R help - Sep 2000 - R as server in Windows

Hi All,

I'm looking to call R as a server from another program in the Windows 
environment (the other program is written in Visual Basic).  Ideally, I'd 
like to be able to fire up R and then feed it commands one by one (the 
commands will come from the user over a longish period of time, for example 
as the user decides they want a second plot on the basis of a first one, 
etc).  

In the book "S Programming", Venables and Ripley say (page 234):

"The windows version of R is builte as a DLL with several front ends, 
including the usual GUI and terminal interfaces.  One example front-end gives 
a direct connection to the R command line: the user supplies a function that 
is called to feed R with commands, and another function for R to call to 
"print" the results.  Graphics windows and pagers are launched in the
usual
way"

I have looked through the R documentation, and the archives of R-help and can 
find no mention of this.  Am I missing something (quite likely!)?

Alternatives are:

1. Run R in batch mode (ie RTerm) with the command file containing one 
command each run, saving and loading the relevant objects between each run.  
This seems inefficient as I'd have to run R many times to complete all the 
commands.

2. Use the experimental COM interface.  Although promising this seems rather 
unstable, and doesn't yet implement all the functionality of R.

Any thoughts/comments appreciated.

 - Len

--
Len Thomas (len at mcs.st-and.ac.uk)
Research Unit for Wildlife Population Assessment
Mathematical Institute, University of St Andrews
Scotland




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On Thu, 7 Sep 2000, Len Thomas wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm looking to call R as a server from another program in the Windows 
> environment (the other program is written in Visual Basic).  Ideally,
I'd
> like to be able to fire up R and then feed it commands one by one (the 
> commands will come from the user over a longish period of time, for example
> as the user decides they want a second plot on the basis of a first one, 
> etc).  
> 
> In the book "S Programming", Venables and Ripley say (page 234):
> 
> "The windows version of R is builte as a DLL with several front ends, 
> including the usual GUI and terminal interfaces.  One example front-end
gives
> a direct connection to the R command line: the user supplies a function
that
> is called to feed R with commands, and another function for R to call to 
> "print" the results.  Graphics windows and pagers are launched in
the usual
> way"
> 
> I have looked through the R documentation, and the archives of R-help and
can
> find no mention of this.  Am I missing something (quite likely!)?
Look in the sources (R-1.1.1.tgz, in the src/gnuwin32/front-ends directory)
> 
> Alternatives are:
> 
> 1. Run R in batch mode (ie RTerm) with the command file containing one 
> command each run, saving and loading the relevant objects between each run.
> This seems inefficient as I'd have to run R many times to complete all
the
> commands.
> 
> 2. Use the experimental COM interface.  Although promising this seems
rather
> unstable, and doesn't yet implement all the functionality of R.
Oh, I think is stable and sufficient enough for your purposes, and 
works well from Visual Basic.

I think this will all work: feel free to send more specfic problems
to me directly.


-- 
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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