[Bioc-devel] GLAD: Suggestion: Throw a formal error condition instead of modal GUI dialog

[Henrik Bengtsson]

[GLAD maintainer CC:ed]

Hi,

in order to *load* the GLAD package, the GNU Scientific Library (GSL)
needs to be installed on the system.  Note that the package can be
*installed* without it.

This is what happens on R v2.12.0 patched on a 64-bit Windows 7 system
with GLAD installed but not GSL:

# Rterm --vanilla
> require("GLAD");

[ A GUI dialog titled 'Rterm.exe - System Error' pops up with an error
message "The program can't start because libgsl-0.dll is missing from
your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.".  In
order for R to continue, you need to press OK. ]

Error in inDL(x, as.logical(local), as.logical(now), ...) :
  unable to load shared object
'C:/Users/hb/R/win-library/2.12/GLAD/libs/x64/GLAD.dll':
  LoadLibrary failure:  The specified module could not be found.

Error: package/namespace load failed for 'GLAD'

After *heaps* of troubleshooting, I've concluded that it is not
possible to detect this/catch the error without having the GUI dialog
popping up.  I would like to be able to programatically detect the
when GLAD is installed but GSL is not.  Any suggestions to do this?

More seriously, the GUI dialog, which is *modal* is also used when
running in batch/non-interactive mode, e.g.

Rterm -e library("GLAD")


Phillippe, would you mind replacing that GUI error dialog with a
formal R error condition thrown by GLAD?



Thanks,

Henrik