Re: [O] [PATCH] read.table in variable transfer caused sometimes "function not found" error - small change

[Charles C. Berry]

On Wed, 8 Oct 2014, Rainer M Krug wrote:

> "Charles C. Berry" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > On Wed, 8 Oct 2014, Rainer M Krug wrote:
> >
> > > "Charles C. Berry" <address@hidden> writes:
> > >
> > > > On Mon, 6 Oct 2014, Rainer M Krug wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi
> > > > >
> > > > > The variable transfer of tables from org to R caused sometimes 'could
> > > > > not find function "read.table"' errors (e.g. when the file was tangled
> > > > > into a ./data directory which was loaded by the function
> > > > > devtools::load_all("./")). This can easily be fixed by adding the package
> > > > > name to the call in R, i.e. replacing =read.table()= with
> > > > > =utils::read.table()= which is done in this patch.
> > > >
> > > > It does fix that one case.
> > > >
> > > > But I wonder if that is the best way.
> > > >
> > > > The heart of the matter is that load_all eventually calls sys.source,
> > > > which can be persnickety about finding objects on the search path. See
> > > > ?sys.source.
> > > >
> > > > If the src block you tangle to ./data/ has any code that uses any
> > > > other objects from utils, stats, datasets or whatever, you will be in
> > > > the same pickle.
> > >
> > > Exactly - that is true. But it is the same when putting this in a
> > > package (as far as I am aware).
> >
> > Do you mean that putting `x <- rnorm(10)' into a data/*.R file will
> > fail when you try to build and check?
> >
> > In fact, `R CMD build' will execute it and save the result as a
> > data/*.rda file. And check will go through.
> >
> > devtools::load_all (calling load_data) fails to do that. Which is why
> > I think this is a devtools issue.
>
> OK - point taken. But I still think that the =utils::read.table()= would
> not hurt, rather make the variable transfer safer.

What you want to change is in a defconst. So, the user can override with a 
file-local version.

So, making the change really is harmless.

Maybe add a note to the docstring to say that using `utils::read.table' 
assures that `read.table' always can be found just in case anyone ever 
asks.

Chuck