Non-API calls

[Jean-Romain]

New CRAN policy check

Compiled code should not call non-API entry points in R.
See ‘Writing portable packages’ in the ‘Writing R Extensions’ manual.

Easy:

• R_curErrorBuf

Problematic:

• SETLENGTH to make resizable vectors

We are not alone. Big actors have the same problem:

• Remove non-API calls in C Rdatatable/data.table#6180
• Non-API calls r-lib/vctrs#1933
• Non-API calls conundrum r-lib/rlang#1706
• Found non-API calls to R: SETLENGTH, SET_TRUELENGTH r-lib/cpp11#355
• brio: Avoid using SET_TRUELENGTH() r-lib/brio#32

We may need to remove the point_metrics() function if we can't find a solution

[Jean-Romain]

Removed point_metrics() temporarily

[samuelgrubinger]

Hi JR,
Is there any plan to reinstate point_metrics()?
It would be very helpful. If it were available in lidR, I wouldn't need to do such 'fancy' things in lasR.
Unfortunately, I am working on a cloud computing system and can only install from conda-forge, so can't grab it from the devel version.

[Jean-Romain]

You can install it from r-universe. It's not my fault if CRAN changes its policies without providing a fallback. This also affects, for example, the data.table package, and they haven’t found a workaround yet. If world-class programmers can’t find a solution, I probably won’t either. Still, data.table remains on CRAN, maybe they can put more pressure on CRAN, I don’t know. If I release lidR with the feature, I’m pretty sure it will be kicked off CRAN.