On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 4:11 PM Marc Schwartz wrote:> 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.Theres nothing nefarious here. It would allow people to use the R environment without running an installer. If someone is a new user they may want to try R out, and installers can be invasive as they commonly: - copy files to install dir - copy files to profile dir - set registry entries - set environment variables - set start menu entries and historically uninstallers have a bad record of reverting these changes. should not put this burden upon new users or even having them resort to virtual machine to avoid items above. having a ZIP file allows new users to run the R environment, then if they like it perhaps they can run the installer going forward. Are you familiar with Windows? As everything I am describing hasnt changed in at least 20 years. I dont have a criticism of the R installer, I have not run tests to be able to determine if its well behaved or not. Its the *not knowing* that is the issue. With Windows, every installer could be perceived as a "black box".
On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 6:54 PM Marc Schwartz wrote:> I am on macOS primarily, albeit, I have run both Windows and Linux routinely > in years past.With all due respect, then you have no business in this thread.> That being said, these days, I do run Windows 10 under a Parallels VM on > macOS, as I have a single commercial application that I need to run for > clients now and then, and it sadly only runs on a real Windows install (e.g. > not with Wine).Further demonstrating my point. You run Windows in a virtual machine, meaning even if you encountered some bad installer, you could just revert to a snapshot or similar.> To your points: > > [bunch of links]I am sorry if I miscommunicated, I didnt and dont wish to be convinced about how well behaved R installer is. I wish for R to offer zip builds. Many other programming languages do: - strawberryperl.com/releases.html - dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/2.2 - golang.org/dl - nim-lang.org/install_windows.html - python.org/downloads/release/python-373 - windows.php.net/download As I see it, the question isnt "should R offer zip builds", its "why isnt R offering zip builds".> Unless you can make the case to them to expend the finite resources that they > have to support this as part of each version release process, in light of the > prior discussions, it is not clear that this appears to be a priority.Thats the point of my original post. If they choose to continue with only EXE, I will just keep using other programming languages. So you could see how it might be in R interest to offer this, as no zip builds might be one of the reasons people avoid the language.