New release of rgdal

To all rgdal users!

The new rgdal release (0.6-1) is not yet stable in some respects, some of 
which are showing up as we go.

Do not update to this release for production work yet, but do update if you 
are willing to help sort out problems.

The Windows binary from CRAN will bundle the minimal GDAL and PROJ.4 
binaries, and their support files as before.

The source package *no longer* bundles the GDAL or PROJ.4 support files - 
bundled NAD Intel-endian binary files were causing trouble on OSX PPC for 
understandable reasons. From 0.6-*, source-installed rgdal (all installs 
except the Windows CRAN build) will need to rely on the local platform 
support files. If need be, set environment variables PROJ_LIB and GDAL_DATA 
manually, but try first to see whether GDAL and PROJ.4 autodetect correctly.

Expect rapid releases for the next few days until things stabilise.

The 0.6-5 release, coming to a CRAN near you soon, is more stable. The 
CRAN Windows binary will work very much as before, but incorporates the 
latest GDAL release, with improved drivers, including the Arc ASCII grid 
driver discussed on the list recently.

Two notes for Linux users who install PROJ.4 from binary packages (GDAL 
installs are less problematic). Those using RPMs should install four 
packages: proj, proj-devel, proj-epsg, and proj-nad, in order to run 
smoothly. Users of Debian and derived distributions should note that no 
grid datum transformation files are included in the proj package - rgdal 
will install, but during ./configure, a Note: will be seen showing that 
grid datum transformation cannot be carried out.

These issues are mentioned on http://www.r-project.org/Rgeo, and in the 
package README file:

file.show(system.file("README", package="rgdal"))

In addition, you may be aware of activity going on to make the provision 
of open geostatial software easier on the Windows platform in the OSGeo4W 
project:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo4W

The project is still at an early stage, but does provide GDAL binaries for 
Windows with more drivers than the CRAN rgdal binary package. The OSGeo4W 
installer may be downloaded from:

http://download.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/osgeo4w-setup.exe

giving a choice of packages - for rgdal, at least PROJ.4 and GDAL are 
needed. I have built a very experimental binary package of rgdal against 
OSGeo4W:

http://spatial.nhh.no/R/Devel/rgdal_0.6-6.zip

If you choose to try this preliminary version, please read:

file.show(system.file("README.windows", package="rgdal"))

for further details; in particular, note that you should start R from the 
OSGeo4W console command line, something like:

"C:\Program Files\R\R-2.8.1\bin\Rgui.exe"

in order to pick up OSGeo4W environment variables.

I'd be grateful for feedback.

Roger

I apologise for doing this "live", but it is well-nigh impossible to pre-test 
the networked build systems used to distribute software in any other way. 
Reports of problems with the 0.6-* series will be very helpful, I will 
tabulate them on:

http://geodacenter.asu.edu/map-packages-on-cran

under the rgdal entry, and note which version number resolved them and when.

Roger

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