Contribute a welcome patch to base/utils

[hturner]

Discussed in https://github.com/r-devel/r-project-sprint-2023/discussions/23

^{Originally posted by **hturner** August 17, 2023} I have been reviewing reports on Bugzilla and have found several where a member of R Core has indicated a patch would be welcome, either by their comments or by adding the HELPWANTED keyword. These bugs are good candidates for contributors to take on at the sprint, though they generally require advanced knowledge of R and/or C. In some cases, the work may extend beyond the sprint, but the sprint can provide an opportunity to get advice from R Core/other experienced contributors. ... EDIT: table extracted below for updating ... Additions or corrections to this list are welcome - note I have not checked if the bugs are current in R-devel. R Core members commenting on original reports: @mmaechler, @ltierney, @bastistician, @s-u.

Bug ID	Level	Topic/Domain	Summary	Language/other	Assigned
18255	Intermediate	packages	requireNamespace doesn't respect min version when namespace already loaded	R
18380	Intermediate	packages	passing arguments from check_packages_in_dir() to mclapply()	R
17871	Intermediate	utils	utils::tar can produce invalid tarballs w/ long usernames/groupnames	R	Ivan Krylov
14354	Advanced	packages	mark non-standard evaluation in local scope to be skipped by codetools	R	Lionel Henry, Naras
16094	Advanced	packages	respect package version restrictions when using ::	R
16311	Advanced	base	set environment variables from env argument	C, Windows	Ivan Krylov
16752	Advanced	base	printing complex numbers in R	C	Jane He, Carol Willing
16856	Advanced	base	addition of millisecond adds a second	C
16034	Advanced	base	iterative unserialization for pairlists	C
17377	Advanced	utils	inconsistent result of getSrcLocation for an S4 method that uses ...	R

[hturner]

Assigned @SiyaoIsHiding and @willingc to an issue already as they are working remotely and will start early. @mmaechler has agreed to collaborate.

[SiyaoIsHiding]

Thank you. I believe I can try to work on 16856 (addition of millisecond adds a second) too.

[lionel-]

I'd be interested to work on 14354 or 16034.

[aitap]

I think I can tackle 17871, and I can also try 16311.

I was also interested in 14354 and 16034, but there's already enough work to keep anyone occupied.

[bnaras]

I realized that the discussions regarding 14354 are in the actual Bugzilla link where detailed comments have been added. So noting that fact here for completeness.

[aitap]

Bug ID	Summary	Outcome
18255	requireNamespace doesn't respect min version when namespace already loaded
~18380~	passing arguments from check_packages_in_dir() to mclapply()	CLOSED FIXED in r85062
~17871~	utils::tar can produce invalid tarballs w/ long usernames/groupnames	CLOSED FIXED in r85350
14354	mark non-standard evaluation in local scope to be skipped by codetools	As of 29th of September, a declare() SPECIALSXP is available, and so are patches to the compiler package (not yet merged) implementing some of the needed declarations. This is by necessity a longer-term project than most.
16094	respect package version restrictions when using ::
16311	set environment variables from env argument	initial patch available, needs discussion; may need a new, better API
~16752~	printing complex numbers in R	CLOSED FIXED by radically simplifying complex-printing code. Partially-NA complex numbers are printed as NA; otherwise, the numbers are printed separately.
~16856~	addition of millisecond adds a second	CLOSED FIXED in r85352
~16034~	iterative unserialization for pairlists	CLOSED FIXED in r85413
17377	inconsistent result of getSrcLocation for an S4 method that uses ...

[hturner]

Thanks @aitap for summarising the outcomes for this issue.