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R GUI question

6 messages · jeffreya, Gábor Csárdi, Richard M. Heiberger +2 more

jeffreya
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Hi.

I'm looking to create a user-friendly program built around some R methods
I've written. The program should be as easy to install and use as possible
and will be built around a GUI. This program will be cross-platform; that's
crucial.

I'm familiar with Java and its GUI packages, I've been looking at the JRI
package (interfaces R with Java) but I'm a little uneasy about asking my
users to go through its installation (necessitates mingw, among other
things, in Windows). Though, once installed, it could work very well.

I have a little exposure to Tcl/TK. Though I'm not as big of a fan of this
as I am of Java, I could suck it up and use it, but I'm not sure that its
installation is a whole lot simpler?

What, in your experience, is the easiest way to accomplish something like
this?

To recapitulate, my criteria are:
1.) Easy installation
2.) Ease of use (GUI)
3.) Interface with functions written in R
4.) Cross-platform

I'm willing to learn a new language (scripting or otherwise) if necessary.

Thanks so much.
Gábor Csárdi
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On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 12:56:13PM -0700, jeffreya wrote:
Should be. It comes with R. I believe that it is still the only
cross-platform solution that requires nothing, but the base 
R installation.
Tcl/Tk wins here, IMHO.
Tcl/Tk is not the most modern GUI, so it might be a little
clumsy.
That's no problem for any of the R GUI options, i believe.
Tcl/Tk is.

Furthermore, Tcl/Tk is quite poorly documented, even 
if you can usually use its "normal" (not R) documentation.
Sometimes it is hard to find the right way of doing things.

Gabor

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Richard M. Heiberger
    

    

      
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Look at Rcmdr as the base for your additional menu functions.
I am using it for my introductory courses and have added my own menu items.

            

      
      
      
    

        
Also from CRAN you can download and install my addin library RcmdrPlugin.HH
The latter will show how easy it is to add additional functions to
the Rcmdr menu.

Rich

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      John Fox
    

    

      
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Dear Jeffrey,

The last issue of R News
<http://cran.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/Rnews_2007-3.pdf> has an article on
writing Rcmdr plug-in packages. Beyond the documentation that comes with it,
some more information about the Rcmdr package is available at
<http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/index.html>, including a link to
another article in the Journal of Statistical Software.

Regards,
 John

--------------------------------
John Fox, Professor
Department of Sociology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M4
905-525-9140x23604
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Michael Lawrence
    

    

      
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On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 12:56 PM, jeffreya <jeff_a_10487 at yahoo.com> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
rJava/JRI does not require mingw. It's just a matter of installing
Java (which many users have already) and the rJava package.

            

      
      
      
    

        
I would suggest using the gWidgets package, an abstraction over RGtk2
(best supported by gWidgets but requires user to install the
cross-platform GTK+ library), tcltk and rJava/Swing. All the backends
are cross-platform and support callbacks into R. The user may choose
which backend to use. So if they want a slicker GUI they could install
GTK+ and RGtk2 or they could just use the built-in support for tcl/tk.

            

      
      
      
    

        
gWidgets would only require you to know R.

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    
4 days later

    

      
      

        


  

        

      jeffreya
    

    

      
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Thanks so much for all the input; I appreciate it.

I think I'll stick with Tcl/Tk for now primarily on the basis of
installation issues. I'm not sure that many of these users would have Java,
so the other alternatives all seemed to add another level of complexity on
to the installation task (again, this is aimed at a very non-computer savvy
audience).

Thanks again for the advice!

Jeff