[Rcpp-devel] Distribution of Rcpp codebase

[Rainer M Krug]

Martyn Plummer <plummerm at iarc.fr> writes:

> And another 2 cents from me.
>
> A package is the basic unit of functionality in R. Whatever
> functionality you are providing, I think a package is the best way to
> deliver it. There is a well developed framework for versioning,
> dependency resolution, testing, and distribution.
>
> If you choose some other mechanism, then I suspect that any developer
> problems you eliminate will just return as system administration
> problems.

I thought I could keep out of this...

rcpp... is so much the core of many packages, that the mechanism of
packages really shows its shortcomings, namely the versioning. A
different aspect was discussed on the r-devel list some time ago
concerning snapshots of CRAN to provide reproducibility.

The part which makes rcpp outstanding from other packages, is that it is
used mainly during compilation and not that much during running - that
is if I understand the "header only" concept correctly.

In contrast, as far as I know, all other packages provide run-time
features as well as compile time - and this is what the packages were
designed for - and I might say they work quite well. 

I can see Romain's point (oparticularly the more fine grained control of
the developer), but I also understand that Dirk will keep rcpp as a
package.

My question is: would it be possible to combine these two, i.e. have one
package, which contains different versions, and to use one command to
switch between these? So one would have one package, which will switch
between different versions?

I don't know if this would be possible or a suitable solution?

The other would obviously be to have different versions of rcpp on CRAN,
similar to ggplot or roxygen.

Cheers,

Rainer

>
> Martyn
>
> On Tue, 2014-04-08 at 10:12 +0200, Xavier Robin wrote:
>> My 2 cents...
>> 
>> On 07/04/14 10:12, Romain François wrote:
>> > It would also mean many copies of the same code base. To which I’m thinking: so what.
>> No, it will mean many copies of /many different and mostly outdated/ 
>> code bases.
>> You can count on me to forget to git pull next time I update my package.
>> 
>> What about something like the BH package that contains the boost 
>> headers? I'm using it in a project I'm working on, and just use a 
>> LinkingTo declaration with something in Makevars.
>> Of course ideally it would be in a build-depends type of declaration so 
>> it isn't pulled during binary installs.
>> 
>> Xavier
>> 
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-- 
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
Stellenbosch University
South Africa

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