On Mon, 2007-07-09 at 16:42 +0300, Hans-Peter wrote: > Hi, > > 2007/7/8, Marc Schwartz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > [snip] > > There exists the xlsReadWrite package on CRAN by Hans-Peter Suter, which > > is restricted to Windows, since it utilizes the non-FOSS MS Office API > > to write the Excel formats. > > The non-FOSS API is not the problem(#) but its implementation is: > > The 3rd party library I use is written in Pascal and supports Delphi > and Kylix. Kylix would allow to port the package to Linux but as Kylix > has unfortunately been abandoned by CodeGear (Borland) I am not > ready/interested to spend my time on this dead road. Though it > probably could be done quickly. > > A much more interesting way is to port the package using FreePascal. > --> I plan to do this since long but... > --> Maybe someone fluent on Linux and FreePascal could have a look at > the pascal header files (treetron.googlepages.com) and make the demos > run on Linux..., that would be great and speed up an eventual > xlsReadWrite port!
Thanks for the clarification. However, I think that if you are going to pursue a cross-platform solution, providing source code requiring compilation (as opposed to a pre-compiled Windows binary), you should consider what the installation requirements for your package would then be. If you are going to take the step of requiring a prospective end-user to have a particular Pascal compiler in place, you may as well have the requirement for a Perl interpreter and associated packages. Since Perl is widely available and you are more likely to find Perl-fluent coders as opposed to Pascal-fluent coders (eg. I have not used Pascal since the late 80's), I would urge you to consider Perl as a future substrate for your functions. While compiled code will run faster than interpreted code, for these types of file I/O functions, I am not sure that you lose much with Perl from a performance standpoint and you certainly gain the eyes of a wider audience with respect to use, debugging and enhancements. To that end, you (or any other interested parties) are free to utilize my code in any way you deem appropriate. I did not state this in my original post, but I make the code available under GPL(v2), freeing you from any restrictions in its use, including your "Pro" version, as long as you make the source available in a fashion consistent with the GPL requirements. Regards, Marc Schwartz ______________________________________________ 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 and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.