>> Under Windows R is installed, but its bin folder is not added to the >> system PATH variable. I know that this is handled properly under *nix >> like systems and I wonder, why this is not the default also for the MS >> Windows? I guess that for most users a shortcut on the desktop or >> anywhere else is sufficient, but there are occasions when one expects to >> able to lunch R from anywhere - say the Command prompt. > > This is the normal behaviour of Windows applications. There are several > reasons, including length limits on the Windows PATH (which are > version-specific) and that shells are not normally used -- most Unix > shells hash the path contents so lookup is (almost) independent of the > number of applications on the path. > > Finally, those Windows installers that do add to the PATH frequently fail > to uninstall correctly.
I was not aware about this relevant issues. I understand now why changing the PATH variable is not so common. Perhaps, the following scheme might work better 1. Set the R_BIN variable - something like R_BIN=.../R/R-*/bin 2. Add the R_BIN variable to PATH variable - something like PATH=...;%R_BIN% Though I can see problems with multiple versions etc. Regards, Gregor ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
