Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Tribo Laboy wrote: Thanks all for the help and suggestions. I am little by little finding my way. I have another question to the people who use the R packaging system. Say I have a function called myfun.R. Where am I supposed to write the help to that function? When I use promt(myfun) or package.skeleton(myfun) I get a skeleton of the .Rd file which contains both help and R source. The R source in the Rd file is there instead of an example, you should replace it. Note that Rd stands for R documentation, it should not include code sources, just documentation sources. What do you do with the original .R source file then - do you delete it? I suppose it is not necessary No, it must be there in the package sources, otherwise you won't have any functions in your package. Uwe Ligges anymore and all changes to R source and help can be done simultaneously in the .Rd file. Then it can be used to generate all the help and R files to be run. But then .Rd files cannot be run directly from R, so each time a change is done to the source, it must be re-exported in an .R file and run. Please tell me if I am wrong. Do you keep R-souce and R-help in separate files while developing and then combine them in a single .Rd file when you're finished? Yours still confused, TL On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:13 PM, Tribo Laboy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, I am new useR, I have written some functions, which I currently use by source-ing them from the files. That's OK, but when I my functions start counting in the tens and hundreds I'd be glad to be able to type help.search(my_obscure_fun) and get a sensible reply. I also want to be able to load them as a package at startup and not have to source each one individually. I read through the Writing R Extensions file, but I am overwhelmed with the vast amount of prescribed detail that Extension Authors must follow - directory structure, file structure, etc. Luckily, I found the prompt function, which helps in writing of help-files in the form of fill-in the blanks. But that's only for the help-files. Reading further, it gets even more complicated. The user is referred to the R Installation and Administration document, which says that: If you want to build R or add-on packages from source in Windows, you will need to collect, install and test an extensive set of tools. These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? Rgards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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. __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Yesterday I wrote: I took a look at this today. You get an error message but the package is still installed without the CHM compiler, so that's less urgent. I did add a menu entry to install a source package from a directory: Packages | Install source package from local folder... to the alpha version. I don't guarantee this will survive testing: it gives a fairly ugly error message if you don't have Rtools installed. It didn't survive. We'll be looking at a more complete solution for 2.8.0, but we're out of time for 2.7.0. Duncan Murdoch __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
On 08/04/2008 7:08 AM, Tribo Laboy wrote:
Thanks all for the help and suggestions. I am little by little finding
my way. I have another question to the people who use the R packaging
system. Say I have a function called myfun.R.
I guess you mean you have a source file myfun.R, containing a definition
of a function myfun. You would put this in the R subdirectory of the
package. (You could have a function named myfun.R, but it looks a
little strange.)
Where am I supposed to
write the help to that function? When I use promt(myfun) or
package.skeleton(myfun) I get a skeleton of the .Rd file which
contains both help and R source. What do you do with the original .R
source file then - do you delete it? I suppose it is not necessary
anymore and all changes to R source and help can be done
simultaneously in the .Rd file.
No, definitely not. The source is copied to the Rd file just to remind
you of what the function looks like, so that you can write documentation
that is correct. By the time you're finished editing that file, you'll
have actual working examples in the Examples section, not the function
definition. You'll put the .Rd file into the man subdirectory of the
package; R uses the \alias{myfun} line at the top to find the connection
to your myfun function.
There is a proposal on the Google Summer of Code page to mix
documentation with definitions in the .R file, but so far we don't do that.
Then it can be used to generate all
the help and R files to be run. But then .Rd files cannot be run
directly from R, so each time a change is done to the source, it must
be re-exported in an .R file and run. Please tell me if I am wrong. Do
you keep R-souce and R-help in separate files while developing and
then combine them in a single .Rd file when you're finished?
No, they are separate from the beginning, and stay separate.
Duncan Murdoch
__
R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
okey-dokey, one more problem resolved. Keeping one documentation .Rd file for each R source file. Thanks! TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
[R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Hello, I am new useR, I have written some functions, which I currently use by source-ing them from the files. That's OK, but when I my functions start counting in the tens and hundreds I'd be glad to be able to type help.search(my_obscure_fun) and get a sensible reply. I also want to be able to load them as a package at startup and not have to source each one individually. I read through the Writing R Extensions file, but I am overwhelmed with the vast amount of prescribed detail that Extension Authors must follow - directory structure, file structure, etc. Luckily, I found the prompt function, which helps in writing of help-files in the form of fill-in the blanks. But that's only for the help-files. Reading further, it gets even more complicated. The user is referred to the R Installation and Administration document, which says that: If you want to build R or add-on packages from source in Windows, you will need to collect, install and test an extensive set of tools. These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? Rgards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Though R is indeed cross-platform language, how to build depends on the environment. This is case for most cross-platform software, library, etc. Basically cross-platform means cross-platform for users. When you build packages, you are not user but developer. Rtools will help you. http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/ BTW, as you mentioned, I want a easy method to pack tiny R functions (without C code, no documentation) into a library. In this case we need no extra tool such as perl, tex, chm tools, etc, right? Hello, I am new useR, I have written some functions, which I currently use by source-ing them from the files. That's OK, but when I my functions start counting in the tens and hundreds I'd be glad to be able to type help.search(my_obscure_fun) and get a sensible reply. I also want to be able to load them as a package at startup and not have to source each one individually. I read through the Writing R Extensions file, but I am overwhelmed with the vast amount of prescribed detail that Extension Authors must follow - directory structure, file structure, etc. Luckily, I found the prompt function, which helps in writing of help-files in the form of fill-in the blanks. But that's only for the help-files. Reading further, it gets even more complicated. The user is referred to the R Installation and Administration document, which says that: If you want to build R or add-on packages from source in Windows, you will need to collect, install and test an extensive set of tools. These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? Rgards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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. __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
On Mon, 2008-04-07 at 15:13 +0900, Tribo Laboy wrote: Hello, I am new useR, I have written some functions, which I currently use by source-ing them from the files. That's OK, but when I my functions start counting in the tens and hundreds I'd be glad to be able to type help.search(my_obscure_fun) and get a sensible reply. I also want to be able to load them as a package at startup and not have to source each one individually. I read through the Writing R Extensions file, but I am overwhelmed with the vast amount of prescribed detail that Extension Authors must follow - directory structure, file structure, etc. Luckily, I found the prompt function, which helps in writing of help-files in the form of fill-in the blanks. But that's only for the help-files. Reading further, it gets even more complicated. The user is referred to the R Installation and Administration document, which says that: If you want to build R or add-on packages from source in Windows, you will need to collect, install and test an extensive set of tools. These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? Have a look at ?package.skeleton. It should get you started. If you just want to build packages with pure R (no shared libraries etc.), I think you won't need the other tools. Cheers, Simon. Rgards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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. -- Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey. __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Tribo Laboy tribolaboy at gmail.com writes: [...] These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? There is a small 15-pages tutorial: Making R Packages Under Windows: A Simple Guide by P. Rossi http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/peter.rossi/research/bayes%20book/bayesm/ Making%20R%20Packages%20Under%20Windows.pdf that might be helpful as a step-by-step instruction. Hans Werner __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Hi Simon, I did the example given in package.skeleton 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=mypkg) then tried: library(mypkg) Error in library(mypkg) : there is no package called 'mypkg' After checking the directory structure, I found the package 'mypkg' placed under 'bin' sub-directory. I moved it to 'library', where all of the CRAN downloaded packages are and this is what I get: library(mypkg) Error in library(mypkg) : 'mypkg' is not a valid package -- installed 2.0.0? What am I missing? Regards, TL On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Simon Blomberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, 2008-04-07 at 15:13 +0900, Tribo Laboy wrote: Hello, I am new useR, I have written some functions, which I currently use by source-ing them from the files. That's OK, but when I my functions start counting in the tens and hundreds I'd be glad to be able to type help.search(my_obscure_fun) and get a sensible reply. I also want to be able to load them as a package at startup and not have to source each one individually. I read through the Writing R Extensions file, but I am overwhelmed with the vast amount of prescribed detail that Extension Authors must follow - directory structure, file structure, etc. Luckily, I found the prompt function, which helps in writing of help-files in the form of fill-in the blanks. But that's only for the help-files. Reading further, it gets even more complicated. The user is referred to the R Installation and Administration document, which says that: If you want to build R or add-on packages from source in Windows, you will need to collect, install and test an extensive set of tools. These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? Have a look at ?package.skeleton. It should get you started. If you just want to build packages with pure R (no shared libraries etc.), I think you won't need the other tools. Cheers, Simon. Rgards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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. -- Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey. __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
Tribo Laboy wrote: Hi Simon, I did the example given in package.skeleton 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=mypkg) then tried: library(mypkg) Error in library(mypkg) : there is no package called 'mypkg' After checking the directory structure, I found the package 'mypkg' placed under 'bin' sub-directory. I moved it to 'library', where all of the CRAN downloaded packages are and this is what I get: library(mypkg) Error in library(mypkg) : 'mypkg' is not a valid package -- installed 2.0.0? What am I missing? You created the source code for a package, but it needs some work to install it. On Windows that means installing the Rtools collection and running Rcmd INSTALL pkgdir from the Windows command line (what some people call the DOS box). At some point I'm sure we'll include those tools with R, but it will more or less double the size of the download. We've been reluctant when a lot of our users are on slow connections, and most won't need those tools. Duncan Murdoch Regards, TL On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Simon Blomberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, 2008-04-07 at 15:13 +0900, Tribo Laboy wrote: Hello, I am new useR, I have written some functions, which I currently use by source-ing them from the files. That's OK, but when I my functions start counting in the tens and hundreds I'd be glad to be able to type help.search(my_obscure_fun) and get a sensible reply. I also want to be able to load them as a package at startup and not have to source each one individually. I read through the Writing R Extensions file, but I am overwhelmed with the vast amount of prescribed detail that Extension Authors must follow - directory structure, file structure, etc. Luckily, I found the prompt function, which helps in writing of help-files in the form of fill-in the blanks. But that's only for the help-files. Reading further, it gets even more complicated. The user is referred to the R Installation and Administration document, which says that: If you want to build R or add-on packages from source in Windows, you will need to collect, install and test an extensive set of tools. These seem to include among others Perl and compiler. But R is an interpreted and cross-platform language, I don't understand the need for additional platform specific tools just to call a user collection of R-files. Anyone knows of a smooth introduction to these topics? Have a look at ?package.skeleton. It should get you started. If you just want to build packages with pure R (no shared libraries etc.), I think you won't need the other tools. Cheers, Simon. Rgards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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. -- Simon Blomberg, BSc (Hons), PhD, MAppStat. Lecturer and Consultant Statistician Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences The University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland 4072 Australia Room 320 Goddard Building (8) T: +61 7 3365 2506 http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsblomb email: S.Blomberg1_at_uq.edu.au Policies: 1. I will NOT analyse your data for you. 2. Your deadline is your problem. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data. - John Tukey. __ R-help@r-project.org 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. __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 8:02 PM, Duncan Murdoch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Tribo Laboy wrote: Hi Simon, I did the example given in package.skeleton 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=mypkg) then tried: library(mypkg) Error in library(mypkg) : there is no package called 'mypkg' After checking the directory structure, I found the package 'mypkg' placed under 'bin' sub-directory. I moved it to 'library', where all of the CRAN downloaded packages are and this is what I get: library(mypkg) Error in library(mypkg) : 'mypkg' is not a valid package -- installed 2.0.0? What am I missing? You created the source code for a package, but it needs some work to install it. On Windows that means installing the Rtools collection and running Rcmd INSTALL pkgdir from the Windows command line (what some people call the DOS box). At some point I'm sure we'll include those tools with R, but it will more or less double the size of the download. We've been reluctant when a lot of our users are on slow connections, and most won't need those tools. Duncan Murdoch Hi Duncan, Thanks for your reply. I checked the Rtools and the other relevant tools. I will most probably install them, although unwillingly. Unwillingly, because I like my current setup very much, which is a portable installation of R. I run it on the 5 different machines that I use and it is very easy to sync no mater where I install new or updated packages. I will probably have to designate one of the machines as a development machine and the others will be run-only, but this is very similar to compiled languages. Is there any way to set them up inside the main R directory structure, independent of the operating system, variables, etc.? Once again, it would be very helpful to clarify what is it that is needed to run my R-files and what INSTALL does (I did ?INSTALL, but I am none the wiser). As a user I can do without all the bells and whistles of a HTML or chm-help and just some command line parsing of the Rd help files is just fine. Obviously, I can run my functions when sourced and I do not interface to FORTRAN or C, so I do not understand what more is needed. Is it a namespace issue or just help file compilation? Whatever it is, I suspect that this rigid INSTALL and package build process is very helpful to enforce good quality packages on CRAN with good quality documentation. But isn't it an overkill for average Joe Programmer, who will never submit 'joes_weighted_mean' package to CRAN? Anyway, if you'd have some piece of advice, I'd really appreciate it. Regards, TL __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
On 4/7/2008 9:33 AM, Tribo Laboy wrote: ... Hi Duncan, Thanks for your reply. I checked the Rtools and the other relevant tools. I will most probably install them, although unwillingly. Unwillingly, because I like my current setup very much, which is a portable installation of R. I run it on the 5 different machines that I use and it is very easy to sync no mater where I install new or updated packages. I will probably have to designate one of the machines as a development machine and the others will be run-only, but this is very similar to compiled languages. Is there any way to set them up inside the main R directory structure, independent of the operating system, variables, etc.? I don't think it will ever be possible to share installed packages across different platforms. The issue is that the different operating systems have different requirements for an installed package. For example, Unix-alikes have soft links and make use of them; Windows installs don't. (Recent Windows versions have something similar, but they are so rarely used that I think it would be a bad idea to use them.) There are also differences in what functions are available in R in the different platforms (e.g. there's no windows() graphics device except on Windows), and some packages may install different things depending on the target platform. So to do what you want to do, I'd suggest setting up a mini-repository for source packages, and updating from there whenever necessary. Once again, it would be very helpful to clarify what is it that is needed to run my R-files and what INSTALL does (I did ?INSTALL, but I am none the wiser). I think the best thing to do is to look at the source code. The documentation will necessarily be a little general and abstract; if you want to know exactly what it does, just look. As a user I can do without all the bells and whistles of a HTML or chm-help and just some command line parsing of the Rd help files is just fine. I'm not sure what you mean by command line parsing of the help files, but you can certainly set things up to avoid CHM help, and that makes package installation easier on Windows. I am inclined to make HTML help the default in 2.8.0, so that by default you won't need the CHM compiler: but that won't be until the fall, and there may be objections to the change. Obviously, I can run my functions when sourced and I do not interface to FORTRAN or C, so I do not understand what more is needed. I agree that we should make it easier to install packages without compiled code, and I think if you look at the evolution of Rtools over the years, you'll see that we have. We aren't done yet. Is it a namespace issue or just help file compilation? Whatever it is, I suspect that this rigid INSTALL and package build process is very helpful to enforce good quality packages on CRAN with good quality documentation. But isn't it an overkill for average Joe Programmer, who will never submit 'joes_weighted_mean' package to CRAN? I don't think so. I think even Joe benefits from the QA support in R. But if he doesn't want to make use of it, he does have the option of just source'ing the code. Anyway, if you'd have some piece of advice, I'd really appreciate it. Two pieces: 1. Do install Rtools, but read the options carefully. You can get a smaller install by leaving out some optional components. It's still likely to be on the order of 50 MB installed, because we rely on Perl, and it's about 40 MB. Now, 50 MB sounds like a lot (it's more than twice the size of the hard drive on my first PC), but it's just 2.5% of the size of the USB thumb drive in my pocket, and less than 0.02% of the size of the hard drive in the PC I just bought for my mother. It's really trivial for most people. 2. Study the install process, and identify ways in which we could make it easier for people in your circumstances without making it harder for everyone. Let us know, and contribute documentation or patches that do it. Duncan Murdoch __ R-help@r-project.org 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.
Re: [R] How to pack my stuff into a package (library, collection)?
On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 11:09 PM, Duncan Murdoch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 4/7/2008 9:33 AM, Tribo Laboy wrote: ... Hi Duncan, Thanks for your reply. I checked the Rtools and the other relevant tools. I will most probably install them, although unwillingly. Unwillingly, because I like my current setup very much, which is a portable installation of R. I run it on the 5 different machines that I use and it is very easy to sync no mater where I install new or updated packages. I will probably have to designate one of the machines as a development machine and the others will be run-only, but this is very similar to compiled languages. Is there any way to set them up inside the main R directory structure, independent of the operating system, variables, etc.? I don't think it will ever be possible to share installed packages across different platforms. The issue is that the different operating systems have different requirements for an installed package. For example, Unix-alikes have soft links and make use of them; Windows installs don't. (Recent Windows versions have something similar, but they are so rarely used that I think it would be a bad idea to use them.) There are also differences in what functions are available in R in the different platforms (e.g. there's no windows() graphics device except on Windows), and some packages may install different things depending on the target platform. So to do what you want to do, I'd suggest setting up a mini-repository for source packages, and updating from there whenever necessary. Once again, it would be very helpful to clarify what is it that is needed to run my R-files and what INSTALL does (I did ?INSTALL, but I am none the wiser). I think the best thing to do is to look at the source code. The documentation will necessarily be a little general and abstract; if you want to know exactly what it does, just look. As a user I can do without all the bells and whistles of a HTML or chm-help and just some command line parsing of the Rd help files is just fine. I'm not sure what you mean by command line parsing of the help files, but you can certainly set things up to avoid CHM help, and that makes package installation easier on Windows. I am inclined to make HTML help the default in 2.8.0, so that by default you won't need the CHM compiler: but that won't be until the fall, and there may be objections to the change. Obviously, I can run my functions when sourced and I do not interface to FORTRAN or C, so I do not understand what more is needed. I agree that we should make it easier to install packages without compiled code, and I think if you look at the evolution of Rtools over the years, you'll see that we have. We aren't done yet. Is it a namespace issue or just help file compilation? Whatever it is, I suspect that this rigid INSTALL and package build process is very helpful to enforce good quality packages on CRAN with good quality documentation. But isn't it an overkill for average Joe Programmer, who will never submit 'joes_weighted_mean' package to CRAN? I don't think so. I think even Joe benefits from the QA support in R. But if he doesn't want to make use of it, he does have the option of just source'ing the code. Anyway, if you'd have some piece of advice, I'd really appreciate it. Two pieces: 1. Do install Rtools, but read the options carefully. You can get a smaller install by leaving out some optional components. It's still likely to be on the order of 50 MB installed, because we rely on Perl, and it's about 40 MB. Now, 50 MB sounds like a lot (it's more than twice the size of the hard drive on my first PC), but it's just 2.5% of the size of the USB thumb drive in my pocket, and less than 0.02% of the size of the hard drive in the PC I just bought for my mother. It's really trivial for most people. 2. Study the install process, and identify ways in which we could make it easier for people in your circumstances without making it harder for everyone. Let us know, and contribute documentation or patches that do it. Duncan Murdoch Hi again, Thanks for the advice. I do not mind the 40 MB or 50 MB. Still I'd hope it would be possible to avoid it if full blown cross-platform packages for CRAN are not needed. I am not a Perl hacker, but from what I saw in the INSTALL source most of the calls that do the stuff are to the system and zip utils, the other parts are Windows help-file building (on Windows), housekeeping and checks, as far as I can tell. For people in my situation (personal pure R packages), probably all the checks if an older version exists or not are not so important, as aren't the windows help-files. A command line parsing of the Rd files will go a long way in reminding the programmer/user of how to use the function. By command line parsing I mean typing 'help(fun)' and getting inside
