R SIG Debian - Oct 2008 - compiling from source

Hi  R Debian People:

I am aware that there are binaries for R for Debian.

Is it ever necessary to compile from source, or should I just leave
well enough alone, please (high probability)?

thanks,
Erin



-- 
Erin Hodgess
Associate Professor
Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
University of Houston - Downtown
mailto: erinm.hodgess at gmail.com

On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 12:55:19 -0500,
"Erin Hodgess" <erinm.hodgess at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi R Debian People: I am aware that there are binaries for R for
> Debian.
> Is it ever necessary to compile from source, or should I just leave
> well enough alone, please (high probability)?

Depends on how quickly you want the latest R and what Debian branch
you're using.  If you're using sid ("unstable"), i.e. you want
to live
on Debian's bleeding edge (closest to upstream), updating very
frequently, and deal with "issues" from time to time, then I'd
just use
the Debian packages (the maintainer, Dirk Eddelbuettel, keeps them
barely hours behind the upstream releases).  If you're using other
Debian branches, but still want to use the latest R, options get more
complicated.  I know it can be a pain, but it helps in the long run to
carefully read the Debian documents like the material in the
debian-reference-en package and http://www.debian.org/doc/ to make sure
you're doing what you want.


-- 
Seb