[Rd] Detaching "ctest"

[Jonathan Rougier]

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.

Cheers, Jonathan.

Jonathan Rougier                       Science Laboratories
Department of Mathematical Sciences    South Road
University of Durham                   Durham DH1 3LE
tel: +44 (0)191 374 2361, fax: +44 (0)191 374 7388
http://www.maths.dur.ac.uk/stats/people/jcr/jcr.html

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