You need to approach the package maintainers directly: they may well not
read r-devel. What you seem to be suggesting is an extra feature for the
ncdf package.
Note from `B Ripley': you need libraries for a specific compiler on
Windows.
Professor Ripley.
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005, Russell Moffitt wrote:
> Aloha,
>
> I just made some quick hacks on the configure script with the
'ncdf' package
> to make it link with the opendap/dods libraries (opendap.org) rather than
the
> netcdf api library. Basically, this allows a user to interact in R with a
> remotely served dataset as if it were a netcdf file on the local filesystem
> (read-only). Functionality with local files should continue to work as
well.
> This opendap feature should be greatly useful for a number of fields of
> scientific computing, including oceanography and climate modelling, where a
> huge number of data sets are already served via opendap around the world.
>
> In order to do this, the user must install the opendap/dods netcdf
libraries
> on the system and then run
> R CMD INSTALL --configure-args="-with-dods=$DODS_INSTALL_DIR"
> ncdf_1.3-dods.tar.gz
> where $DODS_INSTALL_DIR is wherever the opendap lib and include directories
> are found.
>
> My modifications are small and unelegant, but it works, providing that the
> user can successfully install the opendap libraries. I am neither a
compile
> guru nor do I have very much experience using and developing for R.
> Therefore, I would like to see if anyone would be willing to help me make
> this modification into a more official package/patch that can be shared
with
> other R users. The biggest obstacle for me is making binaries for Windows.
> Precompiled opendap libraries are available for windows, so this should be
> possible. B Ripley has compiled the 'ncdf' package for windows,
and this
> version should be exactly the same except for different external libraries.
>
> This same modification should also be possible for the RNetCDF/nvar
packages
> since they use the same support libraries. I just happened to try it with
> ncdf first. Which package do more people tend to use/like for accessing
> netcdf files?
>
> Please let me know if you can provide some assistance in making this
modified
> package as easy to install as possible on unix/linux/windows/etc... I can
> provide more info about the opendap library and what is required to link to
> it if you ask.
>
> Mahalo,
> Russell
>
> P.S. I imagine that this opendap support in R will allow us to list R on
> opendap.org's list of client applications, giving R some more exposure.
>
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>
>
--
Brian D. Ripley, ripley@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 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595