R and Python

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
[mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Gabor Grothendieck
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:22 AM
To: Ryan Sheftel
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] R and Python

As far as I know the latest versions of neither RSpython nor 
rpy2 support Windows. For accessing SymPy (which is a python 
computer algebra system) from R rSymPy went with jython.  Its 
slower than cpython, particularly the startup, but it should 
work on all platforms.  See
  http://rsympy.googlecode.com
The latest version is 0.1-4.

If ruby is an option see the rinruby project for accessing R 
from ruby.  There is a paper on it on jstatsoft.org .

If java is an option see the RServe package for accessing R from java.
 Also in the other direction the rJava package can be used to 
access java from R.


On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Ryan Sheftel 
<ryan.sheftel at rmbaries.com> wrote:

I am a long time user of R for financial time series analysis (xts, 
zoo,
etc) and for my next project I am thinking of adding the Python 
language to the mix. The reason for adding Python is primarily its 
non-statistical capabilities.

So my questions are what have people's experiences been with using 
interop between R and Python. I see there are two items, rPy and 
RSPython. It looks like rPy makes it possible to call R code from 
Python, and RSPython goes both ways. My needs would be to 

use Python 

to drive R to get it's extensive time series and stats, and 

also to get to Python objects from inside R.

I searched the list archives and it looks like many people use rPy, 
but what about RSPython for calling Python from R? It looks 

like rPy 

only goes from R into Python, and RSPython has not been 

updated since 2005?

Other messages in the archives state that RSPython only 

works on Unix?

Would I be foolish to build anything mission critical on 

RSPython? Is 

there a better way to get at Python from R?

Thanks as always.

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