From ggrothendieck at gmail.com  Tue Nov 24 01:17:47 2009
From: ggrothendieck at gmail.com (Gabor Grothendieck)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:17:47 -0500
Subject: [Rd] CRAN Server download statistics (Was: R Usage Statistics)
In-Reply-To: <4B0B241D.9000909@prodsyse.com>
References: <C8F304C52E72EF4EBD6CBEF0A2DE1BAA08DC4B9C68@MBX2.AD.UCSD.EDU> 
	<f8e6ff050911230612t29831938w6c049a4de52f2ac@mail.gmail.com> 
	<C8F304C52E72EF4EBD6CBEF0A2DE1BAA08DC4B9C69@MBX2.AD.UCSD.EDU> 
	<971536df0911231515t25d700ebicb599976106ae52b@mail.gmail.com> 
	<4B0B241D.9000909@prodsyse.com>
Message-ID: <971536df0911231617j27142416k549694f957a82bb8@mail.gmail.com>

If a package is not broadly using a dependency it can be listed under
Suggests: instead.

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 7:09 PM, spencerg <spencer.graves at prodsyse.com> wrote:
> Beyond what Gabor said, I might download a package that uses "zoo", then use
> "zoo" directly in other contexts without ever downloading it directly.
> ?Total downloads would capture that; ?top level downloads would not. ?The
> flip side is that a package that requires "zoo" may only use it for features
> that I don't use. ?This would support the use of top level downloads over
> total downloads. ?Spencer
>
> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Fellows, Ian <ifellows at ucsd.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> 6. Regarding package dependancies, I was thinking about also counting the
>>> number of top level downloads, as approximated
>>> by the number of downloads where a reverse dependancy was not downloaded
>>> in the next 5 min by the same IP.
>>>
>>
>> Top level downloads discriminates against infrastructure packages,
>> i.e. packages that are not necessarily directly used by users or even
>> downloaded directly by users. ?It can make it seem as if a package
>> that is widely used, but not directly by users, is barely used at all
>> so total downloads seems a better metric of popularity than top level
>> downloads.
>>
>> I can't find it just now but remember reading a post on another list,
>> or maybe it was his blog, by the author of certain software (not
>> related to R) that was fundamental to Ruby on Rails but as
>> infrastructure would not be directly observed by the user yet Ruby on
>> Rails got all the credit and his key contribution got almost none
>> despite the fact that Ruby on Rails likely would have never achieved
>> its current high level of popularity without his contribution.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
> President and Chief Operating Officer
> Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
> 751 Emerson Ct.
> San Jos?, CA 95126
> ph: ?408-655-4567
>
>



[Rd] CRAN Server download statistics (Was: R Usage Statistics)
Gabor Grothendieck