[R] Good practice for database with utf-8 string in package

[Bert Gunter]

This should not be posted here. Post on the R-package-devel list instead.

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, Sep 16, 2021 at 9:13 AM Marc Girondot via R-help
<r-help using r-project.org> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am a little bit stucked on the problem to include a database with
> utf-8 string in a package. When I submit it to CRAN, it reports NOTES
> for several Unix system and I try to find a solution (if it exists) to
> not have these NOTES.
>
> The database has references and some names have non ASCII characters.
>
> * First I don't agree at all with the solution proposed here:
>
> https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#Encoding-issues
>
> "First, consider carefully if you really need non-ASCIItext."
>
> If a language has non ASCII characters, it is not just to make the
> writting nicer of more complex, it is because it changes the prononciation.
>
> * Then I try to find solution to not have these NOTES.
>
> For example, here is a reference with utf-8 characters
>
> > DatabaseTSD$Reference[211]
> [1] Hernández-Montoya, V., Páez, V.P. & Ceballos, C.P. (2017) Effects of
> temperature on sex determination and embryonic development in the
> red-footed tortoise, Chelonoidis carbonarius. Chelonian Conservation and
> Biology 16, 164-171.
>
> When I convert the characters into unicode, I get indeed only ASCII
> characters. Perfect.
>
> >  iconv(DatabaseTSD$Reference[211], "UTF-8", "ASCII", "Unicode")
> [1] "Hern<U+00E1>ndez-Montoya, V., P<U+00E1>ez, V.P. & Ceballos, C.P.
> (2017) Effects of temperature on sex determination and embryonic
> development in the red-footed tortoise, Chelonoidis carbonarius.
> Chelonian Conservation and Biology 16, 164-171."
>
> Then I have no NOTES when I checked the package with database in UNIX...
> but how can I print the reference back with original characters ?
>
> Thanks a lot to point me to best practices to include databases with
> non-ASCII characters and not have NOTES while submitted package to CRAN.
>
> Marc
>
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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