Please remove dependencies on **rgdal**, **rgeos**, and/or **maptools**

[rsbivand]

This package depends on (depends, imports or suggests) raster and one or more of the retiring packages rgdal, rgeos or maptools (https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/04/12/evolution.html, https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/12/14/evolution2.html). Since raster 3.6.3, all use of external FOSS library functionality has been transferred to terra, making the retiring packages very likely redundant. It would help greatly if you could remove dependencies on the retiring packages as soon as possible.

If there are no good alternatives for maptools::solarnoon, maptools::sunriset, please raise an issue at https://github.com/r-spatial/evolution/issues asking for the functionality you need to be moved to sp.

[rsbivand]

You will be aware, for example from:
https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/04/12/evolution.html,
https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/12/14/evolution2.html,
https://r-spatial.org/r/2023/04/10/evolution3.html and
https://rsbivand.github.io/csds_jan23/bivand_csds_ssg_230117.pdf and
perhaps view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlpjIqTPMCA&list=PLzREt6r1NenmWEidssmLm-VO_YmAh4pq9&index=1
that rgdal, rgeos and maptools will be retired this
year, in October 2023.

PWFSLSmoke imports 'maptools', 'rgdal' using maptools::solarnoon maptools::sunriset rgdal::writeOGR found by pkgapi, not in NAMESPACE, rgdal::writeOGR in R/monitor_writeCurrentStatusGeoJSON.R line 133; raster imports terra, so coercion to SpatVector and terra::writeVector should be a feasible replacement. maptools::solarnoon maptools::sunriset are harder, but see and respond proactively to separate email thread about moving these functions to another package. Please fix best by June, latest October 2023; half the time for fixing this has noow elapsed.

[rsbivand]

Please collaborate with other users of sun methods to resolve shared use.

[rsbivand]

@jonathancallahan See also https://r-spatial.org/r/2023/05/15/evolution4.html. Please take urgent steps to resolve this issue. No positive changes appear in the repository. Less than three months remain to retain this package on CRAN. The suntools package is now on CRAN.

[rsbivand]

@jonathancallahan Less than three weeks remain to fix this.

[rsbivand]

@jonathancallahan R spatial infrastructure packages maptools, rgdal and rgeos will be archived by CRAN on Monday, October 16, 2023. Your package does not pass CMD check when these packages are not available. Expect your package to be archived by CRAN October 17-18 as CRAN checks feed through and your package fails, if not updated by Monday, October 16, 2023.

No grace period is anticipated, as you have had sufficient time to update your package to remove dependencies on maptools, rgdal and/or rgeos. It remains the case that many packages importing the raster package needlessly depend on retiring packages, as raster stopped using them a year ago.