[R] Writing Rcmdr Plugins

[Richard M. Heiberger]

Bernhard and Irina, 

While tailoring the Rcmdr menu directly does work, I strongly do not
recommend it.  It will lead to mass confusion, most likely for the author,
several
months from now when it is installed on a different machine or when R or
Rcmdr is updated.

It is much cleaner to have a separate package.  It is also much easier to
write and maintain
a separate package than it is to edit the original Rcmdr-menus.txt.  While
the startup cost to
the author of writing an RcmdrPlugin.xxx is about the same as the cost for
modifying Rcmdr
itself, the maintenance is fantastically simpler for a Plugin package.

It is clear to the user of a Plugin package that your changes are not the
original.
When you modify the original Rcmdr, users will not be told explicitly that
they are using
a modified version.  That will lead to confusion on this list.

I distribute a Plugin (RcmdrPlugin.HH) on CRAN.  I originally distributed it
as a modification of
the Rcmdr.  John Fox invented plugins partially as a result of my
experience.  It is much
better for both of us have a clear separation of his responsibilities as
designer of the
Rcmdr, and mine as designer of several specific functions.

Rich

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On
Behalf Of Pfaff, Bernhard Dr.
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 06:01
To: G. Jay Kerns; Irina Ursachi
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Writing Rcmdr Plugins

Dear Irina,

though you asked explicitly for writing a RCommander-plugin package; I
just wanted to add that the former approach of tailor-making menues in
the Commander still works. That is, just copy your R file with the
tcl/tk functions into the /etc directory of the RCommander and include
your menu structure into the file "Rcmdr-menus.txt"

Best,
Bernhard