[R] developing package: dealing with namespaces

Ross Boylan ross at biostat.ucsf.edu
Mon Feb 4 18:59:30 CET 2013


I am tweaking an R package for which I have the source; the relevant code
is in R not C.   I'm making changes to the package code.

What is the best workflow for doing this?  I recall the advice used to be
to remove the NAMESPACE during development, but I don't think this is
possible anymore.

For simplicity, suppose I have an outer level function f defined in f.R
and an innder g in g.R defined in the package.

My understanding is that if I modify g.R and load it (e.g., C-c C-l in
ESS) this will have no effect on the code the f calls, since the latter is
in a namespace.

If I modify f.R and import it, I'm not sure if it can find g at all if it
has not been exported.

Web searches and reviewing the R Extensions manual have turned up
information on how to trace into functions in namesapces, but not on the
larger development cycle.

Thanks.
Ross



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