From Prof Brian Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk>  Mon Apr 10 14:33:10 2000
From: Prof Brian Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk> (Prof Brian Ripley)
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 14:33:10 +0100 (BST)
Subject: [Rd] 00Index of data
Message-ID: <200004101333.OAA22020@toucan.stats.ox.ac.uk>


> Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 09:25:52 -0400
> From: Paul Gilbert <pgilbert@bank-banque-canada.ca>
> To: r-devel <r-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch>
> Subject: [Rd] 00Index of data
> 
> The "data index" is mentioned in the R Extensions Writer guide as
> >> The subdirectory should contain a `00Index' file
> >> that describes the datasets available.
> 
> I'm not sure what the official format is suppose to be, but given that
> it displays like an index, this has to be a very short description which
> I find somewhat inadequate. Some of my data sets are multivariate time
> series and it is impossible to describe them in such a brief format, so
> I have resorted to very poor descriptions like "data used in ...".  It
> would be nice to have a facility to give a more complete description of
> the data.

There is no restriction on the format.  The only use is with data()
to show what is available. But a few lines should suffice to 
indicate if it is worth looking up the help page for the data.
(And that needs a one-line title.)

The same comments apply to the INDEX file: you can let build
generate it, but several packages have hand-customised files (e.g.boot).

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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[Rd] 00Index of data
Prof Brian Ripley