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Closed 6 years ago.
I'm searching a good name for a R package I want to send to the CRAN. I didn't find any information about good practice in R package namming. There is a post about how to analyze packages names but it don't answer my question. There is also the alphabetical list of CRAN packages but it only show what exists, not what is good in practice.
The options are :
- Size : Keep the name short (8 characters or less) then it's easy to call with
library(thepack)
but maybe not mayningfull asthe_next_package
; - Camel Style : use Camel Style (e.g.
thePack
) to split the words but with the risk for the user to misspell it when calling it's case-sensitive (library(thepack)
is not equal tolibrary(thePack)
) ; - Special character : using special characters like "." or "_" to split the words (e.g.
the_pack
orthe.pack
) but I don't find them elegant - R letter : add an upper case R to indicate that's an R package (e.g.
Rpack
ortheRpack
) but we have the same problem than with the Camel Style.
It's maybe a trivial question but I think the name of a package is important because it the first interaction between the package and the user. Then must be in the same time meaningfull, concise and easy to write when called with the library()
function.