R devel - Jun 2019 - Offer zip builds

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:

- http://strawberryperl.com/releases.html
- https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/2.2
- https://golang.org/dl
- https://nim-lang.org/install_windows.html
- https://python.org/downloads/release/python-373
- https://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.