R help - Oct 1999 - Solving problems with read.fwf(), perl under WinNT (was: Re: Using metric scaling)

Some days ago a problem with perl under WinNT was reported, which lead to
> > t1 <-
read.fwf("d:/maj/consulting/MarkStevens/matrix.txt", width=c(4,
22,
> rep(7, 8)))
> Error: "scan" can't open file
I installed perl from the WindowsNt Recource Kit CD (Sept. 98) and
encountered the same problem:

Scan couldn't open the file
- because perl did not produce it
- because perl could not find it's library files
- because the installation procedure did not copy the library files to my HD
- and instead created registry entries pointing to the CD

So the solution that worked for me is
- copy RecourceKitCD:\source\gnu\perl\*.* and it's subdirectories to my HD
(e.g. C:\NTRESKIT\perl),
- change to this directory (e.g. C:\NTRESKIT\perl)
- and run INSTALL.BAT (which updates the registry approbriately)

Well, besides having some files twice in C:\NTRESKIT\perl and
C:\NTRESKIT\perl\bin (e.g. perl.exe) (check your path)
it works now.


Best


--
Dr. Jens Oehlschl?gel-Akiyoshi
MD FACTORY GmbH
Bayerstrasse 21

80335 M?nchen

Tel.: 089 545 28-27
Fax.: 089 545 28-10
http://www.mdfactory.de

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I think it is better to use the free perl binary from
http://www.activestate.com/.

Karl

<snip>
> I installed perl from the WindowsNt Recource Kit CD (Sept. 98) and
> encountered the same problem:
>
> Scan couldn't open the file
> - because perl did not produce it
> - because perl could not find it's library files
> - because the installation procedure did not copy the library
> files to my HD
> - and instead created registry entries pointing to the CD
>
> So the solution that worked for me is
> - copy RecourceKitCD:\source\gnu\perl\*.* and it's subdirectories to my
HD
> (e.g. C:\NTRESKIT\perl),
> - change to this directory (e.g. C:\NTRESKIT\perl)
> - and run INSTALL.BAT (which updates the registry approbriately)
>
> Well, besides having some files twice in C:\NTRESKIT\perl and
> C:\NTRESKIT\perl\bin (e.g. perl.exe) (check your path)
> it works now.
>
>
> Best
>
>
> --
> Dr. Jens Oehlschl?gel-Akiyoshi
> MD FACTORY GmbH
> Bayerstrasse 21
>
> 80335 M?nchen
>
> Tel.: 089 545 28-27
> Fax.: 089 545 28-10
> http://www.mdfactory.de
>
> -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
> -.-.-.-.-.-.-
> r-help mailing list -- Read
> http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
> Send "info",
> "help", or "[un]subscribe"
> (in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-help-request at
stat.math.ethz.ch
> _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
> _._._._._._._
>
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On Mon, 18 Oct 1999, [iso-8859-1] Jens Oehlschlägel-Akiyoshi wrote:
> Some days ago a problem with perl under WinNT was reported, which lead to
> 
> > > t1 <-
read.fwf("d:/maj/consulting/MarkStevens/matrix.txt", width=c(4,
> 22,
> > rep(7, 8)))
> > Error: "scan" can't open file
> 
> I installed perl from the WindowsNt Recource Kit CD (Sept. 98) and
> encountered the same problem:
> 
> Scan couldn't open the file
> - because perl did not produce it
> - because perl could not find it's library files
> - because the installation procedure did not copy the library files to my
HD
> - and instead created registry entries pointing to the CD
[ ... ]


Thank you. However, the original problem was a space in the path name
where R was installed, and we have both sent Murray a fix and put
a more permanent one in for the next release of R.

I definitely would not recommend that version of Perl (even before your
experience): you can get a current Perl with a working installer at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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