R devel - May 2015 - IdntoAscii issue with KERNEL32.dll on 64-bit R on Windows Server 2003 x64 SP2

Dear list,

With the new R 3.2.0 on the aforementioned platform, I get the following
pop-up error when I enter "?update.packages" using R64:

"The procedure entry point IdnToAscii could not be located in the dynamic
link library KERNEL32.dll"

That is, my command never gets executed.  This does NOT happen with R32.

I previously noticed this error starting with R 3.0.0 with the RCurl
package (1.95-4.5): I get the same issue when I execute
"library(RCurl)" in
R64.  This happened subsequently for every version > 3.  I always thought
it was an RCurl issue so I just dropped to R 2.15.1 whenever I needed to
use it.

However, I now see this error with R 3.2.0 with the simple command
(?update.packages as it tries to access internet.dll).

My guess is this is specific to Windows Server 2003 x64 as it does not
happen on my Windows 7 machine and that I did not find anything when
searching for this issue.  I thought I'd reach out just in case anyone has
any ideas on how to fix it.  I'm stuck on Windows Server 2003 because it is
a work server.  Thanks so much for your help.

-- Vinh

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On 06/05/2015 10:57 AM, Vinh Nguyen wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> With the new R 3.2.0 on the aforementioned platform, I get the following
> pop-up error when I enter "?update.packages" using R64:
>
> "The procedure entry point IdnToAscii could not be located in the
dynamic
> link library KERNEL32.dll"
>
> That is, my command never gets executed.  This does NOT happen with R32.
>
> I previously noticed this error starting with R 3.0.0 with the RCurl
> package (1.95-4.5): I get the same issue when I execute
"library(RCurl)" in
> R64.  This happened subsequently for every version > 3.  I always
thought
> it was an RCurl issue so I just dropped to R 2.15.1 whenever I needed to
> use it.
>
> However, I now see this error with R 3.2.0 with the simple command
> (?update.packages as it tries to access internet.dll).
>
> My guess is this is specific to Windows Server 2003 x64 as it does not
> happen on my Windows 7 machine and that I did not find anything when
> searching for this issue.  I thought I'd reach out just in case anyone
has
> any ideas on how to fix it.  I'm stuck on Windows Server 2003 because
it is
> a work server.  Thanks so much for your help.
On the MSDN page for that function, it mentions that you need a header 
file and DLL to use it in XP or Server 2003.   You might try downloading 
the DLL to see if it works for you automagically; I think it's unlikely 
we will put in code to special case that version in the general release 
of R, as Microsoft is abandoning it as of July this year.

Duncan Murdoch

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at
gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On the MSDN page for that function, it mentions that you need a header file
and DLL to use it in XP or Server 2003.   You might try downloading the DLL to
see if it works for you automagically; I think it's unlikely we will put in
code to special case that version in the general release of R, as Microsoft is
abandoning it as of July this year.
Thanks Duncan.  I downloaded the files from
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd318149%28v=vs.85%29.aspx,
extracted, and installed (idndl.amd64.exe); don't think the header
files were copied/moved anywhere.  The error still persists after
restarting the server.

Any other thoughts?  Thanks.


-- Vinh