[ideas] description field for targets

[tjmahr]

Help

• I understand and agree to https://books.ropensci.org/targets/help.html.

Description

Sometimes I wish I had an description field for documenting what each target it is a more human-friendly way.

tar_target(
  name,
  command,
  description = "a field where we can briefly describe the target",
)

One could write a code comment, but this approach would be better because it could show up in tar_manifest(). It would also help generate READMEs.

Arguably, we should make the commands into simple functions and document those functions, but the trouble I have is having several end-products and recalling what they are.

[wlandau]

If your targets do not take up too much storage, then you can do pretty much the same thing with a tar_render()/tar_quarto() report which shows and explains each target you want to describe.

I will think about the description feature you propose, since I think it could also extend to #1136 and #1196

[wlandau]

implemented in #1236