If you go here: https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base you see EXE installers for Windows. This contrasts with other programming languages that offer both an executable installer and ZIP files that can be extracted and run. For example Go: https://golang.org/dl and Nim: https://nim-lang.org/install_windows.html Python: https://python.org/downloads/release/python-373 and C#: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/2.2 PHP: https://windows.php.net/download Perl: http://strawberryperl.com/releases.html
> If you go here: > https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base > you see EXE installers for Windows. This contrasts with other programming > languages that offer both an executable installer and ZIP files that canbe> extracted and runAre you suggesting that R should do the same? If so, I second that, excellent idea. (However, gzip preferred). I've had significant problems with the Windows installer. I've never had significant problems with zip files. Also, I assuming that the zip approach would be easier for systems administrators. However, I'm not a systems administrator... Abs [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> On Jun 3, 2019, at 4:40 PM, Abby Spurdle <spurdle.a at gmail.com> wrote: > >> If you go here: >> https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base >> you see EXE installers for Windows. This contrasts with other programming >> languages that offer both an executable installer and ZIP files that can > be >> extracted and run > > Are you suggesting that R should do the same? > If so, I second that, excellent idea. > (However, gzip preferred). > > I've had significant problems with the Windows installer. > I've never had significant problems with zip files. > Also, I assuming that the zip approach would be easier for systems > administrators. > However, I'm not a systems administrator... > > > AbsHi, First, I do not speak for R Core, who would, in the end, be responsible for offering something official here. Second, prior discussions on this topic have generally pointed to: https://sourceforge.net/projects/rportable/ as one source for a portable version of R, albeit, with some dependencies (e.g. PortableApps framework) That being said, again, based upon prior discussions on this topic, the typical reason for needing a ZIP archive of an R installation, is to circumvent Windows OS security restrictions, whereby a useR does not have the requisite Admin rights to install R via the default installer. Thus, you can presumably download a ZIP of an R installation, unzip it in a location of your choosing, whereby you can then execute/run the R .exe binary. If you can't do that, then a ZIP will not be helpful to you. I have not tried it, but if that is the case here, you may be able to use the normal R binary installer, but adjust the default install options when prompted, allowing you to customize the install location and other parameters, that may be suitable in the absence of Admin rights. Prior statements, not official, would suggest that R Core is not likely to assist in providing official options for useRs to circumvent OS security restrictions. Regards, Marc Schwartz
On 01/06/2019 11:02 p.m., Steven Penny wrote:> If you go here: > > https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base > > you see EXE installers for Windows. This contrasts with other programming > languages that offer both an executable installer and ZIP files that can be > extracted and run. For example Go:We did offer both zips and an installer until 2001 or 2002. It was decided then that it wasn't worth the trouble of offering both. I don't recall anyone asking for the zip in the 17 years after that change, until now (though I haven't been paying attention lately, since I retired from building the binaries a couple of years ago). If you think it's worthwhile to do it, then I don't think anyone would object if you went ahead and did so. Duncan Murdoch
On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 8:04 PM Duncan Murdoch wrote:> I don't recall anyone asking for the zip in the 17 years after that > change, until now (though I haven't been paying attention lately, since > I retired from building the binaries a couple of years ago). > > If you think it's worthwhile to do it, then I don't think anyone would > object if you went ahead and did so.If I visited this page: https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base and found Zip builds I would use those. Not only do those not exist, but the installer has been created in such a way that it cant even be extracted from. Just because you dont recall it, doesnt mean the demand isnt there. The R community isnt exactly reachable:> NOTE: due to abuse by spammers, since 2016-07-09 only ?members? (including all > who have previously submitted bugs) can submit new bugs on R?s Bugzilla. For > now, either post (e-mail) your bug report to R-devel or ask an R Core member to > add you manually to R?s Bugzilla members.http://r-project.org/bugs.html So bugs and feature requests cant even be posted to bugzilla. Then regarding the mailing list, even if subscribed you cant post, as all posts are moderated. Compare to other languages, where you just log in an post an issue: - https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues - https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues - https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/issues - https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues - https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/issues - https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues If R team is happy with current status quo, then do nothing. If they are interested in growing the userbase this might be one way to do it.