If I do not know C or FORTRAN, how can I fully understand the package or possibly improve it? Robert.
Roger Bivand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Robert wrote: > Roger Bivand wrote: > On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Robert wrote: > > > It uses FORTRAN code and not in pure R. > > The same applies to deldir - it also includes Fortran. So the answer seems > to be no, there is no voronoi function only written in R. > Robert wrote: > > I am curious about one thing: since the reason for using r is r is a > easy-to-learn language and it is good for getting more people involved. > Why most of the packages written in r use other languages such as > FORTRAN's code? I understand some functions have already been written in > other language or it is faster to be implemented in other language. But > my understanding is if the user does not know that language (for > example, FORTRAN), the package is still a black box to him because he > can not improve the package and can not be involved in the development. > When I searched the packages of R, I saw many packages with duplicated > or similar functions. the main difference among them are the different > functions implemented using other languages, which are always a black > box to the users. So it is very hard for users to believe the package > will run something they need, let alone getting involved in the > development. My comments are not to disregard these efforts. But it is > good to see the packages written in pure R. > Please indent your replies, they are very difficult to read sensibly. Although surprisingly much of R is written in R, quite a lot is written in Fortran and C. One very good reason, apart from efficiency, is code re-use - BLAS and LAPACK among many others are excellent implementations of what we need for numerical linear algebra. R is very typical of good scientific software, it tries to avoid re-implementing functions that are used by the community, are well-supported by the community, and work. Packages by and large do the same - if existing software does the required job, package authors attempt to port that software to R, providing interfaces to underlying C or Fortran libraries. It's about standing on the shoulders of giants. -- Roger Bivand Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------- [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ 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