[Rd] [Wish]: Add "..." argument to library function

[Liaw, Andy]

IMHO this should be done by the package author(s), without resorting to
changing behavior of library().  I.e., I write a function, say, startGUI(),
that does just that, and print a message in .First.lib() that tells the user
that that's what he/she should execute to startup the GUI.  I believe this
is sort of how it's done in MASS on Windows (or was that MASS in S-PLUS?),
if I remember correctly...

Andy

> From: Eric Lecoutre
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I would find it very usefull to have the ability to load 
> packages with options.
> Consider for example the SciViews package Philippe and me are 
> working on. 
> When loading on Windows, it automatically loads the associated GUI 
> executable. It should be convenient to have an option not to 
> load the exe 
> but still have an access to the R functions of the package.
> 
> For that, I think a simple change to 'library' would do the 
> trick, which is 
> to add '...' to it, as it is not used for the moment.
> 
> The definition of library would then be:
> 
> ----
> function (package, help, pos = 2, lib.loc = NULL, 
> character.only = FALSE,
>      logical.return = FALSE, warn.conflicts = TRUE, keep.source = 
> getOption("keep.source.pkgs"),
>      verbose = getOption("verbose"), version,...)
> #
> # Stuff removed to show which lines are changed later
> #
>    .Internal(lib.fixup(loadenv, env))
>                  if (exists(".First.lib", mode = "function", 
> envir = env,
>                    inherits = FALSE)) {
>                    firstlib <- get(".First.lib", mode = "function",
>                      envir = env, inherits = FALSE)
>                    tt <- try(firstlib(which.lib.loc, package,...))
>                    if (inherits(tt, "try-error"))
>                      if (logical.return)
>                        return(FALSE)
>                      else stop(".First.lib failed")
>                  }
>                  if (!is.null(firstlib <- 
> getOption(".First.lib")[[package]])) {
>                    tt <- try(firstlib(which.lib.loc, package,...))
>                    if (inherits(tt, "try-error"))
>                      if (logical.return)
>                        return(FALSE)
>                      else stop(".First.lib failed")
>                  }
> ---------
> 
> Then, in a package, the maintener can decide to include as 
> many options as 
> desired within his ".First.lib"
> 
> ".First.lib" <- function(lib,pkg,showGUI=TRUE,useWidgets="TclTk")
> {
> 	if (showGUI) #
> }
> 
> I am quite sure many packages could benefit from such an additionnal 
> loading options
> 
> Eric
> Eric Lecoutre
> UCL /  Institut de Statistique
> Voie du Roman Pays, 20
> 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
> Belgium
> 
> tel: (+32)(0)10473050
> lecoutre at stat.ucl.ac.be
> http://www.stat.ucl.ac.be/ISpersonnel/lecoutre
> 
> If the statistics are boring, then you've got the wrong 
> numbers. -Edward 
> Tufte
> 
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