R "sumo" package suggestion

Good idea, IMHO, but there are some practical difficulties:

I guess the XEmacs packages are (most, if not all) pure elisp code, and do
not need other stuff to work.  However, quite a few CRAN packages depend on
external libraries or programs, and do not necessarily work on all platforms
that R runs on.  How would such dependencies be resolved in such a kitchen
sink bundle?

I have a somewhat related idea:  Start labelling packages with a set of
pre-defined categories, and a package can be labelled with more than one
categories (especially those *misc type packages).  It is then possible to
have facility to let people install all packages that fall in a particular
category (e.g., `spatial statistics').  I believe several systems have such
facilities, Debian being one of them, TeXLive being another.

Just my $0.02...

Andy

From: Rodney Sparapani

r-help:

I have an R package suggestion.  After spending
several hours the other day installing about a dozen
packages, I had an idea.  In xemacs, there is a
"sumo" package which allows me to install a large
bundle of xemacs packages at one time (about a 120
modes including ESS).  I think R should have a
similar bundle.  It would be so much easier than
hunting/downloading/installing.  Martin encouraged
me to send this suggestion to r-help.  In addition,
he put together a few comments relating to the previous
times that this, or a similar suggestion, has been
brought up here.

Martin wrote:

If you search for "install all CRAN packages"
on
      http://maths.newcastle.edu.au/~rking/R/

(the URL which is quickly found from the [Search] sidebar of
http://www.R-project.org/)

You find things like Greg Warnes 'Makefile'
http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/04/0723.html
and
http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/04/0616.html
which is from Tony and has the following small function:

  installNewCRANPackages <- function() {
    ## (C) A.J. Rossini, 2002--2004
    test2 <- packageStatus()$avail["Status"]

install.packages(row.names(test2)[which(test2$Status=="not
installed")])
  }

----------

Rodney Sparapani              Medical College of Wisconsin
Sr. Biostatistician           Patient Care & Outcomes Research
rsparapa at mcw.edu              http://www.mcw.edu/pcor
Was 'Name That Tune' rigged?  WWLD -- What Would Lombardi Do