[R] what constitutes a 'complete sentence'?

[peter dalgaard]

A couple of pointers:

(a) R-package-devel exists and is right ------> thataway
(b) R is open source, and QC.R is pretty easy to find. Reading the source, it appears that the check is only for whether the Description: field is terminated by punctuation, possibly followed by a quote.
(c) I'd try read.dcf("DESCRIPTION")[,"Description"] and check that it contains what you think it would contain.

-pd

> On 05 Jul 2015, at 11:13 , jwd <jwd at surewest.net> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 3 Jul 2015 11:09:54 +0300
> Federico Calboli <federico.calboli at helsinki.fi> 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?
>> 
>> Best
>> 
>> F
> 
> Well, no.  It isn't a complete sentence which requires a subject, and
> object and a verb.  However, there are not many package Descriptions
> that ARE complete sentences.  Some could be reworded awkwardly into a
> functional sentence.  You could for instance try:
> 
> "[Library/Package name] is a collection of functions designed to test
> for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic data."
> 
> That is a complete sentence as it contains a form of the
> verb "to be," to whit "is."  By using the package name you also avoid
> the stricture against "The package consists ..."
> 
> JWdougherty
> 
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-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com