Wording of "R Installation and Administration"
Hi, I hope I haven't got this wrong, but I don't think one needs Perl installed if they install the "precompiled" packages for Windows right? I'm just wondering if the first sentence in the "R Installation and Administration" can be re-worded a bit so newbies won't get confused.... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 08:56:37 +1200 (NZST) From: Ko-Kang Kevin Wang <kwan022@stat.auckland.ac.nz> To: rwatkins@cornerstonelp.com Subject: RE: [R] Downloading packages from CRAN Hi Rick,
On Sun, 1 Jun 2003 rwatkins@cornerstonelp.com wrote:
Kevin- Thanks a lot for the help -- the Install manual clearly states in the first line of the Installing Packages section that one needs Perl5.004 or higher to install source packages. (To date, I have found the manuals to be confusing at best.)
Ah I see the confusion. I am taking it you are reading the "R Installation and Administration", Section 5.1. It says "Installing source packages requires that Perl 5.004 or later be installed." Note the keywords "source packages". It means if you want to download the "source codes" of the package(s), i.e. a tarball file, and compile the package yourself, then you will need Perl. Most, if not all, packages on CRAN have a "pre-compiled" windows version, i.e. a ZIP file. That is why the easiest way is to install under Rgui, as the default URL setting in Rgui is to look under the appropriate directory in which pre-compiled package files located.
I am trying to use the Rgui to install: (specifically: Packages/Install Packages from CRAN.) But I will try once again, and this time attempt to follow your "template" -- Thanks again for your time and consideration. It's greatly appreciated.
An alternative is to download the precompiled zip file and unzip them into your R library folder.
Cheers, Kevin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871) ---- From Computer Stupidities: http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ -- Ko-Kang Kevin Wang Master of Science (MSc) Student SLC Tutor and Lab Demonstrator Department of Statistics University of Auckland New Zealand Homepage: http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~kwan022 Ph: 373-7599 x88475 (City) x88480 (Tamaki)