R help - Aug 2007 - open/execute/call/run an external file

I'm trying to figure out how to trigger a process from within R. I have an
exectuable file that runs a Fortran model, but ideally, would like to run it
from R. Note that I'm not talking about importing the function at all,
passing variables, or anything complicated like that. I basically just want a
script that "double-clicks" on a particular file and opens/runs it for
me.

The idea here is that the executable Fortran file, when double clicked, simply
draws all necessary inputs from text files within the same directory and I have
no need to change this. So I've used R to summarize some raw data and format
these required text input files in the way the Fortran executable requires, and
also have scripts to interpret the Fortran text file outputs and summarize/plot
them in R. The problem is I must run the first part of the R script to send data
from R to the model, then double click the Fortran executable, then run the
second part of the R script to get the model outputs into R, in three separate
steps. Given that I may be doing this hundereds of times, I'd prefer to do
it all in one step.

Any thoughts?---steve

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, STEPHEN M POWERS wrote:
> I'm trying to figure out how to trigger a process from within R. I have
> an exectuable file that runs a Fortran model, but ideally, would like to 
> run it from R. Note that I'm not talking about importing the function
at
> all, passing variables, or anything complicated like that. I basically 
> just want a script that "double-clicks" on a particular file and 
> opens/runs it for me.
>
> The idea here is that the executable Fortran file, when double clicked, 
> simply draws all necessary inputs from text files within the same 
> directory and I have no need to change this. So I've used R to
summarize
> some raw data and format these required text input files in the way the 
> Fortran executable requires, and also have scripts to interpret the 
> Fortran text file outputs and summarize/plot them in R. The problem is I 
> must run the first part of the R script to send data from R to the 
> model, then double click the Fortran executable, then run the second 
> part of the R script to get the model outputs into R, in three separate 
> steps. Given that I may be doing this hundereds of times, I'd prefer to
> do it all in one step.
>
> Any thoughts?---steve
It is described in the relevant manual: Writing R Extensions.
?system, and if this is Windows also ?shell and ?shell.exec.
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
When you do, you will see that we asked for your OS which is relevant 
here.

-- 
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 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595