An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available URL: <https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/attachments/20111130/715203f6/attachment.pl>
Random Forests in R
2 messages · Axel Urbiz, Peter Langfelder
On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 7:48 PM, Axel Urbiz <axel.urbiz at gmail.com> wrote:
I understand the original implementation of Random Forest was done in Fortran code. In the source files of the R implementation there is a note "C wrapper for random forests: ?get input from R and drive ?the Fortran routines.". I'm far from an expert on this...does that mean that the implementation in R is through calls to C functions only (not Fortran)? So, would knowing C be enough to understand this code, or Fortran is also necessary?
I haven't seen the C and Fortran code for Random Forest but I understand the note to say that R code calls some C functions that pre-process (possibly re-format etc) the data, then call the actual Random Forest method that's written in Fortran, then possibly post-process the output and return it to R. It would imply that to understand the actual Random Forest code, you will have to read the Fortran source code. Best, Peter