On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 8:11 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.dun...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 11-05-03 11:25 PM, Yihui Xie wrote: >> >> 1. "Few Windows users use these commands" does not imply they are not >> useful, and I have no idea how many Windows users really use them. How >> do you run "R CMD build" when you build R packages under Windows? You >> don't write "C:/Program Files/R/R-2.13.0/bin/i386/R.exe CMD build", do >> you? > > I have unusual needs, because I use 2 or 3 different versions of R every > day. But if you're interested, the way I do it is to set up shell commands > that reset the PATH appropriate to the version of R I want to use. > > A more usual user who always wants to use just one version from the command > line could modify the PATH appropriately. I don't object to that, I just > object to having R do it to unsuspecting users, because as Simon said, > messing with the PATH can cause problems, and it's difficult for the R > installer to know if messing with yours will cause trouble for you. > > In another message you asked about using Sweave. I almost never use > Sweave() in R or "R CMD Sweave" at the command line; I have an appropriate > command configured into my editors, and I run it from there. The PATH does > not need to be involved. > > >> I think the reason we have to mess with the PATH variable for each >> single software package is that Windows is Not Unix, so you may hate >> Windows instead of a package that modifies your PATH variable. >> >> For the choice of i386 and x64, you can let the user decide which bin >> path to use. I believe the number of users who frequently switch back >> and forth is fairly small. > > I already pointed out why that is inappropriate for a lot of users.
The batchfiles handle this using Rversions.bat. Without arguments it lists the available R versions and with an argument it makes that the current version of R so that Rgui.bat, R.bat, invoke that version. Rversions.bat works by running the appropriate RSetReg.exe utility (which is a utility that is included in every R distribution). Of course if you just want to run a specific version of Rgui each version has a separate icon on the desktop so one can select the version of interest that way too. I personally keep about half a dozen back versions of R for the reasons others have mentioned and these would include one R-13.x version, one R-12.x version, etc. I literally use x in the name since only the most recent version in any such series is stored. That is, when a new R-2.13.x comes out I just install it over the existing R-2.13.x: Directory of C:\Program Files\R 31/03/2010 02:37 PM <DIR> R-2.10.x 01/06/2010 01:03 PM <DIR> R-2.11.x 22/03/2011 03:25 PM <DIR> R-2.12.x 26/04/2011 01:45 PM <DIR> R-2.13.x -- Statistics & Software Consulting GKX Group, GKX Associates Inc. tel: 1-877-GKX-GROUP email: ggrothendieck at gmail.com ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel