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cran-task-views / ctv

CRAN Task View Initiative
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Feature request: view function without package install #30

Closed LingrenKong closed 2 years ago

LingrenKong commented 2 years ago

Thankyou, this is a great project for people who wants to learn about unknown task fields. However, I have to say that this package terrified me because of the installation design.

The function install.views uses 'view' to describe the result, and README document also says that we need to install the views, so I naturally regard the view as the .md file and local html. The installation of the full list really shocked me.

I believe it would be better to set the install.views as a loader without package installation by default, maybe set a key argument with.package=F.

Also, installing the full list may not be what users really need. Some packages depend on different versions only, and may need special installation, so the function cannot guarantee install all list successfully ( I have more than ten error install in the Economics view, one "not available for this version of R", one "Permission denied" and many "non-zero exit status"). Maybe a better choice is to let users read the task suggestions first and then install by themselves or install with install.view after reading the suggestion file.

zeileis commented 2 years ago

I'm not sure how you got to the install.views() function and why it confused you. Are you referring to this README page:

https://CRAN.R-project.org/web/packages/ctv/readme/README.html

? If so, i think that I can clarify a few details. In particular, it is probably easier if there is a direct link to this page:

https://CRAN.R-project.org/web/views/

There, the formulations are probably less confusing because a list with links to the task view pages is included right below.

As for the general design of the package: available.views() and install.views() have been designed following the strategy of available.packages() and install.packages().

LingrenKong commented 2 years ago

The confusing point is that, the purpose of this ctv project is "provide some guidance which packages on CRAN are relevant for tasks related to a certain topic", which means suggesting people to read links to task page on the page https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/ . The ctv R package as view list installer, and ctv project of task introduction pages mixed together.

LingrenKong commented 2 years ago

I thought the package also works as html renderer of the tasks, which is included in the read.ctv function in ducument "https://github.com/cran-task-views/ctv/blob/main/Documentation.md" (intended for authors of CRAN task views).

So the R package is designed only as downloader?

LingrenKong commented 2 years ago

I'm sorry, it's my problem not to read carefully. I regard it as a api package similar to cranlog, so I thought the function can get infomation instead of package itself.

LingrenKong commented 2 years ago

Thanks for your reply

I'm not sure how you got to the install.views() function and why it confused you. Are you referring to this README page:

https://CRAN.R-project.org/web/packages/ctv/readme/README.html

? If so, i think that I can clarify a few details. In particular, it is probably easier if there is a direct link to this page:

https://CRAN.R-project.org/web/views/

There, the formulations are probably less confusing because a list with links to the task view pages is included right below.

As for the general design of the package: available.views() and install.views() have been designed following the strategy of available.packages() and install.packages().