[R] what constitutes a 'complete sentence'?

[Yihui Xie]

Sigh, how natural it is to say "This package ...", but you probably
don't know a package can be easily rejected by CRAN simply because of
this phrase "This package" (it has been clearly stated in the R-exts
manual).

I don't think the grammar is the problem here. When in doubt, I always
check what MASS does:
http://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/MASS/index.html Turns out its
description is not a complete sentence, either.

Sounds like R has become a language for statistical computing and
graphics, plus English grammar since 3.0.x.

Regards,
Yihui
--
Yihui Xie <xieyihui at gmail.com>
Web: http://yihui.name


On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 8:43 AM, Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> On 03/07/15 20:09, Federico Calboli wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I am upgrading a package for CRAN, and I get this note:
>>
>> checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... NOTE Malformed Description
>> field: should contain one or more complete sentences.
>>
>> This is puzzling because:
>>
>> cat DESCRIPTION
>>
>> ... Description: Functions designed to test for single gene/phenotype
>> association and for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic data. ...
>>
>> In my understanding "Functions designed to test for single
>> gene/phenotype association and for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic
>> data.” *is* a complete sentence.  So, what is complete sentence in
>> the opinion of whomever coded that check?
>
>
>
> If that is your understanding you need to go back to school and learn some
> grammar.  What you have is a noun ("Functions") modified by an adjectival
> clause.  No verb in sight.  Ergo *not* a complete sentence.
>
> OTOH you are probably in good company in not knowing your grammar.  The CRAN
> folks most likely don't know grammar either.  I suspect that they *don't*
> actually demand a complete sentence.  Such a demand would in fact be rather
> pedantic.  Moreover I really can't see how the package checker could
> possibly check for complete sentences.  This would require some very
> sophisticated programming, it seems to me.
>
> If it turns out that you *really* need a complete sentence, you could say
> (for instance):
>
> This package consists of functions designed to test for single
> gene/phenotype association and for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic data.
>
> The foregoing *is* a complete sentence.
>
> cheers,
>
> Rolf Turner
>
> --
> Technical Editor ANZJS
> Department of Statistics
> University of Auckland
> Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276