoked before the prompt.  That way
> whatever set-up is put in place by the system administrator or the
> default, the individual user still has control.

But this is exactly what happens---settings from .Rprofile do override
the system and site defaults.  The question is whether .First should be
used for package setup, or something else ...

-k
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[Rd] Detaching "ctest"
Kurt Hornik