tools::toTitleCase("web application framework for R")[1] "Web Application Framework for R"DESCRIPTION file Issues
Formatting Software Names
Problem
The automatic spell check has flagged a software name as incorrect and results in a NOTE.
Solution
All references to names of software, packages and API names in the description section of the DESCRIPTION file should be wrapped in single quotes. e.g.: ‘ggplot2’, ‘Python’, etc.
Details
Words in single quotes are not flagged by the automatic spell check and may be used when appropriate to include references to software names only.
The description section in the DESCRIPTION file of the ‘readr’ package provides an example which uses single quotes around the package name and file extensions:
Description: The goal of 'readr' is to provide a fast and friendly way to
read rectangular data (like 'csv', 'tsv', and 'fwf'). It is designed
to flexibly parse many types of data found in the wild, while still
cleanly failing when data unexpectedly changes.Explaining Acronyms
Problem
You are using acronyms in your DESCRIPTION file or they are flagged by the automatic spell check.
Solution
Document all non-obvious acronyms in the cran-comments.md file to facilitate the CRAN team review.
Details
Most acronyms that are not widely known should be explained. For example, you don’t have to explain OLS, SEO, or DNA but explanations should be provided for: MEFM or OCCDS. If you are unsure of the acronyms common knowledge, please document all acronyms in the package.
LICENSE files
Problem
Some licenses do not need to be added verbatim, instead they are referenced in the DESCRIPTION file and the CRAN template is added to the package. You can find the template at the CRAN website.
Solution
Remove the reference + file LICENSE and delete the LICENSE file.
Details
Most licenses don’t need an additional file as these are part of R. The list of which licenses that do require an additional file can be accessed within R by searching for Note: this is a template, needs + file LICENSE:
path_licenses <- list.files(path = R.home(), "license.db", full.names = TRUE, recursive = TRUE)
licenses_doc <- as.data.frame(read.dcf(path_licenses))If an additional file is needed, it should only specify the author and year for a MIT file or year, copyright holder, and organization for a BSD file.
Tip
Licenses should be FOSS, or allowed by R.
Title Case
Problem
The package Title field in the DESCRIPTION file is not in Title Case and the first letter of some or all of the words in the title are lowercase.
Solution
The package Title field in the DESCRIPTION file must be in Title Case, except words like “a”, “the” or “of”.
Details
Determining Title Case automatically can be challenging due to word significance being only known by the package author. The function toTitleCase() can assist with transforming sentences into Title Case from the ‘tools’ package.
Note
There are some exceptions to using Title Case for quoting longer works like book titles and shorter works like research papers.
It is also not recommended to mention package names in the Title.