Now rw0640 is released, we have achieved our main goal of being able to
build easily new versions from the Unix sources, and the R functionality is
as complete a copy as we can achieve easily. We are now thinking of
possible enhancements, and would like your comments on the following ideas.
o Use a standard MDI interface like MS Office's, say. Would you
prefer an MDI interface to the current one, and if so is the
`standard' `look and feel' important?
o Replace the help system by standard Windows help files. Would
you like this instead of text help, html help or both?
o rw0640 implements offline printing via latex. Do you anticipate
using this? (It needs lots of extra files.) Would printing from
a Windows help file be an adequate replacement?
o Build an R dll that can be linked into other applications to drive
effectively an R command-line by passing input strings. Possibly
versions without and without on-screen graphics.
o Implement inter-process communications, either
- Windows-style (DDE and ActiveX automation) or
- CORBA-style (real standards)
This might allow R to be called from a spreadsheet or Visual Basic
front-end, for example.
o Would you prefer an installer as well as / instead of the
current set of smallish zip files?
o How important is it that R can be built from source with free
tools? (We are not contemplating requiring any new tools to
install packages, but a Windows-standard interface probably
requires a commercial compiler with MFC.)
We would also welcome other suggestions. Some of this appears easy,
some rather hard, so there are no guarantees that anything will be done.
I am posting this to R-announce to reach most Windows users of R: PLEASE
reply directly to Guido and I, or cc only R-devel.
--
Brian D. Ripley, ripley at 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
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Dear Prof Ripley: Prof Brian Ripley wrote:> We would like your comments on the following ideas. > > o Use a standard MDI interface like MS Office's, say. Would you > prefer an MDI interface to the current one, and if so is the > `standard' `look and feel' important? >MDI seems much better (at least if we are to sell this to people who are used to MS Office). I have been asked already here in the Philippines during several lectures I have given whether R can read Excel files w/c are "popular" here since Excel othe Windows application come with our computers for free.> > o Replace the help system by standard Windows help files. Would > you like this instead of text help, html help or both? >I prefer both, but people I come across may be used to standard Windows help files.> > o rw0640 implements offline printing via latex. Do you anticipate > using this? (It needs lots of extra files.) Would printing from > a Windows help file be an adequate replacement? >Not in the Philippines.> > o Build an R dll that can be linked into other applications to drive > effectively an R command-line by passing input strings. Possibly > versions without and without on-screen graphics. >This seems to b e a great idea.> > o Implement inter-process communications, either > > - Windows-style (DDE and ActiveX automation) or > - CORBA-style (real standards) > > This might allow R to be called from a spreadsheet or Visual Basic > front-end, for example. >Great!> > o Would you prefer an installer as well as / instead of the > current set of smallish zip files? >Yes. Some people don't know what zip files are, and I have had to take time introducing zip files first. But then again, if the files are too large then we might have difficulty providing copies of R for free to researchers.> > o How important is it that R can be built from source with free > tools? (We are not contemplating requiring any new tools to > install packages, but a Windows-standard interface probably > requires a commercial compiler with MFC.) >Many people I have introduced R to here in the Philippines have been very, very impressed w/ what R can do. But they find it very hard to do the programming (and memorizing the syntax). Many are just beginning at learning programming here (even within the world of statistical practictioners). We would very much appreciate having a menu driven option similar for instance to what I have seen in CODA. Even just a crude kind of library maybe. Actually, some of us at the govt agency I work for -- the Statistical Research and Training Center -- are contemplating the viability of working on developing a library w/c provides menus at least for the benefit of those who are not very computer literate and who may just want to enter data and get some simple statistical analysis. Jose Ramon Albert -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- 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 _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._