change maintainer on cran

[sckott]

@ScientificProgrammer when you get a chance, could you submit a new version to cran changing the maintainer to you? not urgent, but any correspondence from cran will go to me right now, so it'd be good to have it go to you instead. thanks!

[ScientificProgrammer]

Sure. I'll work on this issue this weekend.

[sckott]

thanks!

[maelle]

@ScientificProgrammer did you get a chance to work on this? Happy to help if needed. Thank you!

[sckott]

@ScientificProgrammer it's been a few years now - can you please make this change?

@maelle I think if we don't hear back from Eric within a week or so (since it's been 2 years almost), should we archive this pkg? or put another call out for maintainers?

[maelle]

@ScientificProgrammer thanks for your work on gistr. If you don't answer within one week, we'll put on a call for a new maintainer. Thank you for your understanding! (I found no email address for your profile)

[ScientificProgrammer]

@sckott wrote:

@ScientificProgrammer it's been a few years now - can you please make this change?

@maelle I think if we don't hear back from Eric within a week or so (since it's been 2 years almost), should we archive this pkg? or put another call out for maintainers?

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@maelle wrote:

"@ScientificProgrammer thanks for your work on gistr. If you don't answer within one week, we'll put on a call for a new maintainer. Thank you for your understanding! (I found no email address for your profile)"

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Hi Scott and Maëlle:

Firstly, thank you for your patience and grace with me. Around the time that I took on the role of maintainer for this package, I also started a new job (and in a different career field no less). That change coincided with the release of Quarto.

When I volunteered to be the maintainer for ropenci/gist, I had a decent understanding of knitr and RMarkdown, along with a tenuous grasp of pandoc, but I don't think I was aware of Quarto's pending release. Since then, I've been telling myself that I'd spend some time becoming proficient with Quarto before making changes to ropenci/gist, and, well...here we are.

Fortunately, by sheer luck, I've spent the last month studying Quarto because I'm determined to become proficient with it. I thought I'd just learn it by using it, but, as I'm sure you can relate, I always seemed to be racing against some deadline. Every time, rather than slowing down and trying to learn Quarto, I'd just fall back to my comfortable place with RMarkdown.

During my recent experimentation with Quarto, I've learned that, although the actual Quarto code chunk syntax is different than RMarkdown's, the two platforms mirror each other so well at a logical level that I'm becoming proficient with Quarto faster than I thought I would.

I'd be disappointed to see the ropenci/gist package retired, but, if you're willing to take another chance on me, I'm willing to put in some some real effort to try and freshen it up. About two years ago, Maëlle gave me a very helpful introduction to being an ropensci dev.

She also offered to give me some one on one help if I needed it. If the offer still stands, I'll take it.

Sincerely,
Eric

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PS

Maëlle: I regret any confusion. You already have my email and contact info. If I need to make some changes to my personal repo or this one to make my identity clearer, just let me know. I'll send you a reply email momentarily. Thanks for being so engaged and helpful!

[maelle]

👋 @ScientificProgrammer! Thanks for your answer! I know remember we had exchanged emails at that time, so sorry I forgot.

Awesome that you're willing to work on the package. Please send me any question on Slack or email, I can review PRs if needed and we can even plan a short call if needed.

It seems you still have access to the GitHub repo.

[ScientificProgrammer]

Thank you for your generosity. A call would be really helpful. Because of my work schedule, I the only times I have easily available are on the weekends. Please reply to my email you sent me, and when you do, I'll coordinate a time with you. Thank you again for being so helpful!

[sckott]

Thanks for providing guidance @maelle

@ScientificProgrammer the most important thing to me is that the maintainer is changed on CRAN - b/c I'm still technically responsible for this package as far as CRAN is concerned. That'd be cool if that could b the first thing you do, thanks

[ScientificProgrammer]

"...the most important thing to me is that the maintainer is changed on CRAN - b/c I'm still technically responsible for this package as far as CRAN is concerned..."

Scott:

My apologies. I thought I made that change already, but it was a long time ago. When I first volunteered to serve as a maintainer about two years ago, I recall editing something about a maintainer change, but I cannot remember what it was, and I can't find a reference to it in my notes. That change might have been to the .DESCRIPTION file here on Github or with ROpenSci.

Maëlle and I are trying to coordinate a time for an interactive session. If the process of making the change on CRAN is easy and you think I could figure it out out relatively quickly, point me in the right direction and I'll start it now. Otherwise, if it can wait until Maëlle and I have had a chance to get reacquainted, which is probably going to be this weekend at the earliest, I'll get it done as soon as I know where to start.

Eric

PS Thanks for your patience. I've never maintained an open-source R package before, so this whole process is new to me. When Maëlle and I met a few years ago, she got me set up on Discord and with some of the ropensci infrastructure. All of those things are still foreign to me.

[sckott]

It can definitely wait until you talk with Maëlle. You did make a change to the DESCRIPTION file here 660766d but that doesn't automatically make a change in the CRAN version at https://cloud.r-project.org/web/packages/gistr/ - hopefully Maëlle can point you in the right direction!

[maelle]

I have now answered your email. :-) Regarding CRAN releases here's useful guidance: https://r-pkgs.org/release.html You'd also have to send an email to CRAN indicating the maintainer change, with Scott in cc so that he might indicate he's aware of and agrees with the change.

[ScientificProgrammer]

@sckott

I regret not being able to get this issue finished sooner. The weekends are the only times I usually have availability to work on this project, and @maelle isn't available then. I'm trying to find a time during this week to connect with her. I'll keep you in the loop.

[maelle]

@ScientificProgrammer should I expect an email from you? @yabellini is in a timezone closer to yours and could help you with orientation within rOpenSci.