pl/R and MacOS X using R binary

[Moved from R-help.]

I'm sorry if this is too off-topic--feel free to ignore.  I am interested in 
using pl/R, an amazing "plugin" for the postgresql database.  As is typical 
of these types of applications, pl/R needs to link against a shared library. 
However, it appears that the MacOS R binary does not build a static (.so) 
shared library.
Excuse me, but a .so is a DSO, a Dynamic _Shared_ Object.  What does 
`static' have to do with this?  libR is a dynamic library, actually 
libR$(DYLIB_EXT) with values of .so. .sl and .dylib being known.
Is there an accepted, general way (read, a way that works) 
for linking against R (presumably the dylib) on the Mac?
Yes, since that is how the GUI on MacOS X works.

My guess is that you think that pl/R requires libR.so: if correct that is 
a false assumption made somewhere along the line, and the best thing to do 
is to consult the author.  In any case

http://www.joeconway.com/plr/doc/plr-install.html

just says

   Tip:  R headers are required. Download and install R prior to building
    PL/R. R must have been built with the --enable-R-shlib option when it
    was configured, in order for the libR shared object library to be available.

Please do consult the posting guide as to the right place.  (I've moved 
this to R-devel and included Joe Conway. Joe: perhaps you could make you 
email address more readily available in the PL/R pages.)
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

[Moved from R-help.]

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005, Sean Davis wrote:

I'm sorry if this is too off-topic--feel free to ignore.  I am 
interested in using pl/R, an amazing "plugin" for the postgresql 
database.  As is typical of these types of applications, pl/R needs 
to link against a shared library. However, it appears that the MacOS 
R binary does not build a static (.so) shared library.
Excuse me, but a .so is a DSO, a Dynamic _Shared_ Object.  What does 
`static' have to do with this?  libR is a dynamic library, actually 
libR$(DYLIB_EXT) with values of .so. .sl and .dylib being known.

My misunderstanding, you are correct in that assumption.  Your 
explanation helps a lot.
Is there an accepted, general way (read, a way that works) for 
linking against R (presumably the dylib) on the Mac?
Yes, since that is how the GUI on MacOS X works.

My guess is that you think that pl/R requires libR.so: if correct that 
is a false assumption made somewhere along the line, and the best 
thing to do is to consult the author.  In any case

This is again my misunderstanding.
Please do consult the posting guide as to the right place.  (I've 
moved this to R-devel and included Joe Conway. Joe: perhaps you could 
make you email address more readily available in the PL/R pages.)

Actually, Joe has been quite helpful in this regard and the question 
has come up on his pl/R email list before, but without resolution, as 
far as I could tell (but again, I could be sadly mistaken).  I thought 
that posting to r-help (with the caveat that I was perhaps off-topic) 
would clarify things for me a bit.  It has done just that and I really 
appreciate your willingness to answer the off-topic post and move it to 
the appropriate forum.

Sean
On Apr 19, 2005, at 8:56 AM, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
Please do consult the posting guide as to the right place.  (I've 
moved this to R-devel and included Joe Conway. Joe: perhaps you could 
make you email address more readily available in the PL/R pages.)
Yes, I'll do that. Sorry for the confusion.
Actually, Joe has been quite helpful in this regard and the question has 
come up on his pl/R email list before, but without resolution, as far as 
I could tell (but again, I could be sadly mistaken).  I thought that 
posting to r-help (with the caveat that I was perhaps off-topic) would 
clarify things for me a bit.  It has done just that and I really 
appreciate your willingness to answer the off-topic post and move it to 
the appropriate forum.
The Makefile for PL/R actually does attempt to use the dylib, and at one 
point (at least) worked according to a report that I received. There 
have been a couple of reported issues with MacOS X since then though. 
Part of my problem in resolving this has been lack of an OS X machine 
that I can debug on.

Joe

p.s. I apologize in advance for slow responses -- I just arrived 9 
timezones away from home at the start of a 2 week business trip.

Sean Davis wrote:
On Apr 19, 2005, at 8:56 AM, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
Please do consult the posting guide as to the right place.  (I've 
moved this to R-devel and included Joe Conway. Joe: perhaps you 
could make you email address more readily available in the PL/R 
pages.)
Yes, I'll do that. Sorry for the confusion.

Actually, Joe has been quite helpful in this regard and the question 
has come up on his pl/R email list before, but without resolution, as 
far as I could tell (but again, I could be sadly mistaken).  I 
thought that posting to r-help (with the caveat that I was perhaps 
off-topic) would clarify things for me a bit.  It has done just that 
and I really appreciate your willingness to answer the off-topic post 
and move it to the appropriate forum.
The Makefile for PL/R actually does attempt to use the dylib, and at 
one point (at least) worked according to a report that I received. 
There have been a couple of reported issues with MacOS X since then 
though. Part of my problem in resolving this has been lack of an OS X 
machine that I can debug on.
Joe, I can provide one login on one of my testing machines here and/or 
help for debugging.
stefano
Joe

p.s. I apologize in advance for slow responses -- I just arrived 9 
timezones away from home at the start of a 2 week business trip.

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