[R] Skipping .Rd files and using Org-mode instead?

[Thorsten Jolitz]

Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz> writes:

> On 01/06/14 03:52, Thorsten Jolitz wrote:
>>
>> Hi List,
>>
>> it seems that .Rd files are just an intermediary format used for
>> exporting to txt, html and latex when creating an R package.
>>
>> How flexible is the R package mechanism? Would it possible to skip .Rd
>> files alltogether, write the docs with another tool (e.g. Emacs
>> Org-mode), export them to txt, html and latex, and include these
>> exported files in the package?
>>
>> Or does the R package mechanism simply expect the .Rd files to be there,
>> so that there is no way avoiding the .Rd format?
>
> (1) I am not an expert, but my reading of "Writing R Extension
> Packages" indicates to me that, yes, .Rd format is necessary.

I thought that too, but wasn't completely sure

> (2) Why would you want to fuck things up by dodging around .Rd ("R
> documentation") files?  Amongst other things, these allow for
> consistency cross-checking by the package checking facility.

Thats indeed a good reason to stick with the .Rd files

> (3) The .Rd syntax is easy to learn and quite powerful.  Get off your
> duff and learn it.

.Rd syntax in not really intimidating, thats not the problem. Thanks for
the answer anyway.

-- 
cheers,
Thorsten