64 bit Mac GUI

CC: r-sig-mac at stat.math.ethz.ch
From: simon.urbanek at r-project.org
To: km_newman at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] 64 bit Mac GUI
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:08:20 -0400

On Sep 27, 2008, at 4:41 PM, Kurt Newman wrote:

Hello,I have used Matthew's method to install 64 bit R on Leopard  

(http://www.matthewckeller.com/html/64_bit_r_on_mac.html

) and from the command line in the terminal program both 32 bit
(command "R") and 64 bit (command "R --arch=x86_64") R seem to
work. My question concerns the R GUI. The page http://r.research.att.com/building.html
indicates that "Leopard supports 64-bit throughout, including in
the R GUI". The GUI downloaded from http://r.research.att.com/
opens 32 bit R, but I have not been able to get the GUI to open 64
bit R. Please tell me what I am missing. Does the GUI need to be
recompiled, is there a configuration that needs to be set, or  

have I

misunderstood the statement "64-bit throughout, including in the R
GUI".R is installed on a Mac Pro with Quad-Core Intel Xeon
processors and Mac OS X 10.5.4 operating system. Thank you,Kurt  

Newman

[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

First a warning - please don't follow all "Matthew's instructions"
unless you really know what you're doing. They are slightly  

misleading

and most of the them are not necessary (and some are outright
dangerous). If you think the instructions on http://
r.research.att.com/ are not sufficient, please say so!

As for the GUI, you have to compile 64-bit version of the GUI once  

you

have 64-bit R installed. You can do so as follow (paste in the
Terminal, you must have Xcode installed):

svn co https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/Mac-GUI
# svn may ask you to accept ETH certificate here if run for the  

first

time
cd Mac-GUI
xcodebuild -configuration Deployment64
open build/Deployment64

The last command will open the directory containing the newly built
GUI in the Finder, so you can do whatever you please with it  

(replace

the 32-bit, rename, copy to Applications, ...)

As for installing Leopard R, the simplest way is to paste this in  

the

Terminal:

curl -s http://r.research.att.com/R-2.8-branch-leopard-
universal.tar.gz \
| sudo tar fvxz - -C /

You don't need extra library paths for 64-bit packages, but you want
to use type='source' in install.packages for 64-bit (as the site  

says).

Cheers,
Simon

Simon,

Thank you very much for your response!!  The instructions on http://r.research.att.com 
 are probably very clear to individuals with more appropriate  
experience than I have.  My knowledge of unix barely extends beyond  
what I had to know to run SAS (vi editor) and manipulate files.  I  
have been struggling with getting 64 bit R to run.  The information  
in your response above worked perfectly and 64 bit R, including the  
GUI, appears to be functional.  The R Console displays the the  
expected pointer size and some elementary miscellaneous R code (not  
shown) ran without error.

R version 2.8.0 alpha (2008-09-26 r46576)
Copyright (C) 2008 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
ISBN 3-900051-07-0
...

.Machine$sizeof.pointer

[1] 8

I have used 32 bit R to work through various tutorial exercises and  
become able to start using R instead of SAS.  The conversion to 64  
bit R is necessary to use additional memory for my "real" work.   
Your Mac GUI is VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!  It is a tremendous product!!

I have a question about packages.  When I click on "Packages & Data"  
on the GUI menu bar, select "Package Installer", select "CRAN  
(sources)", select "Get List", select a CRAN Mirror site then click  
on OK the following error appears in the R Console

 *** caught segfault ***
address 0x217b629cf, cause 'memory not mapped'

Traceback:
 1: select.list(choices, multiple = FALSE, title = title)
 2: menu(m[, 1], graphics, "CRAN mirror")
 3: chooseCRANmirror()

Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace

Selection:

Please tell me if I have missed something about using the 64 bit GUI  
"Packages & Data" feature.

Thank you,
Kurt