Hello and Happy New R Two points: 1 Noting the existence of 0.63.2 as a tgz file on CRAN, but being careful or lazy depending on how you want to see it, I also note that the binaries for Redhat stop at 0.63.1 on RH 5.1. I recently got the RH 5.2 Power Tools where I was pleased to see R 0.62.4 included, lots of libraries including V&R. This had been compiled into an rpm - does anyone know by whom and could the same (or other) good soul both link the RH 5.2 version into CRAN and repeat the exercise for 0.63.2 on RH5.2. Compilation for the not-so-expert is always messy - you know you find you haven't got the right make, the compiler is wrong, one of the libraries is in the wrong place for package A but not for package B etc etc. I am talking about Linux of course! Guido does such a good job for M$. 2 Critical mass seems to be approaching/have reached the R product. Is now not the time to consolidate (rather than extend) R and produce a comprehensive real book for sale in the bookshops and to decorate our shelves? The web is a very useful device - we can live for ages on the laser-printouts but even with a binder, these are not as convenient as a real book with examples. I have in mind the excellent manual for GLIM (although rather big) which comes with the (commercial) product but is much more than a user manual. Robert and Ross's R Notes, Kurt's FAQ and others could form a basis. The V&R notes, V&S on S(R) could be added and some extensive examples such as from Jim Lindsey's repeated measures library. I know code modification is seductive but there comes a time in any job where the Report just has to be written! The advantage of this is (a) it is *much* more convenient for the user, (b) it gets some money into the R community, especially if it was sold directly over the web, which could help finance the next version (c) it is a serious publication that will get cited with an ISBN number and (d) it will encourage the managers of the institutions where all you good people work to realise that you are not wasting your time but providing a serious and viable product. Think about it \John -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
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On 12-Jan-99 John Logsdon wrote:>1 Noting the existence of 0.63.2 as a tgz file on CRAN, but being careful >or lazy depending on how you want to see it, I also note that the binaries >for Redhat stop at 0.63.1 on RH 5.1. > >I recently got the RH 5.2 Power Tools where I was pleased to see R 0.62.4 >included, lots of libraries including V&R. This had been compiled into an >rpm - does anyone know by whom and could the same (or other) good soul >both link the RH 5.2 version into CRAN and repeat the exercise for 0.63.2 >on RH5.2.I make the Red Hat/Intel rpms. The R rpms on the powertools CD are based on mine, but checked and compiled by Red Hat. I haven't rolled up an rpm for R 0.63.2 because it was only released yesterday! My hard drive is churning away as I write, making an updated rpm which should be mirrored to a CRAN site near you in a day or so. Anyone with RedHat 5.0, 5.1 or 5.2 should be able to install the R rpms if they follow the instructions in the README file. In principle, minor releases of Red Hat Linux should be binary compatible. In practice this isn't always the case but I try to work around it. Martyn -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
John Logsdon <j.logsdon at lancaster.ac.uk> writes:> Hello and Happy New R > > Two points: > > 1 Noting the existence of 0.63.2 as a tgz file on CRAN, but being careful > or lazy depending on how you want to see it, I also note that the binaries > for Redhat stop at 0.63.1 on RH 5.1.0.63.2 is not even 24hr old yet! RPMs will be made in due time, but the process is outsourced to people who actually have the relevant machines and OS installed and know their way around the RPM creation process. (Martyn Plummer, Nassib Nassar, and David Clayton for i386/alpha/sparc, to be precise).> I recently got the RH 5.2 Power Tools where I was pleased to see R 0.62.4 > included, lots of libraries including V&R. This had been compiled into an > rpm - does anyone know by whom and could the same (or other) good soul > both link the RH 5.2 version into CRAN and repeat the exercise for 0.63.2 > on RH5.2.I believe this was done by someone at RedHat (RH probably wouldn't want it any other way for security reasons). I forgot the name but he was corresponding on the mailing list at the time. Is there a problem running RH5.1 binaries on RH5.2? I can imagine the opposite, but I don't see a reason for R not being upwards compatible.> Compilation for the not-so-expert is always messy - you know you find you > haven't got the right make, the compiler is wrong, one of the libraries is > in the wrong place for package A but not for package B etc etc. I am > talking about Linux of course! Guido does such a good job for M$.Actually, RH5.1 is my development platform and if I can't do ./configure make (su) make install R just won't get released... (I do use an upgraded egcs compiler, though)> 2 Critical mass seems to be approaching/have reached the R product. Is > now not the time to consolidate (rather than extend) R and produce a > comprehensive real book for sale in the bookshops and to decorate our > shelves?Yes. Or several, for different target audiences. Books don't just happen overnight, though. Several members of the core team are in there with distinct ambitions of providing some better documentation than the oddly fragmented set of books on Splus. Frits Leisch has just started an initiative on turning the R Manual into a real manual as opposed to a function reference with appendices.> much more than a user manual. Robert and Ross's R Notes, Kurt's FAQ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Er, Bill and Dave (Venables + Smith), mostly.> library. I know code modification is seductive but there comes a time in > any job where the Report just has to be written!Yep. And the process will also be necessary to set the semantics straight. Lots of things in there that even the developers have a hard time understanding some times.> The advantage of this is (a) it is *much* more convenient for the user, > (b) it gets some money into the R community, especially if it was sold > directly over the web, which could help finance the next version (c) it > is a serious publication that will get cited with an ISBN number and (d) > it will encourage the managers of the institutions where all you good > people work to realise that you are not wasting your time but providing a > serious and viable product.You're touching a couple of sticky issues there. Firstly, there's no money box for R development. It all runs on existing infrastructure and the involved parties' research time (and spare time). We could of course set up a fund to be the beneficiary of the sales of a book authored by "R.Core" and use the money for travel, etc. I'm not sure the proceeds would be big enough to cover the administration, though. Secondly, should one stick to the "freely distributable" way, even if actual books were produced and would any publisher accept such a scheme? I agree that ISBN numbers are important for several reasons. -- O__ ---- Peter Dalgaard Blegdamsvej 3 c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics 2200 Cph. N (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen Denmark Ph: (+45) 35327918 ~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk) FAX: (+45) 35327907 -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
[I've changed my followup here as some of this is slightly sensitive.] On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, John Logsdon wrote:> The web is a very useful device - we can live for ages on the > laser-printouts but even with a binder, these are not as convenient as a > real book with examples. I have in mind the excellent manual for GLIM > (although rather big) which comes with the (commercial) product but is > much more than a user manual. Robert and Ross's R Notes, Kurt's FAQ and > others could form a basis. The V&R notes, V&S on S(R) could be added and > some extensive examples such as from Jim Lindsey's repeated measures > library. I know code modification is seductive but there comes a time in > any job where the Report just has to be written!We have discussed an R version of the V&R book (don't know about `V&R notes' etc -- did that mean our R complements) or including R in the base version. At least for now it is not thought commercially viable, and there is also the question of how this would be seen by MathSoft. Volume 1 of the Third Edition of V&R will run on R virtually unchanged (a large number of data() statements needed) where the capabilities exist in R (e.g. no nlme, nls arima.mle etc, yet), and that is due out in July. We plan that Volume 2 will discuss R as one of several `S engines'. A book about R would be great, but don't understimate the on-going effort required: keeping our `R complements' current takes an appreciable amount of time. Brian -- 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 272860 (secr) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._