Good morning. I am considering buying a new computer to develop an R package for multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation. One requirement is to call, from R, a Fortran 90 program about 1000 lines of code. A C++ version of that program is also available if desired. Will the new Core Duo Mac be a good development platform in the sense that I will not need to struggle with too many technicalities in linking R with the compiled code? I am asking this because I saw that the binary Mac R distribution in fact has compilers bundled in it. I currently work mostly on Windows and was told that I will have a lot to download and configure if developing on Windows. Thanks in advance. Jason Liao, http://www.geocities.com/jg_liao Dept. of Biostatistics, http://www2.umdnj.edu/bmtrxweb University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway? NJ 08854 phone 732-235-5429, School of Public Health office phone 732-235-9824, Cancer Institute of New Jersey office
Mac as R platform
5 messages · Jason Liao, Simon Urbanek, Jan de Leeuw +1 more
3 days later
Jason,
On May 5, 2006, at 12:07 PM, Jason Liao wrote:
Good morning. I am considering buying a new computer to develop an R package for multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation. One requirement is to call, from R, a Fortran 90 program about 1000 lines of code. A C++ version of that program is also available if desired. Will the new Core Duo Mac be a good development platform in the sense that I will not need to struggle with too many technicalities in linking R with the compiled code? I am asking this because I saw that the binary Mac R distribution in fact has compilers bundled in it. I currently work mostly on Windows and was told that I will have a lot to download and configure if developing on Windows.
in general I think Macs are pretty painless in terms of developing packages for R. Most tools come right from Apple with the operating system. To complement that the fortran compiler supplied with R (GNU Fortran 95) supports F90, so you should be safe (although I'm not sure how versatile such package would be). At the development stage you shouldn't worry about universal binaries, either. Admittedly, I develop even Windows programs on my Mac, because I find it easier to cross-compile for Windows on a Mac than to do it in the horrible Windows GUI, but that's another story ;). I don't know if that helps, but those are just my 2 cents. However, if you're interested in raw speed (i.e. you actually want to run the simulations), you may be better off using dual-core AMD Opterons with Linux or Quad-G5 PowerMacs - the Intel CPUs are not necessarily fast (although Apple tries to make you believe otherwise ;)). Cheers, Simon
There are various reasons why the Mac is not the best option if you want raw speed. -- The current dual core Intel chips used in Macs are mainly developed for portables (i.e. they emphasize power saving). The next generation, available in July/August, will do a better job and will be used in the new towers. -- The G5 is not designed to do fast floating point, and generally does not do a very good job at it. -- OS X is handicapped by the Mach microkernel parts. This is becoming more and more obvious in webserving, database management, and distributed computing. Rumor has it that Apple is working on both replacing the kernel and the HFS+ file system. For my work this is all pretty irrelevant, but many others care. And with good reason. I do think, however, that the Mac, expecially the MacBook Pro, is a pretty good development machine -- especially my MacBook Pro, since it now painlessly virtualizes XP Pro, Debian, and Solaris 10 as well.
On May 8, 2006, at 23:11 , Simon Urbanek wrote:
Jason, On May 5, 2006, at 12:07 PM, Jason Liao wrote:
Good morning. I am considering buying a new computer to develop an R package for multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation. One requirement is to call, from R, a Fortran 90 program about 1000 lines of code. A C++ version of that program is also available if desired. Will the new Core Duo Mac be a good development platform in the sense that I will not need to struggle with too many technicalities in linking R with the compiled code? I am asking this because I saw that the binary Mac R distribution in fact has compilers bundled in it. I currently work mostly on Windows and was told that I will have a lot to download and configure if developing on Windows.
in general I think Macs are pretty painless in terms of developing packages for R. Most tools come right from Apple with the operating system. To complement that the fortran compiler supplied with R (GNU Fortran 95) supports F90, so you should be safe (although I'm not sure how versatile such package would be). At the development stage you shouldn't worry about universal binaries, either. Admittedly, I develop even Windows programs on my Mac, because I find it easier to cross-compile for Windows on a Mac than to do it in the horrible Windows GUI, but that's another story ;). I don't know if that helps, but those are just my 2 cents. However, if you're interested in raw speed (i.e. you actually want to run the simulations), you may be better off using dual-core AMD Opterons with Linux or Quad-G5 PowerMacs - the Intel CPUs are not necessarily fast (although Apple tries to make you believe otherwise ;)). Cheers, Simon
_______________________________________________ R-SIG-Mac mailing list R-SIG-Mac at stat.math.ethz.ch https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
=== Jan de Leeuw; Distinguished Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Statistics; Editor: Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Journal of Statistical Software US mail: 8125 Math Sciences Bldg, Box 951554, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1554 phone (310)-825-9550; fax (310)-206-5658; email: deleeuw at stat.ucla.edu .mac: jdeleeuw ++++++ aim: deleeuwjan ++++++ skype: j_deleeuw homepages: http://gifi.stat.ucla.edu ++++++ http://www.cuddyvalley.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- No matter where you go, there you are. --- Buckaroo Banzai http://gifi.stat.ucla.edu/sounds/nomatter.au
Thank you very much, both Simon and Prof. Leeuw. My focus is on the ease of development. Based on your feedback, Mac will be a good choice. About the raw speed, I am using a Pentium M 1.7 Ghz notebook and am extremely impressed by its speed (had been so frustrated by the slow Sun Sparc workstation). I am not worried about cross-platform at this point. I am working on some preliminary result for a grant proposal. I also like to listen to music while I work and Mac would be a better choice than Linux for that purpose. Jason
--- Jan de Leeuw <deleeuw at stat.ucla.edu> wrote:
There are various reasons why the Mac is not the best option if you want raw speed. -- The current dual core Intel chips used in Macs are mainly developed for portables (i.e. they emphasize power saving). The next generation, available in July/August, will do a better job and will be used in the new towers. -- The G5 is not designed to do fast floating point, and generally does not do a very good job at it. -- OS X is handicapped by the Mach microkernel parts. This is becoming more and more obvious in webserving, database management, and distributed computing. Rumor has it that Apple is working on both replacing the kernel and the HFS+ file system. For my work this is all pretty irrelevant, but many others care. And with good reason. I do think, however, that the Mac, expecially the MacBook Pro, is a pretty good development machine -- especially my MacBook Pro, since it now painlessly virtualizes XP Pro, Debian, and Solaris 10 as well. On May 8, 2006, at 23:11 , Simon Urbanek wrote:
Jason, On May 5, 2006, at 12:07 PM, Jason Liao wrote:
Good morning. I am considering buying a new computer to develop an R package for multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation. One requirement is to call, from R, a Fortran 90 program about 1000 lines of code. A C++ version of that program is also available if desired. Will the new Core Duo Mac be a good development platform in the sense that I will not need to struggle with too many technicalities in linking R with the compiled code? I am asking this because I saw that the binary Mac R distribution in fact has compilers bundled in it. I currently work mostly on Windows and
was
told that I will have a lot to download and configure if
developing
on Windows.
in general I think Macs are pretty painless in terms of developing packages for R. Most tools come right from Apple with the operating system. To complement that the fortran compiler supplied with R
(GNU
Fortran 95) supports F90, so you should be safe (although I'm not sure how versatile such package would be). At the development stage you shouldn't worry about universal binaries, either. Admittedly, I develop even Windows programs on my Mac, because I find it easier
to
cross-compile for Windows on a Mac than to do it in the horrible Windows GUI, but that's another story ;). I don't know if that
helps,
but those are just my 2 cents. However, if you're interested in raw speed (i.e. you actually want
to
run the simulations), you may be better off using dual-core AMD Opterons with Linux or Quad-G5 PowerMacs - the Intel CPUs are not necessarily fast (although Apple tries to make you believe otherwise ;)). Cheers, Simon
_______________________________________________ R-SIG-Mac mailing list R-SIG-Mac at stat.math.ethz.ch https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
=== Jan de Leeuw; Distinguished Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Statistics; Editor: Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Journal of Statistical Software US mail: 8125 Math Sciences Bldg, Box 951554, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1554 phone (310)-825-9550; fax (310)-206-5658; email: deleeuw at stat.ucla.edu .mac: jdeleeuw ++++++ aim: deleeuwjan ++++++ skype: j_deleeuw homepages: http://gifi.stat.ucla.edu ++++++ http://www.cuddyvalley.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
No matter where you go, there you are. --- Buckaroo Banzai
http://gifi.stat.ucla.edu/sounds/nomatter.au
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
Jason Liao, http://www.geocities.com/jg_liao Dept. of Biostatistics, http://www2.umdnj.edu/bmtrxweb University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway? NJ 08854 phone 732-235-5429, School of Public Health office phone 732-235-9824, Cancer Institute of New Jersey office
1 day later
Thank you very much, both Simon and Prof. Leeuw. My focus is on the ease of development. Based on your feedback, Mac will be a good choice. About the raw speed, I am using a Pentium M 1.7 Ghz notebook and am extremely impressed by its speed (had been so frustrated by the slow Sun Sparc workstation).
pretty off-topic for this list, but we have pretty good luck with our Sun boxes here... depending on the task. What sort of SPARC machine were you using, for what kind of task? Sometimes we're better off on SPARC than on the G5. --e