Vulnerability to absence of retiring r-spatial packages

[rsbivand]

00check.log is a recent check log from running under _SP_EVOLUTION_STATUS_=2 without retiring r-spatial packages (suggested in this package) on the library path (see https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/04/12/evolution.html, https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/12/14/evolution2.html). Use of maptools::readAsciiGrid and the strong dependency need to be removed at the latest by October 2023, better by June 2023, particularly to help out strong reverse dependencies.

[rsbivand]

See also https://r-spatial.org/r/2023/04/10/evolution3.html and https://r-spatial.org/r/2023/05/15/evolution4.html. Please take urgent steps to resolve this issue. No positive changes appear in the repository. Less than three months remain to retain this package on CRAN. 17 packages "most" depend on this package.

[rsbivand]

@andysouth Do you need to retain the use of maptools::readAsciiGrid? You might simply drop it (no dataset="<filename>"), or replace it with coercion to "SpatialGridDaraFrame" from terra::rast (on first use terra takes a while to load, sp is loaded and attached as "Depends"), like:

as(raster::raster(terra::rast(system.file("grids/test.ag", package="maptools"))), 
  "SpatialGridDataFrame")

May I use this as an example 29 August at https://pretalx.earthmonitor.org/opengeohub-summer-school-2023/talk/TATSS7/ ?

[andysouth]

Hi @rsbivand Many thanks for your assistance. I really haven't looked at rworldmap for a few years, as I imagine you can tell.

Firstly (possibly too late) yes you can use as an example.

2ndly, the simplest solution would likely be the best. As you know, there are better R mapping packages out there under active development, particularly tmap. Users seem to be still using rworldmap possibly because it is still slightly more beginner friendly. I know downloads are not a reliable indicator of users but it has had half a million downloads and still 3k a month, and google scholar says 449 citations with 68 last year and 36 so far this.

So because of that, and although its not quite my work area anymore, I'll have a look at the changes needed over the next week :-) .

Thanks again !

[rsbivand]

@andysouth Great, thanks! The remaing niggle seems to be that sp tolerated unclosed polygond but sf doesn't. Something in data/ is still upsetting the FAQ vignette, will look further today.

[rsbivand]

PR #22 made.

[rsbivand]

@andysouth rworldmap is the vulnerable package with the largest reverse dependency count. Please contact the maintainers of

Reverse imports: arakno, BAwiR, bayesPop, bRacatus, GGoutlieR, jcext, rfishnet2, spidR Reverse suggests: bayesTFR, DataVisualizations, epimdr2, loon, rcites, rworldxtra

and ask them to drop rworldmap ASAP, or submit the fixed package to CRAN now.

R spatial infrastructure packages maptools, rgdal and rgeos will be archived by CRAN on Monday, October 16, 2023. Your package does not pass CMD check when these packages are not available. Expect your package to be archived by CRAN October 17-18 as CRAN checks feed through and your package fails, if not updated by Monday, October 16, 2023.

No grace period is anticipated, as you have had sufficient time to update your package to remove dependencies on maptools, rgdal and/or rgeos. It remains the case that many packages importing the raster package needlessly depend on retiring packages, as raster stopped using them a year ago.