[R] New Versions

Prof Brian Ripley
Fri, 19 May 2000 16:49:56 -0000

> Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 16:28:14 +0100 (BST)
> From: Lara Jamieson <L.E.Jamieson at statslab.cam.ac.uk>
>
> Problems with .Random.seed. with both versions released this year - a

I guess you mean 1.0.0 and 1.0.1, the first non-beta versions of R.

> first attempt to use any random number generator gives the following
> error:
>
> > rnorm(1)
> Error in rnorm(1) : .Random.seed[0] is not a valid Normal type
> > .Random.seed[0]
> numeric(0)
> > .Random.seed
> [1]  6615 29074  9812
>
> Removing the .Random.seed and letting R find another one fixes the problem
> but doesn''t seem ideal.

You are almost certainly using a workspace that is older than 0.63.1
(1998!) and unsaved since.   All versions throughout 1999 gave a warning
and fixed this up on saving the workspace.  One solution is to use

.Random.seed <- c(0, .Random.seed)

in such ancient workspaces.  However, that PRNG is nothing like as
good as the current default and is maintained for historical reasons only.
Just deleting .Random.seed is pretty well ideal.  Use set.seed()
if you want repeatable behaviour.

> Is this a problem with installation, a general bug or a Linux interface
> problem?

It is a problem with using a very old saved workspace (.RData).
Remember that R was beta software in 1998, and has changed (a lot) since,
not always in compatible ways.  Only with the advent of 1.0.0 are
we attempting to keep such things working (until 2.0.0 arrives).

> In the April release in-line editing doesn''t appear to work.
Again is
> this a bug or a system problem?

A local problem.  Did it report that the readline library was found?
It looks like not.

--
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