Hi Gabor, Thank you very much! That is an excelent idea!
I had not thought about Jython at all. Moreover, I always had the impression that the latest Jython distribution was based on Python 2.2. But I just saw that they upgraded to 2.5 a few months ago. This is quite fortunate because both "dataframes2xls" and "write2xls" depend on Python 2.4 or better. An R user will not notice much of a 15 MB download. And for most MS Windows users Java is an even more common thing than Perl. I will definitely check this out! Thanks a lot!!! Best wishes, Guido --- On Wed, 9/2/09, Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendi...@gmail.com> wrote: > From: Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendi...@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Rd] Including a binary Python Interpreter into a binary > R-package for MS Windows > To: gvst...@yahoo.com > Cc: uwe.lig...@r-project.org, r-devel@r-project.org > Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 12:06 AM > On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 5:41 PM, > <gvst...@yahoo.com> > wrote: > > 2009/8/30 Uwe Ligges <lig...@statistik.tu-dortmund.de>: > > [snip] > >> Guido van Steen wrote: > > [snip] > >>> Something that interests me too: What about > R's policy with respect to > >>> including binary files? I saw that developers > should include a file > > [snip] > >> Please do not include binary files and carefully > watch for licenses of those > >> files (e.g. if GPL'ed, you need to ship sources!). > If pyhthon is required, I > >> highly suggest to state it in the > SystemDependencies and be fine with it - > >> users can learn to install phython themselves, I'm > pretty sure. > > > > Hi Uwe, > > > > Note: I will send this email cc. to the R-devel list, > which I joined today. I think it may be of interest to other > people as well. > > > > Thank you for your answer, although it disappointed me > a bit. I had already spent quite some time building a > stand-alone windows binary of a new package "write2xls". > This package provides the same R interface to Python as the > other package "dataframes2xls". As you know it enable users > to create xls files. The special thing about "write2xls" is > that it does not have any dependencies at all. It is > so-to-speak a turn-key solution. > > > > Of course I should have read a bit more before I > started. Only after your mail I read the pdf-file "Writing R > Extensions". It says "A source package if possible should > not contain binary executable files: they are not portable, > and a security risk if they are of the appropriate > architecture. R CMD check will warn about them unless they > are listed (one filepath per line) in a file 'BinaryFiles' > at the top level of the package or bundle. Note that CRAN > will no longer accept submissions containing binary files > even if they are listed." > > > > So, yes, you are right. I was actually hoping that > CRAN could make some exceptions, but after some thinking I > fully understand that many people would object to this for > good reasons: R code depending on a C compiler will not work > without a C Compiler either. For security reasons we cannot > allow packages to install a binary C compiler. So, yes, I > understand the reasons but still it is a pity. > > > > The current situation is that many MS Windows users > can not easily use "dataframes2xls". There are a few > reasons: > > > > * Most users of MS Windows will be unfamiliar with > Python, which will make them reluctant to install Python. > > > > * Installing Python will be impossible on many MS > Windows platforms due to limited user rights. > > > > * Downloading a standard Python installer takes about > 15 Megabytes. My newly created "write2xls" package just > contains 1.3 MB. > > > > Note that the rSymPy package has an entire Jython > interpreter > in it and provided your software is only R and pure python > you > should be able to run it off that. > > Of course this just trades one dependency for another, i.e. > it > does not require python since that's included but it does > require > java; however, most people have java installed already > since a lot > of the free software out there requires java. See: > http://rsympy.googlecode.com > > Note that since java jar files are source files and since > java itself > is not included it was possible to do that without any > binaries. > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
