Dear list member, sorry, for jumping in this thread and/or the gun. What springs immediately to my mind is: if such a functionality should be realised, it might be beneficial too to have something similar to Thomas Ruedas `texdocTK' at hand; i.e. the retrieval of the pdf-package documentations sorted by category and of course the manuals that are shipped with a base installation. Well, but one after the other...
Best Regards, Bernhard > Hello, > > > > I think Achim suggestion is more realistic: it does not > imply automatic > > installation of all packages, but just a restricted list of packages > > available on CRAN about a specific topic. > > > > An easy way to get this result is to propose separate lists of > > packages. It > > means separate lists than > > http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/PACKAGES.html (and > 'PACKAGES' in > > the > > Windows packages binaries). I don't see the problem to > propose other > > lists > > that could be called 'SpatialStats.html' (in packages > > sources)/'SpatialStats' (in Windows binaries)... and the same for > > 'MachineLearning', 'Biostats', etc... > > > > Then, of course the various functions that install packages > should be > > adapted to use these lists. It does not look like an unsurmontable > > task. > > > > Of course, if this is not done yet by the R Core Team, I > presume that > > there > > must be difficulties that I don't see. It is obvious that, > either we > > need a > > list maintainer for each topic, or we have to propose keywords for > > packages > > (similar to the keywords for functions) that will be used to > > automatically > > generate those separate lists. > > > > An alternative that can currently be used for groups of users in an > > institution is to maintain a local copy of R packages > repository, which > > contains only the packages of interest for this group. I do > so for my > > students. Under Windows, in the new R 2.0.1 beta, there is > a new menu > > entry > > in packages -> Set CRAN mirror... (in my version it does > not work yet, > > looking for a missing .\doc\CRAN_mirrors.csv file), but I > can easily > > figure > > out how it works and how I could append my own repository > to the list > > to > > ease installation of a restricted list of R packages by my > students. > > This is > > only for Windows, but a similar approach can also be used on other > > platforms > > with a little bit of coding. > > > > Best, > > > > Philippe > > > > ..............................................<°}))><........ > > ) ) ) ) ) > > ( ( ( ( ( Prof. Philippe Grosjean > > ) ) ) ) ) > > ( ( ( ( ( Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems > > ) ) ) ) ) Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone > > ( ( ( ( ( Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles > > ) ) ) ) ) 6, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons, Belgium > > ( ( ( ( ( > > ) ) ) ) ) phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: + 32.65.37.33.12 > > ( ( ( ( ( email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ) ) ) ) ) > > ( ( ( ( ( web: http://www.umh.ac.be/~econum > > ) ) ) ) ) > > .............................................................. > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Achim Zeileis > >> Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 10:21 PM > >> To: Liaw, Andy > >> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> Subject: Re: [R] R "sumo" package suggestion > >> > >> On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:59:09 -0500 Liaw, Andy wrote: > >> > >>> Good idea, IMHO, but there are some practical difficulties: > >>> > >>> I guess the XEmacs packages are (most, if not all) pure > elisp code, > >>> and do not need other stuff to work. However, quite a few CRAN > >>> packages depend on external libraries or programs, and do not > >>> necessarily work on all platforms that R runs on. How would such > >>> dependencies be resolved in such a kitchen sink bundle? > >>> > >>> I have a somewhat related idea: Start labelling packages > >> with a set > >>> of pre-defined categories, and a package can be labelled with more > >>> than one categories (especially those *misc type packages). It is > >>> then possible to have facility to let people install all > >> packages that > >>> fall in a particular category (e.g., `spatial statistics'). > >> I believe > >>> several systems have such facilities, Debian being one of them, > >>> TeXLive being another. > >> > >> This is similar to idea that has been discussed from time to > >> time for several years now: it would be nice to have > >> maintained "CRAN task views" > >> (or something like that), i.e., we could have a maintainer > >> for, say "spatial stats", another one for "machine learning", > >> "biostats" which can of course be overlapping. Then the > >> maintainers would have to produce some sort of list of > >> packages (in a standardized format) with a little bit of > >> markup such that a web page can be generated from it and that > >> the information could be used by install.packages(). > >> I think most users would profit from that, but nobody has > >> done the work to provide the infrastructure so far. I've just > >> discussed this with Kurt again, a week ago or so...I wanted > >> to play around with some ideas, but didn't get round to > >> really do something yet. But hopefully, I'll get round to > >> work on this in the next weeks. > >> Z > >> > >>> Just my $0.02... > >>> > >>> Andy > >>> > >>>> From: Rodney Sparapani > >>>> > >>>> r-help: > >>>> > >>>> I have an R package suggestion. After spending several hours the > >>>> other day installing about a dozen packages, I had an idea. In > >>>> xemacs, there is a "sumo" package which allows me to > >> install a large > >>>> bundle of xemacs packages at one time (about a 120 modes > >> including > >>>> ESS). I think R should have a similar bundle. It would > >> be so much > >>>> easier than hunting/downloading/installing. Martin > >> encouraged me to > >>>> send this suggestion to r-help. In addition, he put > >> together a few > >>>> comments relating to the previous times that this, or a similar > >>>> suggestion, has been brought up here. > >>>> > >>>> Martin wrote: > >>>> > >>>> If you search for "install all CRAN packages" > >>>> on > >>>> http://maths.newcastle.edu.au/~rking/R/ > >>>> > >>>> (the URL which is quickly found from the [Search] sidebar of > >>>> http://www.R-project.org/) > >>>> > >>>> You find things like Greg Warnes 'Makefile' > >>>> http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/04/0723.html > >>>> and > >>>> http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/04/0616.html > >>>> which is from Tony and has the following small function: > >>>> > >>>> installNewCRANPackages <- function() { > >>>> ## (C) A.J. Rossini, 2002--2004 > >>>> test2 <- packageStatus()$avail["Status"] > >>>> > >>>> install.packages(row.names(test2)[which(test2$Status=="not > >>>> installed")]) > >>>> } > >>>> > >>>> ---------- > >>>> > >>>> Rodney Sparapani Medical College of Wisconsin > >>>> Sr. Biostatistician Patient Care & Outcomes Research > >>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mcw.edu/pcor > >>>> Was 'Name That Tune' rigged? WWLD -- What Would Lombardi Do > >>>> > >>>> ______________________________________________ > >>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide! > >>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >>> ______________________________________________ > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >>> PLEASE do read the posting guide! > >>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >>> > >> > >> ______________________________________________ > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >> PLEASE do read the posting guide! > >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >> > >> > > > > ______________________________________________ > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------- > --------- > Dr. Andrew Beckerman > Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, > Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK > ph +44 (0)114 222 0026; fx +44 (0)114 222 0002 > http://www.shef.ac.uk/beckslab > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------- > ---------- > > ______________________________________________ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information contained herein is confidential and is inte...{{dropped}} ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
