Why is package install source only?

[rsbivand]

The instruction for installation has type="source". Has this always been the case, or has it changed? It forces Windows and macOS users to install compile trains, which is a minority interest, and for a data-only package really not needed. Both platforms have builders, so running say spDataLarge_2.0.1 through winbuilder would at least provide for Windows people, and I think I recall an M1 builder service being mentioned (not sure about macOS on Intel.). It could be that the macOS side is complicated by notarization etc., but Windows is feasible.

[Nowosad]

I have done some digging:

• I added the README file to this repo in April 2020 - e5fc836#diff-b335630551682c19a781afebcf4d07bf978fb1f8ac04c6bf87428ed5106870f5
• However, the original instruction (with type="source") is in the spData repo since November 2017 - Nowosad/spData@27d3c8b#diff-b335630551682c19a781afebcf4d07bf978fb1f8ac04c6bf87428ed5106870f5

Should we remove it @rsbivand?

[rsbivand]

What is typical drat repo practice? Is it to oblige users to install from source, or rather that some drat repos do build Windows and/or macOS binaries? If some do build binaries, do they use GHA to build binaries (the bin directory is present by default with its PACKAGES file)? If so, could this be used here? Obliging users to install from source assumes that installing Rtools40 on Windows (equivalent manual steps on macOS) is something users should do, and I think this is doubtful.

[Nowosad]

I will investigate that in the next few days.
One drat alternative I can think of now is that we could move to use r-universe instead (as it creates binaries by default) - Additional_repositories: https://geocompr.r-universe.dev. (Example - https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/USAboundaries/index.html)

[rsbivand]

Your call on geocompr.universe.dev. If I understand correctly, no arm support on macOS, and UCRT support on Windows is not following R-core/CRAN? Also, CRAN+drat is long-term reliable, with drat under maintainer responsibility. A standard GHA setup for package checking could be edited to deliver binaries (check to INSTALL --build), but I don't know how to retrieve the output packages.

[Nowosad]

I have done some more investigating. type="source" was an original suggestion of the drat authors - see https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2017/RJ-2017-026/RJ-2017-026.pdf and https://github.com/geanders/hurricaneexposure/blob/master/R/zzz.R.

I also asked some people to test the installation without type="source" on Windows or MacOS. It seems that it worked fine on Windows (thanks @Robinlovelace!). I now wait for some MacOS example...