[R-gui] R GUI question from new member

Hi, 

I'm new to this list (and to the whole R world); I've started to read
some threads in the archives to get acquinted with the community but I
have some questions ready to be asked "now".  So please keep with me
even if the mail is not that short.


I'm a software developer and I've been asked to "write a GUI for R".
The customer(s) are (could be in the near future) some departments of
the local university where R is used both for teaching and research
(in various areas).  So the problem is always the same: users find CLI
difficult to learn/use and/or the time to learn them is greater than
the total available time (for introductory courses in statistics, for
example).

As I said, I don't know much of R but it clear that is a big
language/environment and that just thinking (let alone writing) a
"full GUI" for it is a major undertaking well beyond the time (and
money) budget I have at hand.

So, what I have in mind is, instead of using/customizing big GUIs, to
just write some small apps with a dedicated and minimal GUI for any
single and simple task (think for example of some students'
"exercises" on regression, or a series of computations or analysis or
drawing steps needed to complete a research paper).  

Of course I will not directly write them myself (sorry to say that)
but instead I have to check whether that approach is feasible and, if
it is, to "set up" the environment (docs, tools, examples, ...) so
that "junior programmers" (or smart users) can write the single apps
in a reasonable time.

I'm thinking about Python + GTK + Glade for the interface stuff with
some "glue" to get Python speak to R (and trap the answers).  Python
is my preferred language, it is easy to learn (and I'm happy to teach
it) and Glade is easy to use.

My biggest concern at the moment is to check that I'm not offering to
write something to solve an already solved problem and **for that**
I'm asking this list's help.

        TIA for any help/suggestion, Luca

PS: the second biggest is to check that my idea is feasible/reasonable
    (and for that I've already started experimenting).

Hi Luca,

I would suggest to work/enhance existing code rather that reinventing
the wheel. There are a couple of RGui projects, and you may found what
you are looking for in there. Look, at http://www.sciviews.org/_rgui/
for a listing of various projects. You have GUIs written in Java,
Tcl/Tk, GTK, etc... there. Tcl/Tk is often used for convenience, because
the tcltk R package is available with (almost) all R distributions. So,
you don't need to install additional stuff. That is what makes Rcmdr so
easy to run on all platforms. If you want more advanced features, I
agree that there are better solutions (GTK, wxWidgets, etc).

May I suggest you to look here:
http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/folders/james/wxPython/. This is a solution
using R and Python... in development and desperately seeking for a new
maintainer. This is not GTK, but wxWidgets, which is also a very good
solution. Regarding a substitute for Glade, you could consider Boa
Constructor. Look here: http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/folders/james/RBoa/.
The explanation on this page is a little outdated. The latest version of
Boa Constructor is now compatible with wxPython 2.5.X. So, you don't
need to install Python/wxPython twice as explained in the page. Anyway,
using RSPython, you should be able to do what you want (mixing R, Python
and GTK).

Best,

Philippe Grosjean

Luca Manini wrote:

Hi,

I'm new to this list (and to the whole R world); I've started to read
some threads in the archives to get acquinted with the community but I
have some questions ready to be asked "now".  So please keep with me
even if the mail is not that short.


I'm a software developer and I've been asked to "write a GUI for R".
The customer(s) are (could be in the near future) some departments of
the local university where R is used both for teaching and research
(in various areas).  So the problem is always the same: users find CLI
difficult to learn/use and/or the time to learn them is greater than
the total available time (for introductory courses in statistics, for
example).

As I said, I don't know much of R but it clear that is a big
language/environment and that just thinking (let alone writing) a
"full GUI" for it is a major undertaking well beyond the time (and
money) budget I have at hand.

So, what I have in mind is, instead of using/customizing big GUIs, to
just write some small apps with a dedicated and minimal GUI for any
single and simple task (think for example of some students'
"exercises" on regression, or a series of computations or analysis or
drawing steps needed to complete a research paper).

Of course I will not directly write them myself (sorry to say that)
but instead I have to check whether that approach is feasible and, if
it is, to "set up" the environment (docs, tools, examples, ...) so
that "junior programmers" (or smart users) can write the single apps
in a reasonable time.

I'm thinking about Python + GTK + Glade for the interface stuff with
some "glue" to get Python speak to R (and trap the answers).  Python
is my preferred language, it is easy to learn (and I'm happy to teach
it) and Glade is easy to use.

My biggest concern at the moment is to check that I'm not offering to
write something to solve an already solved problem and **for that**
I'm asking this list's help.

        TIA for any help/suggestion, Luca

PS: the second biggest is to check that my idea is feasible/reasonable
    (and for that I've already started experimenting).

Hi Philippe,

I disagree -

is very easy to work cross platform with an attractive GUI.  RGtk2
works on Windows, Mac and Linux and (in my opinion) is much more
aesthetically pleasing the Tcl/Tk.

Rgtk2 supports libglade so if you are familiar with glade, it is a
very easy transition, and it is very easy to port work done in other
programming languages if you are comfortable converting your (eg.)
python code to R.

Hadley

On 2/19/06, Philippe Grosjean <phgrosjean at sciviews.org> wrote:

Hi Luca,

I would suggest to work/enhance existing code rather that reinventing
the wheel. There are a couple of RGui projects, and you may found what
you are looking for in there. Look, at http://www.sciviews.org/_rgui/
for a listing of various projects. You have GUIs written in Java,
Tcl/Tk, GTK, etc... there. Tcl/Tk is often used for convenience, because
the tcltk R package is available with (almost) all R distributions. So,
you don't need to install additional stuff. That is what makes Rcmdr so
easy to run on all platforms. If you want more advanced features, I
agree that there are better solutions (GTK, wxWidgets, etc).

May I suggest you to look here:
http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/folders/james/wxPython/. This is a solution
using R and Python... in development and desperately seeking for a new
maintainer. This is not GTK, but wxWidgets, which is also a very good
solution. Regarding a substitute for Glade, you could consider Boa
Constructor. Look here: http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/folders/james/RBoa/.
The explanation on this page is a little outdated. The latest version of
Boa Constructor is now compatible with wxPython 2.5.X. So, you don't
need to install Python/wxPython twice as explained in the page. Anyway,
using RSPython, you should be able to do what you want (mixing R, Python
and GTK).

Best,

Philippe Grosjean

Luca Manini wrote:

Hi,

I'm new to this list (and to the whole R world); I've started to read
some threads in the archives to get acquinted with the community but I
have some questions ready to be asked "now".  So please keep with me
even if the mail is not that short.


I'm a software developer and I've been asked to "write a GUI for R".
The customer(s) are (could be in the near future) some departments of
the local university where R is used both for teaching and research
(in various areas).  So the problem is always the same: users find CLI
difficult to learn/use and/or the time to learn them is greater than
the total available time (for introductory courses in statistics, for
example).

As I said, I don't know much of R but it clear that is a big
language/environment and that just thinking (let alone writing) a
"full GUI" for it is a major undertaking well beyond the time (and
money) budget I have at hand.

So, what I have in mind is, instead of using/customizing big GUIs, to
just write some small apps with a dedicated and minimal GUI for any
single and simple task (think for example of some students'
"exercises" on regression, or a series of computations or analysis or
drawing steps needed to complete a research paper).

Of course I will not directly write them myself (sorry to say that)
but instead I have to check whether that approach is feasible and, if
it is, to "set up" the environment (docs, tools, examples, ...) so
that "junior programmers" (or smart users) can write the single apps
in a reasonable time.

I'm thinking about Python + GTK + Glade for the interface stuff with
some "glue" to get Python speak to R (and trap the answers).  Python
is my preferred language, it is easy to learn (and I'm happy to teach
it) and Glade is easy to use.

My biggest concern at the moment is to check that I'm not offering to
write something to solve an already solved problem and **for that**
I'm asking this list's help.

       TIA for any help/suggestion, Luca

PS: the second biggest is to check that my idea is feasible/reasonable
   (and for that I've already started experimenting).