Thierry, I agree with you and think that computers _should_ help users.
When R tells me a package does not exist, it is almost never because I typed an incorrect package name. Almost always it is because: (1) I am using an old script with a new version of R and have not yet installed a package. (2) I am running a current script on a different machine that does not have a package installed. (3) I am copying some code from the web and have not yet installed a package. MiKTeX does a nice job of auto-installing packages in a silent manner. I've tried to imitate that with the function below. I add this to .Rprofile. Then use "lib(pkg)" to install and attach packages automatically. The function is rough and needs improvement, but works reasonably well. Kevin assign("lib", function(p=NULL, ...){ # Why ... ? p <- substitute(p) if(!is.null(p) & !is.character(p)) p <- deparse(substitute(p)) print(p) ip <- rownames(installed.packages()) # Should be more clever here and only install some of 'p' if(!(p %in% ip)) install.packages(p) require(p, ..., character.only=TRUE) }, env=startup) On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 4:46 AM, ONKELINX, Thierry <thierry.onkel...@inbo.be > wrote: > Dear all, > > When one tries to load a non-installed package you get the error: > > Error in library(xyz) : there is no package called 'xyz' > > I noticed on several occasions that this puzzles beginners. Therefore I > suggest to change the error description in: > > Error in library(xyz) : there is no package called 'xyz' installed on this > machine. Check the name of the package or use install.packages("xyz") to > install it. > > Best regards, > > Thierry > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ir. Thierry Onkelinx > Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek > team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg > Gaverstraat 4 > 9500 Geraardsbergen > Belgium > > Research Institute for Nature and Forest > team Biometrics & Quality Assurance > Gaverstraat 4 > 9500 Geraardsbergen > Belgium > > tel. + 32 54/436 185 > thierry.onkel...@inbo.be > www.inbo.be > > To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more > than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say > what the experiment died of. > ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher > > The plural of anecdote is not data. > ~ Roger Brinner > > The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not > ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. > ~ John Tukey > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel