open source and R
On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Robert wrote:
Roger Bivand <Roger.Bivand at nhh.no> wrote: On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Robert wrote:
It uses FORTRAN code and not in pure R.
The same applies to deldir - it also includes Fortran. So the answer seems to be no, there is no voronoi function only written in R.
Robert wrote:
I am curious about one thing: since the reason for using r is r is a easy-to-learn language and it is good for getting more people involved. Why most of the packages written in r use other languages such as FORTRAN's code? I understand some functions have already been written in other language or it is faster to be implemented in other language. But my understanding is if the user does not know that language (for example, FORTRAN), the package is still a black box to him because he can not improve the package and can not be involved in the development. When I searched the packages of R, I saw many packages with duplicated or similar functions. the main difference among them are the different functions implemented using other languages, which are always a black box to the users. So it is very hard for users to believe the package will run something they need, let alone getting involved in the development. My comments are not to disregard these efforts. But it is good to see the packages written in pure R.
Please indent your replies, they are very difficult to read sensibly. Although surprisingly much of R is written in R, quite a lot is written in Fortran and C. One very good reason, apart from efficiency, is code re-use - BLAS and LAPACK among many others are excellent implementations of what we need for numerical linear algebra. R is very typical of good scientific software, it tries to avoid re-implementing functions that are used by the community, are well-supported by the community, and work. Packages by and large do the same - if existing software does the required job, package authors attempt to port that software to R, providing interfaces to underlying C or Fortran libraries. It's about standing on the shoulders of giants.
Roger Bivand Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43 e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no