Just a small suggestion since Windows have a file system not designed for command line use... Would it be possible to add the possibility of automatically adding/modifying the path to the R executables in the windows installer program? --------------------------------------------- Henrik Andersson Netherlands Institute of Ecology - Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology P.O. Box 140 4400 AC Yerseke Phone: +31 113 577473 h.andersson at nioo.knaw.nl nioo.knaw.nl/ppages/handersson
Henrik Andersson <h.andersson <at> nioo.knaw.nl> writes: : : Just a small suggestion since Windows have a file system not designed : for command line use... : : Would it be possible to add the possibility of automatically : adding/modifying the path to the R executables in the windows installer : program? Your scripts can get the location of R from the Windows registry as discussed in: mail-archive.com/r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch/msg05339.html
BXC (Bendix Carstensen)
2004-Dec-06 14:13 UTC
[R] Modyfing PATH in Windows Installer for R
> -----Original Message----- > From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch > [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Henrik > Andersson > Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 2:44 PM > To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch > Subject: [R] Modyfing PATH in Windows Installer for R > > > Just a small suggestion since Windows have a file system not designed > for command line use...I would strongly disagree on that one, it is just an unusually well kept secret. Just open a command window in windows and type "cmd /?" and you will get an introduction to a lot of useful features, such as filename completion etc. I run windows 2000 almost exclusively from the commnd line, and it's just about as versatile as the Linux command promp, albeit with slightly different command names. For some odd reasons the commands available are kept in the windows help under the heading "MS-DOS commands" even though DOS is long dead. And if you have loaded the utilities recommended for building R-packages you have almost all you want. Bendix Carstensen ---------------------- Bendix Carstensen Senior Statistician Steno Diabetes Center Niels Steensens Vej 2 DK-2820 Gentofte Denmark tel: +45 44 43 87 38 mob: +45 30 75 87 38 fax: +45 44 43 07 06 bxc at steno.dk biostat.ku.dk/~bxc ----------------------> > Would it be possible to add the possibility of automatically > adding/modifying the path to the R executables in the windows > installer > program? > > > --------------------------------------------- > Henrik Andersson > Netherlands Institute of Ecology - > Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology > P.O. Box 140 > 4400 AC Yerseke > Phone: +31 113 577473 > h.andersson at nioo.knaw.nl nioo.knaw.nl/ppages/handersson > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read > the posting guide! R-project.org/posting-guide.html >
Henrik Andersson wrote:> Just a small suggestion since Windows have a file system not designed > for command line use... > > Would it be possible to add the possibility of automatically > adding/modifying the path to the R executables in the windows installer > program?After asking the same question on R-devel a few months ago, I investigated the possibility. This would be useful to me, as it saves the trouble of modifying the path every time a new version of R comes out. As far as I could tell, the installer that R for Windows uses (InnoSetup) cannot modify the PATH out of the box, but it can do this via a third-party add-on script. I was doubtful whether it was worth adding such a script to the R sources, given the small benefit obtained. The ideal solution seems to be what's done in Mac OS X, that is, to store a permanent path to the current R version as a symlink, and then just changing where the symlink points to when R is upgraded. Unfortunately Windows doesn't do symlinks. Chris (probably a little esoteric for R-help) -- Christopher Jackson <chris.jackson at imperial.ac.uk>, Research Associate, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College School of Medicine, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, tel. 020 759 43371
On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 14:43:46 +0100, Henrik Andersson <h.andersson at nioo.knaw.nl> wrote :>Just a small suggestion since Windows have a file system not designed >for command line use...Hmm? I'm not sure what you mean by that. As far as the command line is concerned, Windows and Unix file systems are pretty similar.>Would it be possible to add the possibility of automatically >adding/modifying the path to the R executables in the windows installer >program?You mean modifying the PATH environment variable? I think it would be possible to do this, but I don't think it's a good idea: - Users who use a command line interface probably know how to do this themselves, and others don't need it. - Users who use a command line interface use a large variety of different mechanisms to set their path, and it would be hard for the R installer to do anything helpful and not harmful to automatically change what they've done. For example, I set my path in F:/cygwin/etc/profile, but I may be the only R user who uses that particular file... Duncan Murdoch