You should consult the summary
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/checkSummaryWin.html
to answer such questions. These are not part of the install of R -- you
must have chosen to install some packages which depend on them. As to
whether you need them -- that depends if you need the packages that depend
on them.
You are wrong about xgobi: it is on the CRAN extras site and a default
repositories setup will find it. However, it is an interface to XGobi,
and that is pretty much obsolete in favour of GGobi (and rggobi is its R
interface).
Package gtkDevice has been withdrawn.
It should be possible to build package RGrace for Windows -- it only
depends on packages RGtk2 and cairoDevice these days, and I've just done
so. (Earlier versions were a different story.) However, it fails its
checks as it incorrectly uses "UTF8" (instead of "UTF-8")
for an encoding
name. (So Cc:ing the maintainer.)
On Thu, 13 Mar 2008, Brian Lunergan wrote:
> Greetings all:
>
> Newcomer to R as I work on learning it to transfer my college classroom
> stats training to something more useful and accurate then that spreadsheet
> from Redmond which shall remain nameless.
>
> I'm running v2.6.2 on a Win XP Home system that I keep up to date with
all
> the called for patches. Haven't added much to the basic install other
than
> the bits and bobs needed to run the R Commander package and its plugins. I
> did, however, use the ctv library to add the Graphics view.
>
> When I reached the end of the install (a somewhat drawn out exercise as I
> haven't jumped into a high speed hookup yet) R warned me that
gtkDevice,
> RGrace, and xgobi were not available. I use the Ontario, Canada mirror and
> they are indeed not listed among the install choices. A quick search on the
> names and I get the impression these three are not available for the
> Windows platform. Correct perception or no? Do I need them for a windows
> setup? Where would I find them if they are needed?
>
> Any help or advice much appreciated...
>
> --
>
> Brian Lunergan
> Nepean, Ontario
> Canada
--
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