On 7/21/05, Duncan Murdoch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 7/21/2005 9:43 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote: > > I think you have been using R too long. Something like > > this is very much needed. There are two problems: > > > > 1. the process itself is too complex (need to get rid of perl, > > integrate package development tools with package installation > > procedure [it should be as easy as downloading a package], > > remove necessity to set or modify any environment variables > > including the path variables). > > I agree with some of this, but I don't see much interest in fixing it. > > For example, getting rid of Perl would be a lot of work. When the Perl > scripts were written, R was not capable of doing what they do. I think > it is capable now, but there's still a huge amount of translation work > to do. Who will do that? Who will test that they did it right? At the > end, will it actually have been worth all the trouble? Installing Perl > is not all that hard.
Each step may not be hard but the totality of them all means its pretty complex for most people. I don't know who will do it or whether anyone even will but a first step is identifying that it needs to be done. Since the key to expanding R is to expand the library to me making it simple to create and install packages and R ought to be of very high priority for the core group regardless of difficulty in achieving this. If no one is interested in doing it then it will remain a limitation of R that commercial or other free systems can use to gain advantage over R. > > > 2. there is too much material to absorb just to create a package. > > The manuals are insufficient. > > The first sentence here is basically a repetition of "the process is too > complex". I think the second sentence is incorrect. Could you please > point out what necessary steps are missing? Its not that anything is missing that I am aware of. Its that there is so much detail one is overwhelmed. Its not completely the fault of the description since as point #1 mentions the process itself is a key part of the problem. > > > > A step-by-step simplification is very much needed. > > Exactly this has been in the Installation and Administration manual > since I put it there in February for the 2.1.0 release. It's at the > beginning of the appendix on the Windows toolset, with multiple > references pointing people there. It's followed by detailed > descriptions of each of the steps. > > If you think it could be further improved, please submit improvements. That is easy to say but, in fact, if anyone does this they are not met with a receptive atmosphere. The excellent post describing the process that started this out (even if there are some small errors) is just one example. > > >Its no > > coincidence that there are a number of such descriptions on > > the net (google for 'making creating R package') since I would > > guess that just about everyone has significant problems in creating > > their first package on Windows. > > As far as I can tell, those all predate the release of 2.1.0. I think > your complaints are out of date. I am sure the situation is getting better but I did look at the manuals again before posting and do think that a step by step article such as that in Ivy Li's post, the various documents on the net findable by google as I mentioned and the proposed article by Uwe are really needed in addition to the manuals. The manuals can then be used to get additional detail. > > Duncan Murdoch > > > > > > > On 7/21/05, Uwe Ligges <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Ivy_Li wrote: > >> > >> > Dear All, > >> > > >> > With the warm support of every R expert, I have built my R library > >> > successfully. > >> > Especially thanks: Duncan Murdoch > >> > Gabor Grothendieck > >> > Henrik Bengtsson > >> > Uwe Ligges > >> > >> You are welcome. > >> > >> > >> The following is intended for the records in the archive in order to > >> protect readers. > >> > >> > >> > Without your help, I will lower efficiency. > >> > I noticed that some other friends were puzzled by the method of building > >> > library. Now, I organize a document about it. Hoping it can help more > >> > friends. > >> > > >> > 1. Read the webpage <http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools> > >> > >> Do you mean http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/ ? > >> > >> > 2. Download the "rw2011.exe"; Install the newest version of R > >> > 3. Download the "tools.zip"; Unpack it into c:\cygwin > >> > >> Not required to call it "cygwin" - also a bit misleading... > >> > >> > 4. Download the "ActivePerl-5.6.1.633-MSWin32-x86.msi"; Install Active > >> > Perl in c:\Perl > >> > >> Why in C:\Perl ? > >> > >> > 5. Download the "MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe"; Install the mingw32 port of gcc in > >> > c:\mingwin > >> > >> Why in c:\mingwin ? > >> > >> > >> > 6. Then go to "Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment > >> > Variables -> Path -> Variable Balue"; add "c:\cygwin;c:\mingwin\bin" > >> > The PATH variable already contains a couple of paths, add the two > >> > given above in front of all others, separated by ";". > >> > Why we add them in the beginning of the path? Because we want the > >> > folder that contains the tools to be at the beginning so that you > >> > eliminate the possibility of finding a different program of the same > >> > name first in a folder that comes prior to the one where the tools are > >> > stored. > >> > >> > >> OK, this (1-6) is all described in the R Administration and Installation > >> manual, hence I do not see why we have to repeat it here. > >> > >> > >> > 7. I use the package.skeleton() function to make a draft package. It > >> > will automate some of the setup for a new source package. It creates > >> > directories, saves functions and data to appropriate places, and > >> > creates skeleton help files and 'README' files describing further steps > >> > in packaging. > >> > I type in R: > >> > >f <- function(x,y) x+y > >> > >g <- function(x,y) x-y > >> > >d <- data.frame(a=1, b=2) > >> > >e <- rnorm(1000) > >> > >package.skeleton(list=c("f","g","d","e"), name="example") > >> > Then modify the 'DESCRIPTION': > >> > Package: example > >> > Version: 1.0-1 > >> > Date: 2005-07-09 > >> > Title: My first function > >> > Author: Ivy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> > Maintainer: Ivy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> > Description: simple sum and subtract > >> > License: GPL version 2 or later > >> > Depends: R (>= 1.9), stats, graphics, utils > >> > You can refer to the web page: > >> > http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/ There are larger > >> > source of examples. And you can read the part of 'Creating R Packages' > >> > in 'Writing R Extension'. It introduces some useful things for your > >> > reference. > >> > >> > >> This is described in Writing R Extension and is not related to the setup > >> of you system in 1-6. > >> > >> > >> > > >> > 8. Download hhc.exe Microsoft help compiler from somewhere. And save it > >> > somewhere in your path. > >> > I download a 'htmlhelp.exe' and setup. saved the hhc.exe into the > >> > 'C:\cygwin\bin' because this path has been writen in my PATH Variable > >> > Balue. > >> > However if you decided not to use the Help Compiler (hhc), then you > >> > need to modify the MkRules file in RHOME/src/gnuwin32 to tell it not to > >> > try to build that kind of help file > >> > >> > >> This is described in the R Administration and Installation manual > >> and I do not see why we should put the html compiler to the other tools. > >> > >> > >> > 9. In the DOS environment. Into the "D:\>" Type the following code: > >> > >> There is no DOS environment in Windows NT based operating systems. > >> > >> > >> > cd \Program Files\R\rw2010 > >> > bin\R CMD INSTALL "/Program Files/R/rw2011/example" > >> > >> I do not see why anybody would like to contaminate the binary > >> installation of R with some development source packages. > >> I'd rather use a separate directory. > >> > >> I think reading the two mentioned manuals shoul be sufficient. You have > >> not added relevant information. By adding irrelevant information and > >> omitting some relevant information, I guess we got something that is > >> misleading if the reader does NOT read the manuals as well. > >> > >> Best, > >> Uwe Ligges > >> > >> > >> > Firstly, because I install the new version R in the D:\Program Files\. > >> > So I should first into the D drive. Secondly, because I use the > >> > package.skeleton() function to build 'example' package in the path of > >> > D:\Program Files\R\rw2011\ So I must tell R the path where saved the > >> > 'example' package. So I write the code is like that. If your path is > >> > different from me, you should modify part of these code. > >> > > >> > 10.Finally, this package is successfully built up. > >> > > >> > ---------- Making package example ------------ > >> > adding build stamp to DESCRIPTION > >> > installing R files > >> > installing data files > >> > installing man source files > >> > installing indices > >> > not zipping data > >> > installing help > >> > >>> Building/Updating help pages for package 'example' > >> > Formats: text html latex example chm > >> > d text html latex example > >> > e text html latex example > >> > f text html latex example > >> > g text html latex example > >> > adding MD5 sums > >> > > >> > * DONE (example) > >> > > >> > I was very happy to get the great results. I hope the document can help > >> > you. Thank you again for everyone's support. > >> > > >> > > >> > Best Regards! > >> > Ivy Li（李琛） > >> > YMS in Production & Testing > >> > Semiconductor Manufactory International(ShangHai) Corporation > >> > #18 ZhangJiang Road, PuDong New Area, Shanghai, China > >> > Tel: 021-5080-2000 *11754 > >> > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> > > >> > ______________________________________________ > >> > R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > >> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >> > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > >> > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >> > >> > >> > >> ______________________________________________ > >> R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >> PLEASE do read the posting guide! > >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >> > >> > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >
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