Hell R-list, At the cost of sounding far-fetched and almost incredulous, I would like to know if any R user is remotely considering the use of R on Mobile devices, and Android in particular. I really do not have an idea of the kind of definite incentives in terms of using R on Android, but having an analytical engine on a mobile phone would allow for micro statistics to be collected from the log files reflecting number of calls dropped, average time spent talking, a time series of the amount of time taken for battery recharge, and a host of other information that could be collated and analyzed. R widgets could be created for analyzing the data streams from other apps running on the same device. Any thoughts/suggestions/information on this topic will be highly appreciated. Thanks Harsh Singhal Decision Systems Mu Sigma Inc. Chicago, IL
2009/2/6 Harsh <singhalblr at gmail.com>:> Hell R-list, > > At the cost of sounding far-fetched and almost incredulous, I would > like to know if any R user is remotely considering the use of R on > Mobile devices, and Android in particular.First, rewrite R in Java. Good luck with that! http://code.google.com/android/kb/general.html#c> I really do not have an idea of the kind of definite incentives in > terms of using R on Android, but having an analytical engine on a > mobile phone would allow for micro statistics to be collected from the > log files reflecting number of calls dropped, average time spent > talking, a time series of the amount of time taken for battery > recharge, and a host of other information that could be collated and > analyzed. > > R widgets could be created for analyzing the data streams from other > apps running on the same device. > > Any thoughts/suggestions/information on this topic will be highly appreciated.I think having the analytical engine on the phone is probably not a good idea for something that is pretty much connected all the time. Better to have a lightweight data collection engine reporting back to an analytical engine on a server somewhere. Then the analytical engine generates reports on a web page. The data collection engine could do trivial summaries, statistics and graphics in Java without needing R. If you wanted to do complex time series analysis then that would be a job for the off-phone server. Barry
On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 8:12 PM, Harsh <singhalblr at gmail.com> wrote:> Hell R-list, > > At the cost of sounding far-fetched and almost incredulous, I would > like to know if any R user is remotely considering the use of R on > Mobile devices, and Android in particular. >Check out FreeRunner from Openmoko (http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page). It is a Linux based mobile device, and this is a FOSS project.
Harsh wrote:> > At the cost of sounding far-fetched and almost incredulous, I would > like to know if any R user is remotely considering the use of R on > Mobile devices, and Android in particular.In addition to the other objections in the other replies, I add this one: the assignment operator and the parens are up on ALT keys on the Android keyboard. Typing R expressions would be pretty painful. You can demo this by installing an ssh client and logging in remotely to a machine with R on it, and trying to use it remotely. A local one wouldn't be better...it might not even be faster, because the faster CPU on the machine running R might matter more than the speed of the network link between client and server. I briefly thought of what it would take to port R to an iPhone or iPod touch, and the keyboard issues would be even worse. Bottom line, R has the idiom of a real keyboard written into its bones. To be popular, a statistical analysis tool for such devices would have to work differently, taking advantage of the platform's native input mechanisms.> mobile phone would allow for micro statistics to be collected from the > log files reflecting number of calls dropped, average time spent > talking, a time series of the amount of time taken for battery > recharge, and a host of other information that could be collated and > analyzed.I agree with the other person that the program to write to cover this case would be just a stat gatherer, which somehow gets the data off the device for analysis by R running elsewhere. It could be a web service, or you could write a CSV file that somehow gets downloaded from the device for use on the computer the phone syncs to.