[R] Is it good practice to have a package depend on Rtools(for unziping of .7z and.rar files)? Crab legal?

[Lucas Ferreira Mation]

ok, tks

2018-03-29 11:30 GMT-03:00 Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com>:

> r-package-devel is the right mailing list for your query, not here.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Bert
>
>
> Bert Gunter
>
> "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along
> and sticking things into it."
> -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 6:56 AM, Lucas Ferreira Mation
> <lucasmation at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I created this package,
> >
> > https://github.com/lucasmation/microdadosBrasil
> >
> > which we are preparing for Cran submission. The package facilitates
> > downloading and reading most of the microdatasets (household surveys,
> > Census, etc). For each dataset it:
> >
> > (a) downloads the data from  the data providers
> > (b) "unzip" the necessary files
> > (c) imports the data into R.
> >
> > For  (b), some of the datasets come in .7z and .rar format which ideally
> > the package should unzip (or whatever the correct them for uncompacting
> > these file types is) so that the underlying .txt or .csv files can be
> > imported into R.
> >
> > Not being able to find a solution within R (R only deals with .zip
> files),
> > we added a Rtools dependency, in order to use Rtools expanded
> > unzipping capabilities on the .7z and .rar  files.
> >
> > Is adding a Rtools dependency a bad practice for an R package? Is it even
> > allowed by cran? I mean, it changes requires the installation of a
> > standalone software (Rtools), which does not seem very user-friendly.
> >
> > Is there any alternative for unzipping .rar and .7z files that only
> depends
> > on R packages and works independently of the OS, etc?
> >
> > If the Rtools is a big problem, I could also revert to our initial
> strategy
> > that did not support .7z and .rar "unzipping", requesting the user to
> > manually unpack those files.
> >
> > regards
> > Lucas
> >
> >         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >
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