potential breaking change - should default vector class be changed to sf from sp ?

[andysouth]

Currently the default returned vector class is sp ideally it would be sf, but this could be a breaking change for existing workflows.

If we changed it, the following would still work in existing workflows

ne_countries(returnclass='sf')
ne_countries(returnclass='sp')
ne_download(returnclass='sf')
ne_download(returnclass='sp')

But workflows with these could break.

ne_countries()
ne_download()

Thanks @rsbivand @Nowosad for the useful comments. Putting into own issue here.

#63 (comment)

Links to https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/12/14/evolution2.html

[mdsumner]

my opinion, create new functions '_sf()', '_Spat()', '_wk()', maintain the old behaviour for as long as sf and sp work. New formats, new functions for when change inevitably comes again