[Gretl-devel] about adding function packages to the menus

Hi, I want to raise a "policy question". Currently contributed function packages can decide "for themselves" whether they want to be added somewhere in the gretl menus. IIRC this was borrowed from the gretl add-ons. For the outsider/user this blurs the distinction between core gretl and the contributions, which is exactly the purpose of the mechanism. However, there is a difference in the amount of testing that goes into a functionality in core gretl compared to the testing that a function package receives. (I'm talking about the testing done by the code authors, not about the quite superficial checks that Allin, Jack, and I are doing when moving a submitted package to the public server. And I am also talking about packages written by myself, this is not meant as criticizing others.) So the problem is that to the user package bugs would look like gretl bugs, which makes gretl look less reliable than it is. My first suggestion therefore is to include the "author" field not only in the package list in the "on server" window, but also in the list window displaying the locally installed packages. This should make it more transparent that these are _contributed_ packages, and not core gretl. (Also the ego of the authors might benefit a little.) Secondly, my proposal is that before a package is allowed to appear in the menus it would need to pass some additional checks. For example, this check could be provided by replicating in the example script some known-good result. BTW, there is a real-world experience behind my suggestion. Of course this policy change would not prevent all bugs; for example I remember a bug affecting (some) results in the SVAR addon, and that addon was certainly tested quite thoroughly. But still I think it could help. So -- what do you think? thanks, sven