In IQSS/IQSSdevtools: Initialize and Compile Packages Complying with IQSS Best Practices for Software Development and Sustainability

So you want to start an R package that follows IQSS's Best Practices for Software Development and Sustainability? The best practices has the following components:

In Development

• Informative documentation so users can get started quickly and dig into the package's details. A statistical software package should not be mysterious.

• Tests to let you know as soon as possible if there is a bug in your code.

• Open source license so that the software can be freely shared and contributed to.

• Verson controlled development so that development is reproducible, attributable, and reversible.

• Public source code hosting so that others can watch and contribute to the package's development.

• Automated environment for software build

• Citation information that includes location, authors, ...

Tools

IQSSdevtools' init_iqss_package makes it easy build the best practices into your package from the very beginning of its development.

That being said, you will need a reasonably good handle on three sets of tools to be able to fully implement the best practices:

• rmarkdown + roxygen2 for creating dynamic documentation

• testthat for unit testing

• Git/GitHub for version control and public source code hosting

IQSS/IQSSdevtools documentation built on May 8, 2019, 10:54 a.m.