>>> I'd say: Depends is a historical artefact from ye old days before >>> package namespaces. Apart from depending on a specific version of R, >>> you should basically never use depends. (The one exception is, as >>> mentioned in R-exts, if you're writing something like latticeExtras >>> that doesn't make sense unless lattice is already loaded). >> >> Keeping this nuance in mind when when discussing Depends vs Imports is >> important so as to not suggest that there isn't any reason to use Depends >> any longer. > > A common case in Bioconductor is that a package defines a class and methods > intended for the user; this requires the package to be on the search path > (else the user wouldn't be able to do anything with the returned object). A > class and supporting methods can represent significant infrastructure, so > that it makes sense to separate these in distinct packages. It is not > uncommon to find 3-5 or more packages in the Depends: field of derived > packages for this reason.
For that scenario, is it reasonable to say that every package in depends must also be in imports? Hadley -- http://had.co.nz/ ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
