Request: A combined CRAN version and GitHub version badge

[karthik]

As discussed on Slack, we are trying to standardize READMEs across the rOpenSci project. In the interest of keeping badges concise and to prevent badge proliferation, we would humbly request a combined CRAN version/status + Github version badge.

Prototype:

@gaborcsardi mentioned that this would require an entirely new badge. If package is not on CRAN, then badge would reflect that.

Why? This badge would allow a potential user to quickly determine whether a package is on CRAN, and if development on GitHub has progressed considerably more than the last CRAN version. 🙏

[gaborcsardi]

Cool. What's the underscore for?

[karthik]

Sorry that was a typo.

[gaborcsardi]

Do you want to show the number of commits since 0.1? (Assuming that there is a 0.1 tag in the GH repo.) Sg. like

Or that's too much?

[sckott]

i like it

[karthik]

I love the idea! I'm not sure if it's possible to add a space before the +. I think that it would be great to have a tool tip that says what it means (e.g.

![The GitHub version is 32 commits ahead of the CRAN version](...)

[noamross]

That's exactly what I was writing, @karthik. I'm not sure it makes sense without the explanation. Can badges have dynamic tooltips?

[gaborcsardi]

I don't think dynamic tooltips are possible on GH, but we can have a generic static one, i.e.

CRAN version / GitHub version + number of commits since last release.

[gaborcsardi]

Here it is with the space:

[karthik]

LGTM @gaborcsardi!

[gaborcsardi]

I can also try to put a thin space around the / signs, but sizing in an SVG is tricky in general.

[gaborcsardi]

Anyway, hopefully next week, after UseR I'll get to it!

[karthik]

Bump @gaborcsardi! 🙏

[gaborcsardi]

Yes, sorry. Soon!

[tanho63]

shamelessly nudging a great idea! @gaborcsardi

[gaborcsardi]

Well, obviously this hasn't happened.

Unfortunately it is unlikely that it is going to happen, because I don't see a good way of getting the GH versions from GitHub.

• The GitHub API is rate limited, so that's not great.
• Getting the DESCRIPTION file from the repo is possible, but very slow.
• We could cache it, but then it won't show the latest information.

So I am going to close it. Please open another issue if you have an idea of how this could be implemented.