R devel - Jun 2003 - Wording of "R Installation and Administration"

Hi,

I hope I haven't got this wrong, but I don't think one needs Perl 
installed if they install the "precompiled" packages for Windows
right?

I'm just wondering if the first sentence in the "R Installation and 
Administration" can be re-worded a bit so newbies won't get
confused....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 08:56:37 +1200 (NZST)
From: Ko-Kang Kevin Wang <kwan022@stat.auckland.ac.nz>
To: rwatkins@cornerstonelp.com
Subject: RE: [R] Downloading packages from CRAN

Hi Rick,

On Sun, 1 Jun 2003 rwatkins@cornerstonelp.com wrote:
> Kevin-
> 	Thanks a lot for the help -- the Install manual clearly states in the
first
> line of the Installing Packages section that one needs Perl5.004 or higher
> to install source packages. (To date, I have found the manuals to be
> confusing at best.)
Ah I see the confusion.  I am taking it you are reading the "R 
Installation and Administration", Section 5.1.  It says "Installing
source
packages requires that Perl 5.004 or later be installed."  Note the 
keywords "source packages".  It means if you want to download the
"source
codes" of the package(s), i.e. a tarball file, and compile the package 
yourself, then you will need Perl.

Most, if not all, packages on CRAN have a "pre-compiled" windows
version,
i.e. a ZIP file.  That is why the easiest way is to install under Rgui, as 
the default URL setting in Rgui is to look under the appropriate directory 
in which pre-compiled package files located.
> 	I am trying to use the Rgui to install: (specifically: Packages/Install
> Packages from CRAN.)  But I will try once again, and this time attempt to
> follow your "template" -- Thanks again for your time and
consideration.
> It's greatly appreciated.
An alternative is to download the precompiled zip file and unzip them into 
your R library folder.


-- 
Cheers,

Kevin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament],
'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will
the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the
kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

-- Charles Babbage (1791-1871) 
---- From Computer Stupidities: http://rinkworks.com/stupid/

--
Ko-Kang Kevin Wang
Master of Science (MSc) Student
SLC Tutor and Lab Demonstrator
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
New Zealand
Homepage: http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~kwan022
Ph: 373-7599
    x88475 (City)
    x88480 (Tamaki)

On Mon, 2 Jun 2003 09:11:51 +1200 (NZST), you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I hope I haven't got this wrong, but I don't think one needs Perl 
>installed if they install the "precompiled" packages for Windows
right?
Right.
>
>I'm just wondering if the first sentence in the "R Installation and
>Administration" can be re-worded a bit so newbies won't get
confused....
I've rewritten it from this:
> "Installing source 
>packages requires that Perl 5.004 or later be installed."  
to this:

"Packages may be distributed in source form or compiled binary form.
Installing source packages requires that compilers and tools
(including Perl 5.004 or later) be installed. Binary packages are
platform specific and generally need no special tools to install, but
see the documentation for your platform for details."

I hope that's clearer, but I'm not sure...

Duncan Murdoch